Bio of Thomas J. Kelly b.1861 from History of Renville Co, MN

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The following excerpt comes from 
The History of Renville County, Minnesota
compiled by Franklyn Curtiss-Wedge
H. C. Cooper Jr. Company, Chicago, 1916

p. 1014

THOMAS J. KELLY a well-known farmer of Henryville township, was born
April 16, 1861, in McHenry County, Illinois, son of Thomas G. and
Ann (Corcoran) Kelly, both native of Roscommon, Ireland, and married in
Baltimore, Maryland. Thomas G. Kelly had come to America with his two
brothers when a young man in 1842. The father had died in Ireland when the 
children were young and after four years the mother came to America, 
accompanied by her daughter Catherine. She was seventy years of age when
she died. Thomas G. was a blacksmith and followed that trade till 
thirty-three years ago when he took up farming in McHenry county, Illinois, 
where he had a tract of 240 acres of land. This was in 1860. He spent eight 
years on this farm in Illinois and then moved to Minnesota, to Renville
county, and located on Section 1, Henryville township. Half of the section
was wild prairie land. The son, Thomas J., came first and located the land 
before the rest of the family came. A frame building was erected and they 
had only one team at first, but in time good buildings were built on the 
farm. Here the parents lived until their death, the father dying in 1897 
at the age of sixty-six and the mother in 1901 at the age of seventy-six. 
They were faithful members of the Catholic church and the father helped 
build the Catholic church at Olivia. There were ten children in the family: 
Mary, Katie, Sarah, Thomas J., Ellen (deceased), Rebecca, Elizabeth 
(deceased),William, Edward, and Julia (deceased). Thomas J. Kelly has held 
several school offices and one was of the founders of the handsome school 
house in District 137. He has been the director of the Farmer's Elevator 
of Olivia for the past four years. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen of 
America, a member of the Catholic Order of Foresters and of the Knights 
of Columbus. He is also a member of the Catholic church. The subject of 
this sketch lived with his father until his marriage in 1897 to Mary 
O'Nell, born in Henryville township.
There are seven children all living at home, Leo, Hazel, John, Gladys, 
Gordon, Charles and Francis.