Family History

Fanny Carter was born in Kentucky in 1832 to parents Edward Carter and Elizabeth Stanhope Carter. She was the first child for the couple, but would evantually be joined by eight siblings. She was educated outside her home for a while, attending and boarding at the St. Catherine Finishing School in Lexington. Later the Carter children were educated at home with the hiring of a tutor, a recent graduate of Transylvania. Fanny married this tutor named James Alexander Headley in 1852 at Chaumiere du Prairie, her father's home in Jessamine County, Kentucky. Fanny and James would have three sons together: Edward Carter, James Alexander, and Joseph Carter Headley. The family was encouraged to move to Atchison, Kansas by James' Atchison relatives, some of whom were already living in the area, and they would, moving in the mid-1850s and remaining there until the start of the Civil War. This was a period in Kansas history that was highly volatile, with conflict arising over slavery and it's expansion. Both Northern and Southern groups immigrated to the then-territory of Kansas, and based on letters and William Headley's service in the Confederate Army, the Headley's seem to sympathized with the Southern group. The Southerners would lose out though, as slavery was outlawed when Kansas became a state. Once the Civil War started, Kansas sided with the Union. It was at this point that Fanny and James returned to Kentucky, where they would live until their deaths.

In the first years following their return to Kentucky, they made their home on different farms outside of town, but in 1881, Fanny bought a lot on what is now West Third Street. The fact that she was the one to purchase the property is interesting to note, as at this time in Kentucky, women's right to hold property was limited. Fanny lived in the house she and James built on that lot until 1918. It is said that she broke her hip about a year before she passed away, and perhaps this could have been part of the reason she moved out of her house. The property included a carriage house, where Fanny's personal carriage was kept. She apparently put the carriage to use often, as she was driven around town every day. Descendants also described her a changing the tablecloth between every course of a meal, perhaps a relic of her finishing school education. Fanny died in 1919 after a short illness and was buried in the Lexington Cemetery. 

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