Descendants of
Thomas Benton Carey
As I read the postings
[1906-1907] containing so many names of individuals in Brandywine Twp. and the
surrounding area, I was reminded of Thomas Benton Carey who
settled in Fairland with his parents, Thomas V. and Margaret (Lee)
Carey in 1852. He was born in Wheeling, before there was a West
Virginia in 1839. He lost both his parents within four years of settling
in Fairland. He married three times, first to Susan E. Reed
in 1868. They had three children: Charles G., Mary Irene, and Margaret
B. Carey. He married Sarah J. Holmes in 1885, and
married a final time to Margaret Ann Endsley in 1894.
They had one child, Bonnie Lucille Carey born in 1895, who I was
honored to meet when she was 95 years old and a resident of Heritage Manor in
Shelbyville.
Thomas B. Carey was a veteran of the
Civil War and worked in many trades including that of salesman, carpenter, and
painter. He was also a news correspondent for 40 years for The Shelby
Volunteer which later merged with The Shelby Democrat sending in many tidbits of
news and gossip from the Fairland area. He called himself "Gid"
which you see mentioned at the head of a few of the newspaper
articles posted. T. B. Carey was elected a Justice of the Peace in
1872 and 1876 and was a Shelby County Deputy Sheriff under Sheriff Albert
McCorkle for two years, according to Chadwick's. In 1909, he was appointed
engrossing clerk of the House in the Indiana Legislature, but in 1910, the
census taker wrote that he was a notary. He died October 7, 1919, in
Fairland and today 400 North, both East and West, is known as Carey Road.
My research in genealogy and talks I
had with my husband's grandmother, Lottie (Nail) Taylor Chesser who
was 96 when she passed away in 1982, led me to whom Lottie had referred to as
"some Chesser woman" in Fairland. She had heard of Lucille
Chesser or her daughter Justine Lavonne Chesser, but they had
never met even though Mauric e was a son of Lottie's
brother-in-law. Lucille Carey had met Maurice
Chesser, a son of Ira and Daisy (Law) Chesser, while they were
substitute teachers at the Smithland School. They married shortly after
Maurice had registered for the draft in 1918, and settled in Indianapolis where
Maurice worked. Lavonne was born in 1920, but Maurice and Lucille later
divorced. Maurice married Louise Rouse in 1936, but
Lucille never remarried. So "Chesser" she remained until her
death at Heritage Manor on January 11, 1992.
Lavonne Chesser, T. B. Carey's
granddaughter, was married in 1942 to Charles Franklin Harry
of Bartholomew County who helped manage Howard and Harry Oil Company in a
partnership.
(Note: When I "Googled" Howard and Harry Oil Co., Fairland,
Indiana, I found that the attorneys for a class action settlement which includes
many companies as well as H. and H. have pension money for a "Stephan
Howard" who once was employed there, but they have no current address for
him. They give instructions as to how to obtain the money which may be
$10,000-$12,000 or more as the other settlements have been.)
Charles and Lavonne Chesser Harry had two
daughters, one of whom is still living. When Lavonne and I last spoke
before her death just over 10 years ago and that of her husband in 1995, she had
two grandsons who were living north of Indianapolis.
Linda Read Chesser
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