TYPE OF FUND: Scholarship DATE ESTABLISHED: December 1994
PURPOSE: To provide financial assistance for Tucker County High School graduates wanting to continue their education
DISTRIBUTION: To be awarded to students upon the recommendation of the Scholarship Committee and the approval of the TCF Board of Directors. Priority to be given to students who attend West Virginia University, Marshall University, or Davis & Elkins college, because he (Shirley Carr) studied at Marshall, followed sports at WVU, and D&E because he was Presbyterian.
VARIANCE POWER: If, in the judgment of the TCF Board of Directors, the restrictions and conditions of the fund become unnecessary, incapable of fulfillment or inconsistent with the charitable needs of the community, the TCF Board of Directors maintains the right to modify the terms of this fund.
FUNDING: Funds donated by Shirley W. Carr of Virginia Beach, VA, a native of Tucker County.
BACKGROUND: The Enos, Delbert H. and Shirley W. Carr Scholarship is named for three generations of men who called Tucker county home. Enos Carr, an ordained United Brethren minister, farmer, cattleman, county commissioner (1856-1861) and deputy sheriff established a school in the church which he built on his property at Otter Creek / Dry Fork in Tucker County. The school was used until the early 1930’s when the school bus transportation for students began in that area. Enos Carr was among Justices present July 28, 1856 when the Ann Eliza Church in St. George was declared the first place for holding court in Tucker county, and entered into a contract with Enoch Minear to “furnish such rooms either in his dwelling house or in his school house as said courts may need for the use of juries,” thus providing a school house. The church, according to Homer Floyd Fansler’s History of Tucker County, served as the court house from 1856 to 1859. Enos Carr owned 300 acres of land, much of which was cultivated. He also traded cattle.
Delbert H. Carr was probably the youngest person to work for the Dry Fork railroad. He was about ten years old when he went to work selling candy and newspapers on the train because a half-brother, William Carr, was superintendent of the railroad. D.H. Carr was one of the 13 children of George Washington Carr, born to the second of three wives, Joanna Summerfield Carr. He attended eight years at Mill Run School and at the age of 14 was given a job on the section gang of the railroad. A year later he was given $1.10 a day, the same wage paid to the men on the crew. D.H. Carr and Louiessa Carr (daughter of Enos Carr) of Otter Creek were married June 1, 1913 and were considered a very progressive family having had running water in their home. Three years later they added electric. D.H. Carr worked in the coal mines in Douglas until his retirement. He and his wife were the parents of four children: a son, Shirley W. Carr, and three daughters, Rose Marie Carr, Lorraine M. Carr, and the late Jeana Leah Carr Seibol.
Shirley Carr was born in 1915. The family moved about two years later from Hendricks to Thomas. He dropped out of school for a year and a half, when his father was unable to find work, and worked for Douglas Coal Company. He attended Parsons High School one year, and then returned to Thomas High School to earn his diploma in 1934. Shirley W. Carr and his wife, the former Mildred Vengen, lived in Virginia Beach after retiring from insurance sales. They had no children. He passed away in 2006.