Frank Carey was born in Passadumkeag, Maine in 1886, and had seven older siblings. He worked in the woods between 1902 and 1917 near Passadumkeag, Greenbush, and Lincoln. He had many jobs including cookee, teamster, scaler, and river driver. He also worked in a saw mill.  to When he was thirty, he got married and moved to Milford, Maine. He worked for the Old Town mill for fifteen years and then at Old Town Canoe.