REV. SAMUEL W. CAREY.
Samuel W. Carey was born near Troy, Oho, March 17, 1831, and died in Dayton, Ohio, January 5, 1917, aged eighty-five years, nine months, and nineteen days.
He was united in marriage April 20, 1854, to Miss Almira Mariah Bane,3 who shared with him the joys and sorrows, toils and rewards of life for about twenty years, and was then called to her heavenly home.
Brother Carey professed a sound conversion in early manhood and later a call to the ministry, to which he responded and united with the Cincinnati Annual Conference, and was appointed to his first charge in 1865 at Seven Mile, Ohio.
His successive years in the ministry were spent as follows: 1866, Camden and Winchester; 1867-68, Lewisburg; 1869, New Paris; 1870-72, Concord; 1873-75, Red Lion and Springboro; 1876, Fairfield; 1877, Kings Creek 1878, Mutual; 1879-80, Union; 1881-82, East Liberty; 1883, Kings Creek; 1884, Retired. According to the records, he spent nineteen years in the active work of the ministry.4
December 6, 1876, he was married a second time, Miss Rebecca C. Austin3 sharing thenceforward the remaining years of his active ministry, and all these later years in the retired relation.
Brother Carey was always of a quiet, modest, unassuming disposition, ever the courteous, appreciative Christian gentleman.
He was seemingly never physically strong and rugged, hence his comparatively early retirement from the active ministry. And he learned so to conserve his strength as to live many years beyond the average lifetime of his ministerial brethren who entered the Conference about the same time he did.
He spent the later years of his life in his home in Dayton, Ohio, maintaining his Quarterly Conference relationship with the Broadway Methodist Episcopal Church, and with whose membership he continued to meet for worship so long as he was physically able.
He leaves, besides his widow, one brother,5 who lives in Urbana, Ohio, and other more distant relatives. He was a godly man. Peace to his memory!
W. H. WEHRLY.
MRS. MARIA B. CAREY.
MRS. MARIA BAINS6 CAREY, wife of Rev. S. W. Carey, of the Cincinnati Conference, was born in Miami County, Ohio, July 18, 1826, and died of consumption, after years of patient suffering, at the parsonage in Springboro, Ohio, on Friday, October 22, 1875, aged forty-nine years.
Mrs. Carey was an amiable, cultured, Christian woman, well fitted to be the wife of a minister of the Gospel. For several years previous to her marriage, she was a popular and successful teacher in the public schools of Piqua. In early life she made a public profession of her faith in Christ, and united with the Baptist Church. On the 22d of April, 1854, she was married to her now bereaved husband, and a few years subsequently entered with him upon the trials and triumphs of an itinerant's life, in the Cincinnati Conference.
Although a devoted member of another communion at the time of her marriage, she entered at once, and with zeal and earnestness, into the work to which Providence had called her. She was a most efficient worker in the Sunday-school, while in the social prayer-meeting, and in seasons of special revival, she never failed to do her duty.
Her death, as might well be inferred from her life, was a peaceful and happy one. To her husband she said, repeatedly, "I have no fear. I have placed my all upon God's altar. I have not trusted Jesus in vain." On one occasion, shortly before her death, she said, "If it be the Lord's will to take me, it will be a sweet release. Jesus is my Savior and my friend, my all in all." At another time she quoted the words:
Close to thy bleeding side;
'T is all my hope, and all my plea,
For me the Savior died."
When her husband said, "Jesus will say to you erelong, 'It is enough; come up higher,'" she warmly responded, "Oh, what a sweet summons that will be!" and finally, with her latest breath, she assured him that her prospect was bright.
Mrs. Carey was an affectionate, devoted, faithful wife, seeking in every possible way to make her home an attractive, happy refuge for her itinerant husband. She was an earnest, consistent Christian, not in word only, but in deed and in truth. Her entire life, in private and in public, was a testimony for Jesus.
She was an ardent lover and a diligent reader of God's Word. This interesting memorandum was found in her Bible, soon after her death:
"October 4, 1875. - This day finished reading the Bible through." It was, perhaps, the last reading she ever did. About two weeks after this date, she entered upon the "rest that remaineth for the people of God."
MRS. S. W. CAREY.
Rebecca Austin Carey was born in Montgomery Co., O., near Bellbrook, and died in Dayton, O., Feb. 6, 1918,7 after years of ill health. She was married Dec. 6, 1876, to Rev. Samuel W. Carey, and shared with him the vicissitudes of the itinerant minister at Fairfield,8 Kings Creek, Mutual, Union,8 and East Liberty. They retired from active service, and spent the last years of their lives in Dayton, members of Broadway Methodist Episcopal Church. For many years she was not able to attend services, but rejoiced in prayer and song, often singing alone the songs she had loved. After the death of Bro. Carey, she longed to go home, to be with him and her Saviour, whom she loved so much. After more than a year of longing and homesickness and suffering the Lord called her to Him.
They were devoted to the Lord's work, and gave generously to benevolences, especially the work of Foreign Missions. They even denied themselves to make a generous gift to this Board, and rejoiced in the privilege.
"Let her own works praise her in the gates."
ONE WHO KNEW HER.