Oren B. Carr was born around 1856 in Pennsylvania to Caleb Carr and Charlotte Winston. His father was a farmer who owned $2,000 of real estate and $1,000 of personal property by 1870. He married Lydia Carpenter around 1880, and they had at least four children: John, born around 1885; Charles, born around 1887; Martha, born around 1888; and Christian, born around 1892. They lived in Richmond, Pennsylvania, and Carr worked as a farmer. He died of broncho-pneumonia in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on February 22, 1929.