Biographical Sketch of George W. Kelly, Harrison County, Missouri

>From "History of Harrison & Mercer Counties, MO", Published by Good-
speed Publishing Co., 1888

This is one of the family lines in which I am currently researching,
please feel free to contact me if you are also researching the 
Kelly/McCoy lineage from Greene County, TN - Incog3678@aol.com
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George W. Kelly, farmer and stock raiser, Jefferson Township, Harrison
County, MO, is a native of Greene County, East Tenn., and son of David
and Rebecca (McCoy) Kelly, of the same county and state.  The paternal
grandfather of our subject was John Kelly, who emigrated from Ireland
to the United States in an early day, and settled in Greene County, TN.
He was a farmer and school teacher, and died in Tennessee about the
year 1833.  David Kelly was a carpenter and millwright, which trades he
carried on for many years, having worked at farming in his younger days.
He died about the year 1847 or 1848 in Hamilton County, Illinois while
on a visit to a son.  Rebecca (McCoy) Kelly departed this life in Greene
County, Tenn. about 1856, at the age of fifty-six years.  She was a de-
voted member of the Methodist Church and her husband belonged to the
Presbyterian denomination.  Mr. and Mrs. Kelly raised a family of eight
children, three of whom are now living: Eliza, Margaret, and George
Wells, the subject of this sketch.  George W. Kelly passed his youth
and early manhood on his father's farm and received his early education
in such schools as the country at that time afforded.  He remained with
his parents until nineteen years of age, at which time he came to Miss-
ouri, and engaged in life for himself as a farmer in Johnson and Pettis
counties.  He attended school at intervals for two years, and also
taught three terms in the above counties.  In 1846 he returned to Greene
County, Tenn., and for some time thereafter attended Tusculum College,
where he obtained a knowledge of the higher branches of learning.  After
quiting school he engaged in teaching for a while and subsequently work-
ed at carpentering and millwrighting, which trades he previous learned
with his father and uncles.  In 1851 he went to Indiana, and located in
Tippecanoe County, where until 1857 he followed the carpentering busi-
ness, teaching school at intervals.  In the latter years he came to 
Harrison County, Missouri and settled four miles north of Bethany, in 
Jefferson Township, where he has since resided.  He has been engaged in
carpentering, teaching and farming since coming to the county, in all
of which he has met with encouraging success.  Politically Mr. Kelly is
a Democrat, but votes for the man rather than the party.  He has never
aspired to political preferment, but has held several positions of trust,
among which were township trustee, township clerk and Justice of the
Peace.  He at this time a strong advocate of prohibition believing that
to be for the best interest of the country.  On the 8th of April, 1849
Mr. Kelly was united in marriage with Elizabeth Alexander, of Greene
County, Tenn., a union blessed with the birth of six children, three of
whom, Isabella Angeline, Elizabeth Caroline and George William, are
living.  The names of the deceased children are James W., Maria Jane
Burgin and an infant, William C.  Mr. Kelly is an active member of the
Methodist Church, having identified himself with the same about the 
year 1847.  For the last twenty years he has been a licensed exhorter
in the Methodist Episcopal Church South.  Mrs. Kelly is also a Methodist,
having joined the church while quite young.  Mr. Kelly began life with 
no capital but a determination to succeed.  He owns at this time a val-
uable farm, the result of his own enterprise and efforts, and is justly
considered one of the representative citizens of Harrison County.
	
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