Lea & Blanchard and Lea & Carey

(Etablished: ?????)

American Publishing firms. Isaac Lea was born on March 4, 1792 and died on December 8, 1886. His father-in-law, Mathew Carey (1760-1839), had founded the publishing house as Mathew Carey and Co. in 1785. In 1817, Carey’s son, Henry Charles Carey, was elevated to a junior partner, and the firm was renamed Carey & Son. In 1833, the firm was renamed Carey, Lea and Blanchard. William Adolphus Blanchard, born August 14, 1812 in Camden, SC and died March 10, 1862 in Aberdeen, MS. He attended LaGrange College, a Methodist Episcopal college founded in 1830 in LaGrange, AL, but now known as the University of North Alabama (and in a different location as both the town and college were burned by Union forces in 1863). He is buried in the family lot of Odd Fellows Rest Cemetery, in Aberdeen, MS. His father was Absolom Blanchard (1771-1851). His family owned and operated a number of planations, and were slave holders. His sister married into the Lenoir family, another major holder of planations and slaves.