John W. Carey

<br>John W. Carey was born in 1805 in West Virginia [sic - Virginia] and came to Shelby County with his parents, Cephas and Jane Williamson Carey. Around 1833, J.W. Carey bought a thousand acres in Dinsmore Township, west of the present railroad in what is now the village of Anna.<br><br> J.W. Carey was a contractor by trade, having built the Montgomery County Courthouse in Dayton, Ohio, in 1845. In 1856, he helped build the Dayton and Michigan Railroad that was to run through Anna. He was instrumental in building the railroad station here and established a post office in the station. He named it Carey's Station, but later changed it to Anna in honor of his daughter. It was Carey who saw the need for the railroad in order to bring lasting prosperity to Anna.<br><br> The village of Anna, consisting of 16 lots east of the railroad, was platted by Carey in 1858. It was surveyed and recorded by John L. and Fletcher Thirkield, owners of that land. The town was incorporated on September 3, 1878.<br><br> In Sidney, he built the Shelby County Jail, Carey's Hall on the corner of Poplar Street and Ohio Avenue, and contracted to build part of the old Big Four Railroad bridge.<br><br> Carey died in 1877 at 72 years of age. He is buried in Graceland Cemetery, Sidney, Ohio, in an unmarked grave in the Thirkield plot.