Who was David Carr?

Several years ago, we saw a “David Carr” living with the William and Catherine (Greenan-Smyth) Rooney family in Bear Creek, Wisconsin. Catherine, as a reminder, was Irish John Smith’s mother. At the time, we were not sure of his relationship with our family, and now we have a better idea of “who he was”. In the 1880 census, he was listed as “ward” of the Rooneys.

In this census, there were several items that got our attention. First of all, we see that Irish John Smith’s mother, Catherine was listed as either “disabled or bedridden”, as well as “keeping house”. This would have been her 69th year, and we can speculate that this difficulty continued until her death in 1896. Secondly, we also see that both William Rooney and David Carr were working on the farm. Additionally, we find a little more information about David which says his parents were both born in Ireland.

Rooney Household in 1880:

Ten Years Earlier

In 1870, we find David living two farms down the road from the Rooney family. In the 1870 Marble Ridge Census, his parents are shown to be Patrick and Catherine Carr, although the census taker recorded the name as “Karr”, which was more customarily applied to the “Karrs” of German origin. As Bear Creek was home to many immigrants of German ethnicity, the use of this spelling is not surprising. In this census, it shows that most of the Carrs were born in Ireland with the exception of David and his youngest sister Sarah. Both of them were born in Wisconsin. The neighbors between the Rooney and Carr families included the Bernard McCloskey and Thomas Murray families. On the other side of the Karrs were the David Wallerton and Patrick Smith families.

Below are the actual census pages for Marble Ridge. Both the Rooney and Carr families lived in Marble Ridge – the area being a unique area within Bear Creek.

Patrick and Catherine Karr (Carr) family of Marble Ridge (Click to enlarge)

William Rooney family (click to enlarge)

We are not certain when Catherine Smith and her children came to Bear Creek, but we do know that William Rooney was one of the earliest residents of the County. Below is a reference about the Bear Creek Irish:

“Here, too, Irish born immigrants were among the first settlers in that section of the county. In 1853, John O’Meara and another Irish settler entered the town with their families. Patrick Shea, Patric Donahoe, Patrick and Michael O’Neil, James Quinn, Peter Welsh, Michaeal Conly, John Lahey, Thomas Carney, Thomas Murray, William Rooney and others came in 1854, pioneers of the Irish settlement which was ultimately named Loretto. Some of these early Irish settlers had worked on the railroad near Madison before taking on land in Bear Creek.”

What happened to the Carr Family?

The names “Patrick” and “Catherine” Carr do not exist in the 1880 census, but interestingly we see a Sarah Carr living in Spring Green, Wisconsin, with her mother Ellen Lynch. Ellen is listed as a widow. As we have seen the Irish change their names often in census documents, we believe that this is the Catherine Karr we saw in the 1870 Marble Ridge census. Sarah Carr of Spring Green is the same age as the Sarah Karr reflected in the 1870 census, therefore, we are fairly confident that this was David Carr’s family.

So why was the family separated? We may never know the reason, and while we would like to believe that this is a story the family has passed down over the generations, we have learned that few family stories are ever maintained. Here is what we do know. Ellen, or Catherine, was widowed twice over a ten year period between 1870 and 1880 – first with Patrick Carr and secondly with a “Mr. Lynch”. It is possible that her second husband could not support all the children from this first marriage, and subsequently, Catherine’s children may have been distributed to several families.

It appears that Ellen remained a widow for the rest of her life, as the next available census (1900) gives her status as widowed. A reference in 1890 shows that she was receiving a widow’s military pension, which suggests that her second husband (Lynch) was a military veteran – most likely a veteran of the Civil War.

"Ellen -W- Lynch State: WI County: Sauk County Township: E.D. 243 Spring Green. Year: 1890 Page: 005 Database: WI 1890 Veterans Schedule"

What happened to David Carr?

The final reference we see relating to David Carr was his death on December 13, 1895. His death record shows he died at the “County Asylum Sauk County” in Reedsburg, Wisconsin. He was 27 years old when he died, and his cause of death was apoplexy. Apoplexy is a term seldom used anymore as it generically defined all cerebral vascular accidents such as strokes, bleeding inside the brain, or head trauma.

Page Over-laid with Reference

Full Page View

The Sauk County Poor Farm and Insane Asylum was also “home” to several of our relatives over the years. For example, Catherine McCabe, a daughter of Thomas McCabe and Alice Greenan, was a resident. It appears that she never married and is buried next to her sister Mary Ann Love in a cemetery near Spring Green. The McCabes should sound “familiar” as they lived in Brooklyn, New York, in the same house along with her siblings Terence Greenan and Catherine Greenan Smith (and children).

Click to enlarge

This institution started as a poor farm in 1871. The brick insane asylum structure (40 by 60 feet, two stories and a basement) was constructed in 1886, and the first admissions were five patients at the beginning of 1887. As of 1918, the capacity of the asylum was 100, of which most were from Sauk County.

To provide occupation for the inmates, there was farming (as with most other institutions of the era), quarrying, rug weaving, and upholstering furniture.