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From my notes
--http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:3089413&id=I13630
Note:
Hist of Hancock, New Hampshire p4332-433: "Mark Carley,...m. Apr 27, 1830 Abigail W.
Stevens, who d. Nov 12, 1871. Mr. Carley's education was not entirely neglected as the
following certificate will show: -"This may certify that the bearer, Mark Carley, has
behaved well in school, the last week, and left off at the head of his class. Joseph B.
Banton, Tutor. [Knox Plantation, Jan 14, 1818.] When 16 years old he began a four years
apprenticeship with a house carpenter and shipwright. After the completion of his term of
service, he went to New Orleans and engaged in the milling and gin business, until he was
35 years old. He then rem. to Clermont county, Ohio and purchased three hundred acres of
land, and successfully engaged in the business of farming. He made a brief sojourn on the
Pacific slope, about the beginning of the gold excitement, but returned to Ohio, and soon
rem. to Urbana, Ill. In 1854 he settled in Champaign, Ill. which was, from that time until
the close of hi!
s life, his home. He built the first grain warehouse in the city. He was energetic, and
with the years he accumulated a handsome property. Born of a good lineage, he was
posseseed of a native integrity and honest of character, that inspired the confidence of
his neighbors and gave him an enviable reputation as a man and a citizen. He was
identified with the entire history of the city of his adoption. He erected the first
dwelling house in it and watched the rising of every house, the improvement of every
street, and the coming of every family; and at his death the whole city mourned. Children:
Mary Ann, Graham, Isotta. 8 children, names not given, have passed on to the higher
life."
1880 census for Champaign, Champaign, ILL p58C.
Also notes for his father --
Mark Carley, widower, 81 born New Hampshire, Father born MA, Mother born NH. son Graham
Carley, single, 42, at home, Father NH, Mother VT. dau Mary A. KINCAIDE, widow 47, born
Ohio, parents MA-NH. Granddaughter Mattie KINCAIDE single, 22, ILL, Father OH and mother
OH.
MARK CARLEY was born in the town of Hancock, Hillsboro county, New Hampshire, on the 24th
of August, 1798. His native county is that which gave birth to Horace Greeley, whom Mr.
Carley resembles in many respects. With the history of his ancestors prior to his
grandfather, Mr. Carley is not familiar. His grandparents, on his father's side, were
born in Massachusetts, the cradle of liberty, and were of English extraction. The birth of
his grandfather, Joseph CARLEY, occurred on the 17th of February, 1718, and that of his
grandmother, Sally WASHBURN CARLEY, September 1, 1729. His grandmother was connected with
that numerous family of Washburns who have since filled so large a space in state and
national affairs of this country. The father of Mr. Carley was Elijah CARLEY, the youngest
of the family, who was born in Massachusetts, May 21, 1771. His mother was, before being
wedded, a Miss Agnes GRAHAM, and was born in New Hampshire, July 18, 1772. Some of
Elijah's elder brothers -!
Mr. Carley's uncles - were soldiers in the revolutionary war, and one of them,
(Jonathan) has left behind him a soldier's discharge, signed by the hand of Washington
himself, that is now carefully preserved among the papers of the family. But, although Mr.
Carley's father was too young to take a hand in the revolution, he and one of Mr.
Carley's older brothers served in the war of 1812, first in the dragoons and
afterwards in the heavy artillery, and Mr. Carley has now in his possession one or two
articles of uniform worn by his father during that term of service. While yet a boy, in
1810, Elijah CARLEY removed from New Hampshire to Vermont, and the son went with the
family, remaining with it until 1816. In 1815 he commenced work as an apprentice to the
house-carpenter and mill-wright business. Mr. Carley's advantages for receiving an
education were very limited, as his school days were few; but in after life, by diligence,
he garnered up in the store-house of his mind suc!
h an amount of knowledge as has been of great service to him in all th
e practical details of life. When he was but 20 years old, the spirit of self-reliance
which served him so well in after life began to assert itself, and he resolved to see more
of the world. Accordingly, in 1819, he went to New Brunswick. After remaining there
several months he concluded to go to New Orleans by sea, and about the first of January,
1820, sailed from the mouth of the Penobscot river for that destination. While off Cape
Hatteras the Bowsprit of the vessel was carried away in a gale, his ship sprung a leak,
and, after pumping twelve days and nights, he succeeded in reaching the port of Savannah,
Georgia, where, after stopping for repairs, he again embarked for Havana, Cuba. Spending a
few days in Havana, he sailed for New Orleans, where he arrived on the 24th of April,
1820. On reaching the mouth of the Mississippi, in his voyage from Havana, he had a narrow
escape from drowning. His vessel ran on a sand bar, and the mate, himself and three others
got into a sm!
all boat, which was capsized, and the mate drowned. Mr. Carley was only saved by clinging
to the boat and getting astride of its inverted bottom, on which he floated some four
miles before he was taken off. After stopping in New Orleans only a short time, he went to
Lafourche, and commenced work at $1.00 per day, with board, at his business of building
mills and cotton-gins. Here he spent his summers for three seasons, returning each winter
to New Orleans. In 1823, he went to the parish of Felciana, where he stayed until 1837. In
Louisiana Mr. Carley seems to have found a climate and people suited to his taste, for it
was there that he continued to live, with occasional visits north, for a period of
seventeen years. During his stay there, however, he made two visits to Ohio and Vermont,
during one of which, on the 27th of April, 1830, he was united in marriage to Miss Abigail
W. STEVENS, daughter of Silsby STEVENS, of Springfield, Vt. Locating his family in
Clermont county,!
Ohio, he returned to the field of his labors in Louisiana, to accumul
ate something for his future support and comfort. In 1837 he joined his wife in Ohio, and
from that time until 1850 was engaged in farming and boating wood down the Ohio river to
Cincinnati. In 1850 he was attacked by the prevailing California fever, and in the spring
of that year, started by way of the Isthmus for the gold fields of the Pacific coast.
During the passage from New Orleans to Chagres, owing to adverse winds the vessel stopped
at Grand Camar island in the Carribbean sea, which he found inhabited by the descendants
of the old buccaneers, with an English resident governor. From Panama the vessel went to
Cocos island for a supply of water. While there Mr. Carley saw chiseled in the rock the
names of the three small vessels commanded by Capt. Cook in his first voyage around the
world, together with the day and month of his landing. After arriving in California, Mr.
Carley soon won the confidence of the miners to such an extent that he was chosen one of
the judges o!
f the mining region, a most delicate and responsible position, requiring great prudence,
good judgment and discrimination, where no statute or common law was in force, and the
judge held in his hands the lives and property of all concerned. Mr. Carley remained in
California until the fall of 1851, when he returned to Ohio, remaining there until 1853,
when he removed to Urbana, Illinois, and in the following year to what is now Champaign
city, but then a raw prairie, dotted only with a farm-house or two. Immediately on his
arrival in Champaign, he began to aid in building up the town. He erected the first
dwelling-house, on the ground where C. Hesse's brick dwelling now stands, on State
street, which was afterwards removed to Randolph street, where it may still be seen on a
beautiful elevation embowered in shrubbery, much of which was planted by Mr. Carley's
own hands. He also erected the first grain warehouse in Champaign, and put in the first
steam engine to operate a corn!
-sheller and elevator. This warehouse was burned down in the fire of A
ugust 24th, 1872. But his more substantial and permanent improvements consist of his
beautiful homestead on Church street, erected in 1861, at a cost of about $5,000; his
large two-story agricultural warehouse on the corner of Main street and the I.C.R.R. right
of way, and his large and substantial brick livery stable on Market street, built in 1874.
In addition to his Champaign improvements, Mr. Carley in 1857 purchased lots on Tolono,
and erected the first warehouse and put in the first steam engine and side track there.
Mr. Carley has had a family of eleven children, but death has invaded its circle and taken
many from its number. Three still remain, however, Mary H., the eldest (Mrs. KINCAID),
Graham and Isotta, now the wife of H. W. MAHAN, City Clerk of Champaign. On the 12th day
of November, 1871, Mrs. Carley followed those who had gone before, and her remains now
repose in the family vault in Mount Hope Cemetery, near the city. As might be expected,
Mr. Carley's life !
of industry and frugality has not left himself and family without the means of enjoying
the comforts and luxuries of life. In his domestic relations he is affectionate and
indulgent, and his children have had all the advantages of education and travel that
wealth could produce. During the summer of 1875 two of his daughters and one
grand-daughter made the tour of Europe. In his social and business relations Mr. Carley
has enjoyed to an unusual degree the confidence and esteem of all with whom he has ever
been connected. In religion he is extremely unorthodox, and does not accept any theory or
system of faith that starts out with a direct assault upon the reason, or is in conflict
with the established truth of science. Huxley, Tyndall, John Stuart Mill and Ingersoll are
much higher authorities with him that some of the orthodox writers on the Trinity and
Final Resurrection. In politics Mr. Carley is equally pronounced, being in favor of cheap
and honest government and oppose!
d to political corruption and dishonesty whether practiced by one part
y or another. In former times he was a Clay Whig, but when the rebellion broke out he gave
his sympathies warmly to the northern cause and affiliated with the republican party until
1872, when believing that the republicans were mismanaging the government he joined the
opposition, and is now ranged on that side.
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