Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Kelly, Hon Thomas J ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com November 10, 2007, 12:57 am Author: Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County HON. THOMAS J. KELLY. Through his long and intimate connection with the business interests and public affairs of Joliet, Mr. Kelly has become well known to the residents of this city. In 1868 he established his present dry- goods business, having as a partner his brother Joseph A., under the firm name of Kelly Brothers. In 1875 the block he now occupies was built, and the following year he purchased his brother's interest, since which time he has conducted the business alone. While necessarily much of his time and thought are given to the management of his store, yet he has found leisure for other interests. He was trustee of the company that platted and laid out Boulevard Heights, and served as president of the South Joliet Land Company, that laid out South Joliet addition. He is also treasurer of the Mutual Loan and Building Association. Politically Mr. Kelly voted with the Democrats until the candidacy of Samuel J. Tilden in 1876, when he became a Greenbacker. The tariff question led him to ally himself with the Republicans. After the St. Louis convention of 1896, not being in sympathy with the gold platform of the Republican party, he returned to the Democratic ranks, being a bimetallist in the broad sense of that word. He has been closely connected with politics in his city and county, and has frequently been chosen to occupy positions of trust. For two terms he was supervisor of Joliet Township, for two terms served as assistant supervisor, and for two terms held the chairmanship of the county board of supervisors, being chairman when the present court house was erected, and it was in no small measure due to his efforts that the substantial and commodious fireproof building was erected. In 1883 he was first elected mayor. His service was so satisfactory that he was re-elected in 1885 and 1889, serving until 1891. During his administration the fire and police departments were organized, and street improvements of great value were made. The Kellys are an old family of Trellick, County Tyrone, Ireland. Our subject's grandfather, Thomas Kelly, was a merchant of that town. One of his sons, Rev. John Kelly, became a Roman Catholic priest, and died in New Jersey. Two others, Eugene and Patrick, settled in California, where the latter died. Eugene, who crossed the ocean about 1834, spent some years in the mercantile business in St. Louis, and in 1849 went to California, where he became one of the largest merchants and bankers of his day. Later he was identified with the banking business in New York City, where he died in December, 1894. The oldest son, Edward, was for some years a merchant in Trellick. In December, 1847, he left Ireland on the sailer "Sea," which anchored in New York City in January, 1848. In the spring of the same year he came to Will County, Ill., and settled four miles south of Joliet, in Jackson Township, where he bought a farm of one hundred and sixty acres, and adjoining lands from Robert Duncan, an old settler of Joliet. For sixteen years he engaged in the cultivation of that place. He then sold it and bought a farm in the southern part of Lockport Township, where he improved a valuable tract of one-half section. He died there November 5, 1871, at the age of seventy-one years. His wife, who died in 1894, at the age of eighty-seven, was Rose, a daughter of Owen Curren, a farmer of County Tyrone, but during his last years a resident of Will County, where he and his wife died in old age. Edward and Rose Kelly had two sons, Thomas J., and Joseph A., of Joliet, and two daughters, Catherine and Bridget, of Chicago. Accompanying his parents to this country, our subject remained in New York City for a year after they came west, and in 1849 he joined them on a farm in Will County. In 1854 he entered Notre Dame University at South Bend, Ind., where he studied for eighteen months. Later he spent two years at St. Mary's College, Wilmington, Del. In 1860 he graduated from the Jesuit College in Montreal, after which he returned to the farm and remained there for seven years. He began in business in Wilmington in 1867, the following year moved to Joliet, and has since carried on a store on Jefferson street. At Lockport, Ill., in 1868, Mr. Kelly married Mary, daughter of Patrick Fitzpatrick, who in 1832 came from Ontario to this county and settled on the west bluff. Mr. Kelly and his wife are faithful and prominent members of St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, and he has contributed generously to its various charities. He is a member of the Knights of Columbus, and the Joliet Sharpshooters' Association. He is deeply interested in the welfare and progress of Joliet, and has given liberally of his time and influence to promote enterprises of undoubted value to the city. Additional Comments: Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County Illinois Containing Biographies of Well Known Citizens of the Past and Present, Biographical Publishing Company, Chicago, 1900 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/will/bios/kelly1053gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ilfiles/ File size: 5.6 Kb