McDuffie COUNTY, GA - Bios Thomas Carr 1758-1820 Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: "Terry Rhoades" Georgia Table of Contents: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm This information is taken directly from the documents of the Department of Natural Resources that established the Thomas Carr District in McDuffie County and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 6, 1975. Biography: Thomas Carr Thomas Carr, son of William and Susannah Carr, was born in Spottsylvania County, Virginia, in 1758. His father was a large landowner in Virginia, sheriff of Spottsylvania and relative of Dabney Carr, the patriot friend and brother-in-law of Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Carr fought in the Revolutionary War in SC. and GA. During the siege of Charleston, he slipped through the British lines and joined Francis Marion's forces. He was twice wounded and as a cavalry Captain, led a series of important raids which resulted in the liberation of Augusta from British control in 1781. After the Revolution, Carr settled in GA. He was an adverturer and speculator by nature. In 1787, he surveyed out that part of Ga. which was later to become the Tenn. River Valley of Alabama. In 1793 and 1794 he was a Colonel in the Army of the French Republic, a scheme in which recruits from Ky. SC, and GA. planned to capture Fl. from the Spanish. In 1789 and 1790, Thomas Carr was an incorporator and director of the Tennessee Yazoo Company, one of four corporations organized to purchase extensive lands in the present states of Ala and Miss. Many prominent Americans such as Patrick Henry of VA. and Wade Hampton of SC were leaders of these four land companies. Stock was sold through the US. Also, in 1795 Thomas Carr was a member of the Ga. legislature which,in addition to retifying the Constitution of the US., entered into a contract to sell its western lands to the Yazoo companies. When the companies tendered worthless GA. currency for the purchase price, the State Treasurer refused to convey. Several years of litigation was pending. Then, in 1795 the Yazoo Companies reorganized and after much political agitation and bribery of legislators, the "Yazoo Fraud" was perpetrated through the conveyance of nearly 50,000,000 acres of land for about one cent an acre. The following year a new legislature repealed and rescinded and publicly burned the Yazoo Act in Louisville, GA. the capital of the state. As stock had been sold throughout the US, but particularly in New England, the matter became a national issue. Arguments raged in Congress for years and the matter was culminated in 1810 by the landmark decision of the US Supreme Court in the case of Fletcher vs. Peck. In this celebrated case (now studied by every freshman law student in America) the Court under the leadership of John Marshall laid down the rule of law, the Yazoo Companies got their land. In 1787, Thomas Carr purchased five hundered acres from Elizabeth Lee who had inherited some of her husband, Greesberry Lee. John Lee, the father of Greesberry Lee, had received this acreage by grant from the Crown in 1771, the same year the Augusta- Wrightsboro Rd. In 1787, Thomas Carr married Frances Bacon of Richmond County GA. About 1796 Carr apparently decided to settle down for good at Alexandria, and to read law. In 1796 he was admitted to the bar and thereafter he continued in the practice of law. He ran for various political office many times (including US House of Representatives 3 times), but his Yazoo connections were used to defeat him time and time again. Between 1804 and 1806 he built the brick house at Alexandria. Alexandria is the earliest surviving brick house in Georgia which can be documented as to date of construction. It also is one of the few if not the only house in Georgia displaying rubbed and gauged brickwork. In 1806, when the brick house was complete Thomas Carr owned 32,500 acres of land in Georgia. One of his daughters, Susan, married Nicholas Ware, a prominent Augusta attorney and US Senator, and the other daughter,, Selina, married Ignatius Few,a lawyer, clergymand and founder and first presidnet of Emory College. When James Madision visited Ga. in 1819, he was driven about in Carr's carriage wich was pulled by his team of cream-colored horses. Thomas Carr died in 1820. After his death his two sons, William Anthony Carr, and Thomas Dabney Carr partitioned the "Alexandria Establishment" as it was called. Thomas Dabney Carr gained position of the brick house, Alexandria, and William Anthony received the other half upon which "Snow Hill" was to be built. *************************************************** This information is taken directly from the documents of the Department of Natural Resources that established the Thomas Carr District in McDuffie County and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 6, 1975. Thomas Carr District: Within the Thomas Carr District, a part of the original late eighteenth and early nineteeth century Carr Plantation, are the Simpson House, the Bohler house, the E.V. Minton house, "Snow Hill" and Alexandria. "Alexandria", Carrs own home was built between 1803- 1806, is a two story American bonded Brick house. Although the main house "Alexandria" is in good condition, the original out buildings mentions in the Carr documents do not remain. These include the kitchen, smoke house, temple, dairy, springhouse, and slave houses. Nor does a documented frame house built by Carr in 1790 remain. Ruins of a log barn survive. To the west of "Alexandria" and usually visible is "Snow Hill". It is thought to have been built after Carr's death, but before the smaller homes in the district. "Snow Hill" is situated on a knoll in the midst of pasture land, off the old Augusta- Wrightsboro Rd., sometimes called the Quaker Road, because Wrightsboro was a Quaker community settled in 1768. The Bohler House, on Highway 150 betwee the E.V. Minton House and "Alexandria" is a simple one story freme house with a central temple form portico. The Simpson House, on Highway 150, at the crossroads of the Old Augusta-Wrightsboro Rd., appears to be a one and a half story slat box variation with three gables in the front and assorted later rear additions. The Minton House, a saltbox variation with boxed cornice and returns is one and one half story structure with three dormer windows and a one story porch. The total environment of this Thomas Carr District is one of rural, farmland, sparsely settle and without twentieth century intrusions other than Highway 150. ( This was true at the time of this land being placed on the National Registry of Historical Places in 1975. That has now changed with the recent introduction of an Industrial Park into this area.) The Thomas Carr District is significant historically, architecturally, and environmentally. Its historic aspect is seen in the life of its original owner, Thomas Carr, and his outstanding home, "Alexandria". The home displays a colonial Virginia influence in its architectural design which is rarely found in this area. Most importantly, the environment reflects the evolutionary process which has occurred to this property since the prime of the Carr plantation to the present. The stages of this development are evident in the architecture of all the houses. *************************************************** ************************* I would like to submit this information to be added to your web sight. I did not write this information, but quoted it from the docuement sited above (except the statement above in paretheses about the industrial park). Thank you , Terry Rhoades