FLEMING
Descendants of John C. Fleming
Written by John Wesley Fleming, II in 1990.
Descendants of John C. Fleming
Written by John Wesley Fleming, II in 1990.
Notes from John W. Fleming, Sr., 1910-1995, from a conversation with Phyllis Miller Fleming about 1993:
Caughey S. Fleming, my paternal grandfather, was an orphan from Iowa* -- some unknown family raised him. He came to Shelbyville to work in the furniture factories. He worked there all his life. He married Laura Hacker. We inherited the four-poster bed from this family. The one we have was Fannie Belle's. Caughey made it. Aunt Mary [Fleming Addington] had one just like it.
Laura's younger sister, Belle married Jake Conrey, son of D.L. Conrey, the furniture magnate. Uncle Jake was a drunk. He inherited the furniture company, but he drank it away. My father, Garnett Fleming, managed D.L. Conrey Furniture Company. The company originated in Cincinnati, but moved to Shelbyville. They monopolized low wages. Conrey-Davis Furniture Company is now a lawnmower factory.
Caughey and Laura built a house on East Mechanic next to the Hacker homestead. Jake and Belle heired the Hacker house, which was brick. Later Belle traded Ralph Deupree the East Mechanic Street house for Deupree's house which was across from the old junior high school. Deupree sold the house and then it was torn down for the Eagles Lodge parking lot.
Caughey rode his bicycle to work each day. It had wooden handlebars. He sat very high.
The Paul Inlow house on the corner of Washington and Tompkins was the D.L. Conrey home. Jake Conrey and two sisters were D.L.'s children. Neither of the girls married. D.L. went broke in the Cleveland panic. He talked his employees into working without pay until the plant got back on its feet. He lost the house on the southeast corner of Harrison and Mechanic.
William Hacker, Laura's father, started a bank (which is not in existence now). It was on the north side of East Washington Street, in the first block off the Square.
Homepages Index
Main Page