Carey was elected as a Republican to the Thirty-sixth Congress (March 4, 1859 – March 3, 1861).
Death and burial
He died in Carey, Ohio, March 17, 1875.
He was interred in the family burial ground on the home farm.
He was reinterred in 1919 in Spring Grove Cemetery, Carey, Ohio.
Family
John Carey was the second son and third child of Stephen Brown Carey and Sarah Mitten Carey.[3] He married Dorcas Wilcox (1790–1867), of Worthington, Ohio, on January 9, 1817.[4] She was a native of Connecticut.[5] They had six children named Napoleon Bonaparte Carey (1818–1846), MacDonnough Monroe Carey (1820–1895), Emma Marie Carey (1822–1842), Eliza Anne Carey Kinney (1824–1904), Cinderella Carey Brown (1826–1892), and Dorcas Carey Dow (1830–1909).[6]