Carrie Esarey

The Esarey Family Reunion website is dedicated to Carrie Antoinette Gibson (1897-1976), born and raised in Branchville. Carrie was granddaughter of John Clark and Barbara Ewing Esarey, daughter of James Gibson and Idora Esarey, wife of Eugene Esarey and later of Thaddeus Riddle (grandson of Hiram Marcus Esarey) – all of Perry County. Carrie was connected to everyone and everything family.

These pages are for Carrie and Eugene’s family – a chronological pictorial review of people dear to us.

PAGE 1 – 1894 to 1945

1894 – Carrie’s parents, James Gibson and Idora Esarey (apparently their wedding picture).

1899 – Carrie Gibson

ca. 1900 – Idora Esarey Gibson

1905 – Extended family of Mark and Anna Esarey, just before the move to Wabash County, Illinois. Eugene Esarey in back row just left of center.

ca. 1910 – Eugene Esarey

1912 – 1913 Carrie Gibson in high school at Branchville. Carrie is in the front row, just right of center.

Carrie Gibson – 1912-1913

Carrie’s childhood home in Branchville

1914 – Eugene Esarey (left), Mt. Carmel, IL

ca. 1915 – Carrie Gibson, Branchville, IN

Ca. 1917 – Elvin, Archie, and Eugene Esarey at Beall Farm, Keensburg, Wabash Co, IL

1917 – Carrie Gibson

1917 – Hiram Marcus (Mark) Esarey and Anna Saalman Bengal Esarey at Beall Farm, Keensburg, Wabash Co, IL

1920 – Eugene Esarey and Floyd Cunningham with the Gibson sisters – Carrie and Emma. Taken at Belle Island, Detroit. Floyd and Emma had married 1917. Eugene and Carrie were married July 2, 1920 while in Detroit.

ca. 1920 – Emma Gibson Cunningham and her mother Dora

Ca. late 1910s or early 1920s? – Idora Esarey Gibson with her brothers John Elmer Esarey and Logan Marcus Esarey

Ca. 1920 – Flora Anderson (Thad’s wife), Carrie, and Eugene’s father, Mark Esarey. Taken at Esarey house at Rochester (next to the Beall farm), Wabash Co., IL

Ca. 1920 – Flora Anderson (Thad’s wife), Carrie, and Eugene’s mother, Anna Saalman Esarey. Taken at Esarey house at Rochester (next to the Beall farm), Wabash Co., IL

Ca. 1923 – Eugene and Kermit Esarey.

Ca. 1923 – Kermit Esarey

1923 – Dora Gibson and granddaughter Jeannie Cunningham.

During the 1920s – The Esarey brothers at the Beall Farm (Calvin, Eugene, Elvin, and Archie). It seems likely this was taken in 1928 or 1929 at one of their parents’ Anna or Mark’s respective funerals, although both were buried in Branchville.

1929/1930 – Dwight Esarey

late 1920s? – Carrie and Emma

These are the pictures Carrie kept on her dresser during the 1960s – Eugene ca. 1930s and Carrie ca. 1960s.

1932 – Carrie and Clark (John Clark) Esarey

1934 – John Clark Esarey at the Beall Farm. Photo by cousin Jessie Esarey

1934 – James Gibson Esarey at the Beall Farm. Photo by cousin Jessie Esarey

1934 – Kermit and his cousin Calvin Duane Esarey at the Beall Farm. Photo by cousin Jessie Esarey

Ca. 1940 – Kermit Esarey graduation

Early 1940s – Carrie Gibson Esarey

1943 – Carrie and Eugene at Kermit and Lee’s wedding with Lee’s parents.

This letter shows Carrie’s desire to acquire details of Esarey family history that were already becoming very hard to know by this time. Her grandparents’ generation, who had been young in the Civil War era, had all passed. It is clear from the details of the letter that only a few people remained who had lots of details. We now have at our fingertips information that Carrie could get only by great effort.

This further explains to me (Duane) my own experience thirty years after this letter. In the summer of 1974, between my freshman and sophomore years in college, I was living in Haines City, Florida with Carrie and Thad during Thad’s terminal stages of lung cancer. I was fascinated to observe that Grandma studied the Esarey Family volume published Myra in 1968 almost daily. It was a source of great satisfaction to her that this information was assembled and she made it a big part of her daily life.

Click below to go to page 2 of CARRIE AND EUGENE’S FAMILY PICTURES