My Genealogy Hound

MARTIN C. CARR, M. D., is a worthy representative of the medical profession of Perry County. He is now successfully engaged in practice in Du Quoin, where he is both widely and favorably known. We feel assured that his many friends who read this volume will receive with interest the record of his life. The Doctor was born in Prairie du Long, St. Clair County, Ill., February 28, 1850. His grandfather, Henry Carr, went to that county when five years of age with his father, who also bore the name of Henry. This was in the early part of the century, before the state was admitted to the Union. With them came Joseph Carr, a Revolutionary soldier. The ancestry of the Carr family can be traced back to the eleventh century, when its representatives went from Normandy to England, where they resided until some time prior to the American Revolution.

Dabney Carr, the father of Henry and Joseph, before mentioned, crossed the Atlantic and settled in Virginia, and was the founder of the now numerous family in the United States. The Carrs have ever been noted for their strong likes and dislikes, there being no truer friends or more bitter enemies to be found anywhere. Many noted men are among their numbers, and those who settled in St. Clair County were prominent in its history. The great-grandfather, grandfather and father of the Doctor all spent their last days there.

The last-named, Nathan F. Carr, was born in St. Clair County. He had a number of brothers, but nearly all died before reaching middle life. One died at the age of seven months, and only one is now living, James, who is a prosperous farmer of Franklin County. Nathan Carr married Marguerite E. McMurtrey, who was born in Monroe County, Ill., and was a daughter of Abraham McMurtrey, who removed from Georgia to that county in 1820. He was a farmer by occupation, and was descended from genuine Highland Scotch ancestry. Removing to St. Clair County, he became one of its prominent citizens, and there spent his last days. Mrs. Carr died in 1882, at the age of fifty-four. The three sons of the family were, George W. and Christopher C., who followed farming, but are now deceased; and Martin C.

The early life of our subject was spent on the home farm, where the widowed mother continued to live. His education was acquired in the common schools, and as soon as old enough he aided his mother in the farm labors. Early in life he manifested a liking for the medical profession and began study along that line. In 1876 he was graduated from the Missouri Medical College of St. Louis in the “Centennial Class,” and soon afterward commenced practice in Smithton, a little town in St. Clair County not far from Belleville, where he remained until the latter part of 1879, when he came to Du Quoin. Here he has since resided with the exception of the two years, 1885 and 1886, when he filled a chair as assistant professor of nervous diseases in the Post Graduate College of St. Louis, Mo.
The Doctor has been twice married. In 1877 he wedded Bertha, daughter of Henry Keim, of Smithton, Ill. His wife and their child died in 1878, and in 1888 he married Cora Bock, daughter of the late Dr. Bock, of Waterloo, Ill. Three children grace this union, Earl Henry, Flora Beatrice and Bertha.

The Doctor is a member of the Masonic fraternity and the Knights of Pythias lodge, and also belongs to the southern Illinois Medical Association. In politics he is a Democrat, and, although he has never sought office, he has served as City Alderman and in other local positions. He is regarded as one of the most prominent physicians of southern Illinois, a reputation well deserved.