North Carolina Governor. He 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 (today known as North Carolina State University) commissioner of the N.C. Geological Survey, agriculturist, and businessman. He was the son of General Jonas Johnston Carr and Elizabeth Jane Hilliard Carr. He attended the prestigious Oaks School. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1855-1859) and also attained a law degree from the University of Virginia and then returned to the 100 year old family plantation, Bracebridge Hall. He married Eleanor Kearny in 1860 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. He was active in the farmers' movements of the 1880s; 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. During his term in office, he promoted better school facilities and regulation of railroads. By using his influence with The Alliance, he was able to keep the allotments to the University of North Carolina in place when the legislature wanted to cut the funding. Carr was also a commissioner to the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893. His family was the first to live in the then 'newly located and renovated' Governor's Mansion on Fayetteville Street in the capitol city of Raleigh. After his governorship (1893-1897), he returned to Bracebridge Hall where he died of a 'thyroid condition'. Carr's beloved wife Elizabeth followed him in 1906. Carr's cousin, Gen. Julian Shakespeare Carr (1845-1924) was a tobacco magnet and businessman and one of the founders of Trinity College (now Duke University).