STORY BY CLAYTON TRUTOR • PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY JOHN PRICE CAREY
A Man for All Seasons
Benson, Vermont’ s Graham Carey was a Philosopher, a Farmer, an Artisan, an Architect, and an Astor. He was also the first American to be awarded the Croix de Guerre, France’ s Highest Military Honor.
Graham Carey believed strongly in putting ideas into practice. The longtime Benson resident led a unique Twentieth Century life. He was born into one of the country’ s most storied families. His convictions brought him to the battlefields of Europe. A change of heart brought him to a town of fewer than 600 residents in Rutland County, Vermont. There, he put into practice many of the things he had learned far from the Green Mountain State, while also pursuing many new interests. Graham aspired to serve his community and his world in practical ways while employing means that helped make places and spaces both near and far more beautiful.
Arthur Graham Carey was born in Boston in 1892, the second of Arthur Astor Carey and Agnes( Whiteside) Carey’ s four children. Graham grew up in the Boston area and lived in privileged circumstances.
His great-great grandfather was John Jacob Astor, who was widely regarded as the wealthiest man in America at the time of his death in 1848. Astor made his fortune in the fur trade and the real estate business in his adopted home of New York City. He was a patron of the arts and bequeathed the money which helped establish the New York Public Library. Graham followed in his famous ancestor’ s footsteps, supporting the artistic endeavors of many of the finest artists and craftspeople of his era. His own father, Arthur Astor Carey, helped establish the Society of Arts and Crafts of Boston, which spurred the Arts + Crafts movement in the United States.
Despite Graham’ s privileged background, his son John Price Carey notes that his father“ did not like the trappings of wealth, and in his own way lived very simply. These feelings had a lot to do with his love of working with his hands, and with his attraction to the farming life.”
“ My grandfather collected interests,” said David Fedor-Cunningham, who grew up next door to his grandfather
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