Arrival in New Zealand  1867

The San Francisco Chronicle of 28 April 1887 quoted an 1867 report from the Superintendent of Police in Wellington, New Zealand saying that “Carr and family arrived at Wellington on 11^th April (1867) On that evening they took the steamer Tarrawakai for the town of Nelson, where they arrived the next morning. From there they took, a short time after, the steamer Adelaide for the city of Auckland; and on the 8^th day of September of this year (1867) Carr and family were living on a farm and lands he had taken possession of and was residing on a few miles from Auckland.” [1]  The mention of “various aliases of Henry M Carr, Carter, Stevens and Curtain” and the source being a report from the New Zealand Police are both hints of a larger story to be uncovered.

1887  Alice Burrows

A story appeared in The West Coast Times on 6 July 1887 quoting a source in the Australasian. [2]  It was repeated in the Southland Times the following day [3] and then in the Mataura Ensign nearly three weeks later. The story sought further information from the public.

The publication in both the Southland Times and the Mataura Ensign must certainly have come to the attention of the Elder family as both versions refer to the connection of people in the story to the district. The time lapse between the Southland Times and Mataura Ensign versions suggests that the paper may have had time to do some checking before publication.

The name quoted in the story is Henry. M. Carr who had been known in the district as Henry Kurtain – his wife’s name is given as “Curtain”.  However, the connection would have been made clear by the reference to a local girl Mary Burrows whose marriage to Edward Kurtain in 5 May 1885 is recorded in the Knapdale Parish records. [4]  It can only be imagined what consternation this story must have raised in the Elder family and in the wider community.

The following is the version of the story which appeared in the Mataura Ensign:[5]

A STRANGE CASE.

As it is believed that some of the parties alluded to in the subjoined clipping from a recent number of the ‘Australasian’ at one time lived in this district, the paragraph should not be without interest:- ‘A persevering reporter in San Francisco has been trying with the zeal of his profession, to get at the bottom of a strange case, in which there figure- some persons who were formerly living in New Zealand. The principal object of his attack was one Henry M.Carr, ‘sewing machine agent and chief sachem of a knot of spiritualists,’ noted for his ‘jubilant disposition’ and ‘love of controversy,’ and the job the reporter has undertaken is to find out how Carr and his wife (a nurse) got possession of a girl named Alice Burrows, now. about fifteen. Mr and Mrs Carr have been married not quite two years, the lady’s previous name being Mary Curtain, though Carr says her surname was Beffe.  Both were in New Zealand the girl Alice and a boy named Freddy crossed the Pacific with them in June- July, 1885, but the marriage took place in San Francisco on their arrival.  The case has become public property through some legal proceedings being taken to get the girl out of the Magdalen Asylum, in which she was placed by Carr.  Carr’s allegation is that she had become vicious and uncontrollable but the nuns report her to be excellent in her behaviour, and she denies all the sins attributed to her by Carr, who contradicts his own statement by admitting that he had tried to persuade Alice to marry his son, a streetcar conductor, thirty years of age. The girl, having got into the Asylum, wants to stay there, to be away from the Carrs.  Both her parents are dead.  She says that they lived at ‘Chatham’ New Zealand, where her father was shipping clerk but there being no such post town in the Colony, the reporter must have written the name wrongly down. As she remembers that her father (whose name was John Burrows) owned several houses, and that she herself always wore ‘nice clothes,’ it is, surmised by the San Francisco reporter that the Carrs possessed themselves of whatever property was coming to the Burrows children; but Carr says that the father was a laboring man, and laughs at the idea of him owning  houses. It is a very queer case  – the modest behaviour of the girl in Court, and with the nuns, the fearful things said about her by Carr, Carr’s self-contradictions, and various minor incidents, all contributing to awaken curiosity, arid a desire to get at the ‘truth of the story. Perhaps now that the case is in the newspapers, it will attract notice in the right quarter in New Zealand.  It seems that the Burrows family consisted of four children:  three girls Mary (18), who is married to one of Carr’s sons in New Zealand;  Theresa (16), Alice (15), ; and Frank.  The case occupies three columns of the ‘Weekly Chronicle’ of April 28, and outline portraits are given of all the persons conspicuous in it. As the Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Children has interested itself in Alice Burrows, it is probable that the complete facts will in due time be gathered together, and precautions taken, at any rate, to prevent the girl going back into the custody of the Carrs.”

San Francisco 1887

The story published in New Zealand refers to a substantive article in the San Francisco ‘Weekly Chronicle’ of 28 April 1887. This was the first in a series of four articles published between April 23^rd and April 28^th with a concluding story on 5 May 1887.  They can be accessed online through Newspapers.com.[6]  The treatment is somewhat sensationalised and the journal has clearly taken a strongly disapproving if not crusading stance against the Carrs and against Samuel Carr in particular as can be seen from the titles and sub-headings of the articles – “Among the Fallen … Efforts to Hush up Evil Doing”, Carr Unmasked”, “Old Man Carr – More of His Misdeeds”, “A Reeking Record – Bad Man Carr’s Terrible Career.”  This bias needs to be borne in mind when assessing the material presented.

The story concerns a girl named Alice Burrows, aged 15, who is thought by friends to be held against her will in the care of the sisters of the Magdelan Convent.  The Magdelan Sisters are known for their mission to care for young pregnant women who are unmarried – while the charity of the sisters is lauded the reputation of the young women is not.  Alice Carr’s friends have noticed her absence from their usual activities but have been fobbed off when they enquired at her home – “Alice was always out.”  A group of older women have become involved and have discovered that she is indeed an inmate of the asylum but under the name of Alice Burrows.  So concerned are they for her welfare that they have persuaded a friend to brief a lawyer to take a writ of habeus corpus commanding the Sister Superior to produce her in court.  During a brief delay before the start of proceedings her supporters are concerned to see Alice being pressured by Carr and the lawyer for the convent.  Under intense questioning in the court session the girl says that she is “not an unwilling prisoner.”  The case draws to an abrupt close and she is returned to the convent.

There the story would have ended had it not been for the Chronicle reporter’s sense that “something like an outrage was being perpetrated upon an innocent child in the name of justice” and his determination “to unravel the mystery.”  What follows is a combination of two stories – the unfolding story of Alice Burrows and her relationship to the Carrs on the one hand and the deeper background story of “Old Man Carr” which the reporter begins to uncover.  While of course very closely related the two stories need to be kept separate.

SF Chronicle 23 April 1887: “Among the Fallen”
http://www.newspapers.com/clip/226238/18870423_among_the_fallensamuel/

SF Chronicle 24 April 1887:  “Carr Unmasked”
http://www.newspapers.com/clip/226230/18870424_carr_unmaskedsamuel_murray/

SF Chronicle 25 April 1887  “Old Man Carr – More of his Misdeeds”
http://www.newspapers.com/clip/226259/18870425_old_man_carrsamuel_murray/

SF Chronicle 28 April 1887.  “A reeking Record. Bad Man Carr’s Terrible Career”
http://www.newspapers.com/image/#27519435

SF Chronicle 5 May 1887:  Alice Burrows – Freed from Magdelan Asylum” (including a statement given to the Chronicle by Mary Jane Burpee/Curtain)
http://www.newspapers.com/clip/226272/18870503_alice_burrows_free_from_the/

A version of the story was published in the New York Herald:
New York Herald  1 May 1887  “Old Scandals Revived”
http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2014/New%20York%20NY%20Herald/New%20York%20NY%20Herald%201887/New%20York%20NY%20Herald%201887%20-%201608.pdf

A much earlier story from ten years earlier in 1877 told of Eunice Keller Carr’s fruitless attempt to find her husband and children.

http://www.newspapers.com/clip/82319/1877_eunice_carr_in_san_francisco/

[1] http://www.newspapers.com/clip/348947/18870428_sf_chronicle_police_report/

[2]West Coast Times, 6 July 1881
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=WCT18870706.2.13&srpos=2&e=-05-1887—–100–1-byDA—0Carr+Curtain–

[3] .Southland Times 7 July 1887 ( “some of the parties alluded to … at one time lived in Dunedin”)
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=ST18870707.2.32&srpos=3&e=-05-1887—–100–1-byDA—0Carr+Curtain–

[4] http://www.archives.presbyterian.org.nz/marriageregisters/knapdalemarriages.htm

[5] Mataura Ensign  26 July 1887 ( “some of the parties alluded to … at one time lived in this district”
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=ME18870726.2.37&srpos=5&e=-05-1887—–100–1-byDA—0Carr+Curtain–

[6] SF Chronicle 23 April 1887: “Among the Fallen”
http://www.newspapers.com/clip/226238/18870423_among_the_fallensamuel/

SF Chronicle 24 April 1887:  “Carr Unmasked”
http://www.newspapers.com/clip/226230/18870424_carr_unmaskedsamuel_murray/

SF Chronicle 25 April 1887  “Old Man Carr – More of his Misdeeds”
http://www.newspapers.com/clip/226259/18870425_old_man_carrsamuel_murray/

SF Chronicle 28 April 1887.  “A reeking Record. Bad Man Carr’s Terrible Career”
http://www.newspapers.com/image/#27519435

SF Chronicle 5 May 1887:  Alice Burrows – Freed from Magdelan Asylum” (including a statement given to the Chronicle by Mary Jane Burpee/Curtain)
http://www.newspapers.com/clip/226272/18870503_alice_burrows_free_from_the/