Charles Russell Garr was born on November 5, 1858 in Louisville, Kentucky. He was the second child and first son of Benjamin Louis Garr and Kazia "Kessie" Russell Garr. Charles grew up on a farm in Louisville, where he enjoyed hunting and riding horses. His love of the outdoors would stay with him throughout his life. As a child, he remembered some of the Civil War, and wrote about incidents involving his parents during the conflict. After the war was over, his family began having financial troubles after the rebuilding of their house, and Charles began to work to help support the family, even though he was just a teenager. Unfortunately, the Garrs were unable to save their farm, and they were forced to sell and move into a city house on Maple Street. For Charles, city life was an adjustment that he did not enjoy, according to his autobiography.
When it came time to decide what he wanted to do with his life, he first decided to try bookkeeping. He quickly found that being a bookkeeper was not the career for him, and decided to pursue a career in medicine. Charles attended the Hospital Medical College in Louisville and graduated on February 26, 1880. At this point it was time to try and set up a medical practice for himself. As Louisville was already crowded with doctors, he realized he would have to go somewhere else to find work. One of the options that presented itself was going West to a mining camp in Colorado, and this was what he decided he would do. Charles and his father Benjamin set out together in June of 1880, with food his mother Kazia had cooked for them. They had to travel frugally, eating what they had brought and sleeping their their seats on the train, only buying themselves coffee. When they finally reached their destination, Charles found that the camp was not what he had hoped and both he and his father returned home immediately, arriving in July of 1880.
After this, he set his sights a little closer to home, first trying to set up practice in Henry County, Kentucky, but found too many doctors there already, and so decided to try out Fleming County, Kentucky, as family members had advised him it was a good location. It was here that he finally settled, opened his medical practice, and raised his family. In 1883, Charles married Sallie Rebecca Crain, a native of Fleming County, and the couple made a home in Hillsboro for a few years, before moving to Flemingsburg, where they would live out the rest of their lives. Together they had two sons, Charles Crain Garr and Clyde Lewis Garr. Charles practiced medicine in Flemingsburg until he retired in 1937. Besides his medical practice he was also vice-president of the Farmers Bank in Flemingsburg. He was an elder in the First Presbyterian Church in Flemingsburg for some time. His granddaughter Betty remembered him as a kind, religious man and an early riser. She wrote that while staying with her grandparents as a child, they would both get up at 5:30 and not long after that, her grandfather would go outside to crank start his Model A or Model T car. Charles passed away on March 11, 1939 at the age of 80 from cancer. He is buried in Fleming County.
Documents
This gallery contains the autobiography of Charles Russell Garr, written as a series of letters to his sons. He begins with his early childhood, writing of his memories of the Civil War and slavery. He details his education and the beginning of his medical practice. He finishes by giving the boys some genealogical information about the Russell side of the family. Like many of Charles' other writings, this has also been transcribed by his granddaughter Betty.
From Charles to his wife Sallie on their fortieth wedding anniversary. He writes about his love for her, how wonderful the years have been, how much she means to him, about how well she did with the boys, about how he may not have been the best all of the time, and how he wishes them much happiness in the future. This was in Sallie's scrapbook.
Photographs
