George Carr

George Carr (1800–1886)

George Carr (November 16, 1800 – October 1, 1886) was an American educator, lawyer, and civic leader in Albemarle County, Virginia. His grandfather, Gideon Carr, was an early settler in Albemarle County.

Early Life and Family

Carr was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, on November 16, 1800, three months before Thomas Jefferson was elected President of the United States. He was one of ten children of Micajah Carr (1752–1812) and Elizabeth Wood Carr. His grandfather, Gideon Carr (1712–1794), a native of New Kent County, Virginia, was the first settler on the north side of the Southwest Mountains, where he raised a family of nine children.

Micajah Carr, a neighbor of Thomas Jefferson and former owner of "Colle," served in the American Revolution during Jefferson’s County Lieutenancy and held the rank of lieutenant in the Virginia Militia by 1794.

Education and Career

George Carr received his early education in local schools. At age eighteen, he was teaching a twelve-year-old grandson of Thomas Jefferson. When the Charlottesville Academy opened under Jefferson's patronage in 1819, Carr, then nineteen, served both as a student and assistant instructor. After the Academy closed in 1820, Carr opened his own grammar school at 611 East Main Street. He also spent part of the 1820s teaching at Samuel O. Minor’s boarding school for boys at "The Farm" and continued in educational work into the 1830s.

Carr pursued legal studies during this period and was licensed to practice law in Virginia on September 15, 1822. He was formally admitted to the Albemarle County bar on October 10 of the same year.

Public Service and Later Life

Carr married Melinda Cahoon Carr (1827–1898) in February 1855, when he was in his mid-50s. In the early years of the Civil War, the couple purchased a farm five miles northwest of Charlottesville—an area where Hessian prisoners had been held during the Revolutionary War—and raised eight children there.

Shortly before the Civil War, Carr was appointed Commissioner for the Liquidation of the Monticello estate, a complex legal responsibility that occupied him for approximately two decades. During the early years of the war, he also served as Mayor of Charlottesville.

Death and Legacy

George Carr died on October 1, 1886. The Reverend Edgar Woods referred to him as "the Nestor of the Albemarle County Bar" at the time of his death.