Carr, Elias, 1839-1900

Elias Carr (1839-1900) was Democratic governor of North Carolina (1893-1897), president of the N.C. State Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Union (1889-1892), member of the board of directors of Rocky Mount Mills, trustee of N.C. College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts, commissioner of the N.C. Geological Survey, agriculturalist, and businessman. Born February 25, 1839, he was the son of Jonas Johnston Carr and Elizabeth Jane Hilliard Carr. He was orphaned at the age of four and was reared under the guardianship of John Buxton Williams of Warren County, N.C. He attended the University of North Carolina (1855-1857) and returned to his father's farm, Bracebridge Hall (Edgecombe County, N.C.), where he purchased his brother's interest. He married Eleanor Kearny in 1859 and was the father of six children: William Kearny Carr, John Buxton Carr, Mary Elizabeth Carr, Elias Carr, Eleanor Kearny Carr, and Annie Bruce Carr. Active in the farmers' movements of the 1880s, he represented N.C. in the Farmers' National Congress in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1886; provided leadership in the founding of the Farmers' Alliance in N.C.; and represented N.C. at the Ocala, Florida, Farmers' Alliance Convention (1890). He was nominated by the Democratic Party for governor in 1892 and defeated the Republican candidate, Judge David M. Furches, and the Populist candidate, Dr. Wyatt P. Exum. Carr was also a commissioner to the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893. After his governorship (1893-1897), he returned to Bracebridge Hall. He died July 22, 1900.