Article on John Francis Carey(1869-1954)

Danville, IL Commercial-News Sunday March 29th, 1936

ITS Conductor Has Served for 32 Years On Interurban Line Soon to Be Abandoned

John Carey on Duty on Danville-Westville Run Since it Started

Hopes to Get Job on Batestown Car When Present Assignment Ends

by Fay Fielding
Commercial-News Staff Writer

Thirty two years continuous service as a conductor and motorman on the same interurban line.  

That is the remarkable record of John Carey, veteran employee of Illinois Terminal Railway System, one of the transportation lines of Illinois Power and Light Corporation.

Every day since 1904 when the line was opened, except for a few brief periods when he was off duty because of illness or on vacation, he has been on duty, for several years a conductor, and later when the "one-man" cars were placed in service, as both conductor and motorman on the Westville line.

On City Lines Year

This line will be abandoned in the near future - probably during the next two or three weeks.  While abandonment of the line will end the long record by the veteran employee, it will not end his career as an interurban trainman. He has put in a "bid" for a run on the Batestown line and indications are he will get it.  He was employed on the city lines one year before being assigned to the Danville-Westville line.

In 1884 Mr. Carey came to Danville from Delpi, Ind., where he was born.  At the age of 11 got a job as water boy on a C.&E. I.  work train. Four years later the train was pulled out of service and John was pulled off his job.  He wanted to be a breakman. Attired in a suit with padded shoulders and oversized trousers, made for him by a Danville tailor named Bowen, and a tall derby hat, known in those days as a "stiff Katy," he wen to the train master's office in Chicago and applied for a job. 

"You look pretty young; how old are you?" asked the trainmaster.

John, with most of his body concealed by the trainmaster's desk, raised himself upon his toes, puffed out his chest and replied, "21."

He was given a letter to Billy Stephens, general yardmaster here, who was instructed to give him a job. Several days later, a 1 o'clock in the morning, he was called out for his first run. He railroaded until the strike of 1894 when he went to Helena, Mont., and worked in a smelting plant, later going to Anaconda, Mont., where he landed his first street car job.

Early in 1903, when work was firsts tarted on electric railway lines out of Danville, he received from his sister, Miss Mamie Carey of Danville, a copy of The Commercial-News. On the front page was a story about the new interurban lines - both those in construction and under consideration. Accompanying the story was a picture of a wheel, with Danville as the hub and the spokes pointing to various cities that would be connected with the city if the proposed electric lines were built.

Carey decided to return to Danville and apply for a job on one of the interurban lines. He got one shortly after he arrived but it was on the city lines. A year later, however, he landed a job as conductor on an interurban car.  He was assigned the Westville line and has been there ever since.

Romance on Trolley

Carey is the father of eight chilren and owns a nice home at 615 Douglas Avenue.  All of his children except one who is recently married live at home.  They are Joseph, Johnnie, Winifred, Mary Helen, Marjorie, Loretta, William and Thomas.  Three of his sons, Tom, William and Johnny, have been carriers for the Commercial-News. Mrs. Carey was Miss Rosa Whipple, member of a pioneer family living east of Georgetown. The romance that culminated in their marriage began on the interurban car on which Mr. Carey began his career as conductor.

A few years ago John took his family for a ride on his car, and this is what Grace Gallaher, local correspondent for an IPL Magazine, wrote about it:

"When John Carey takes his family out for an airing he spurns an automobile and trailer, and loads them all into an interurban car. This carful of care-free Careys has made a careful Carey out of John. He has to watch his step with a brood like this, but they have kept him young, and after many years of railroading he is still able to 'Carey' on."