Peter Carey, born January 12, 1838, in Pike County, Illinois, was one of the oldest and best-known residents of Peru, Nebraska. He had been a familiar figure in the town for thirty-five years, known for his work as the pioneer drayman and as a dedicated mail carrier. A Civil War veteran, Carey served with distinction in the 2nd Illinois Cavalry. After the war, he moved to Peru in 1869 and became deeply involved in the community, serving on the town board and as city marshal. Married to Susan Debuque in 1888, Carey was also an adoptive father to Ezra Peter Carey.
Peter Carey is one of the oldest and best-known residents of the town of Peru, where for thirty-five years he has been a familiar figure in the streets and personally known to every citizen both through official and business connections and social and personal association. He is the pioneer and oldest established drayman of the place, has carried nearly all the mail that the town has ever received or sent, and in his duties as chief police officer and representative of the majesty of the law has on more than one occasion made a reputation for coolness and courage while upholding law and order. In every relation of life, whether as a soldier on the hard-fought battlefields of the great Civil War, as a business man, as a public official, or as a public-spirited citizen, he has been efficient, enterprising, industrious, honest, and brave, and deserves the regard and respect which are so gratefully accorded him by all who know him.
Mr. Carey was born in Pike County, Illinois, January 12, 1838, a son of Peter and Matilda (Constantine) Carey, who were of English descent and both natives of New York City, where the former was born February 28, 1811, and they were married in 1832. Peter Carey, Sr., was a baker in New York City, but after his marriage went to Illinois and engaged in farming during the remainder of his life. He died in 1898, and his wife in 1883. They were the parents of five children, of whom three are now living: Margaret, who has some ten children; Peter; and Cyrena Claus, who is a widow in Pike County, Illinois, and has two children.
Mr. Carey was reared on his father’s farm in Illinois, and enjoyed common school educational privileges. When the Civil War came on, he volunteered, in July 1861, in Company K, Second Illinois Cavalry, and gave four years and two months of loyal and devoted service to the country which he loves so well. He was commissary sergeant of his company. He was many times exposed to the missiles of death and had many narrow escapes, but his reckless courage and dashing impetuosity seemed invulnerable, although bullets often pierced his clothes and his comrades fell beside him. At Holly Springs, Mississippi, his regiment was captured, and he was the last man to be taken, and it was almost a miracle that he was not shot down for his brave resistance. He was in hospital at New Orleans for some two weeks, being afflicted with a peculiar southern fever, which caused him to sleep soundly from sunrise to sunset, and the only cure was a change of climate. When he was captured he weighed one hundred and sixty pounds and only one hundred and twenty-six on his release, but after leaving New Orleans he gained a pound a day until he weighed one hundred and seventy-six pounds. He received his honorable discharge at St. Augustine, Texas, September 25, 1865.
He then returned to Illinois and engaged in farming for two years. He came to Peru, Nebraska, in 1869. For at least thirty years he has carried the mail to and from the trains, seldom being off duty. He started the first regular dray wagon in the town, and is now probably the oldest drayman in the state. He has carried the express for the Normal College for thirty years. A few years ago he was thrown from his dray while the horse was running away, and for two weeks was unconscious and given up for dead, and was confined to his bed for two months, but his old veteran spirit brought him safely through and he is once more active and engaged in his regular tasks. He is a staunch Republican in politics and has served his fellow citizens on the town board and also as city marshal. In the latter capacity, he has had some narrow escapes from crazy men, but the coolness and courage which he had displayed before on the battlefield here stood him in good stead, and in each case, he performed his duty unflinchingly.
Mr. Carey was married in September 1888, to Mrs. Susan Debuque, who was born in England in 1841 and came across the Atlantic at the age of sixteen years, being a sister of John and Phillip Palmer, who are written of elsewhere in this work. She had been married twice before her union with Mr. Carey and had five children by her first husbands. Mr. and Mrs. Carey have no children of their own but have an adopted son who is the idol of their affections and the cheer of the home. His name is Ezra Peter Carey, and he was born April 18, 1890, a son of Albert Debuque and a grandson of Mrs. Carey. He was adopted at the age of eleven months, and he also has a sister and a brother. He is an industrious little fellow, and he and his foster father own and operate some ninety acres on the Missouri bottoms, for which they paid two hundred dollars in 1901 and which is now worth six hundred. This land was once the bed of the river, and on it, they raise corn and also have about thirty acres in vegetables and truck. Mr. Carey also owns two lots and two buildings in town, and his wife has one building. Mrs. Carey was reared in the Methodist faith and is a most estimable woman and popular among her many friends.
Source: Edwards, Lewis C., History of Richardson County, Nebraska : Its People, Industries and Institutions, Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen, 1917.