Upshur County, West Virginia Biography of EDMUND H. KELLY This file was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 433 Upshur EDMUND H. KELLY has shown in his business career marked energy, initiative and progressiveness, and is now one of the prominent exponents of the automobile busi- ness in the City of Buckhannon, Upshur County, where he is secretary, treasurer and general manager of the Kelly Motor Company. Mr. Kelly was born in Preston County, West Virginia, November 10, 1869, and is a son of Smith and Mary (Browning) Kelly, both natives of the State of Mary- land. Smith Kelly was reared on the Maryland farm of his father, Edmund Kelly, and eventually he became the owner of a small farm in Preston County, West Virginia, where also he followed the carpenter's trade. He was fifty-two years of age at the time of his death, and his wife survived him by a number of years. Both were devout members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in the same Mr. Kelly served many years as class leader. He was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and was a republican in political proclivities. Of the eleven children two died in infancy and one at the age of six years, the other eight attaining to years of maturity. Edmund H. Kelly passed his boyhood days on the home farm and profited by the advantages of the public schools of his native county. At the age of nineteen years he found employment, but until he attained to his legal ma- jority he turned over to his parents the most of his earn- ings. At the age of twenty-one years he found employ- ment in a livery establishment, and he received for his services $12.50 a week. After passing two years in this service he invested his earnings in sheep, which he later sold for $200. With this financial fortification he pur- chased the livery business of his employer and incidentally assumed an indebtedness of $1,800, for which he gave his notes. He continued in the livery business at Terra Alta twelve years, and then made an advantageous sale of the property and business, after which he went South, for the benefit of his health, which had become impaired. After returning to West Virginia he engaged in the buggy business at Buckhannon, and developed a substantial and prosperous enterprise, with a large stock on hand to meet all demands. He continued this business two years, or until September, 1917, when he purchased a lot and erected a substantial building for use as an automobile garage and salesroom. Here he opened his automobile business on the 1st of September, 1918, and as agent for the Buick automobiles he has here built up a well ordered and pros- perous business, his garage being modern in equipment and facilities, and the enterprise being conducted under the corporate title of the Kelly Motor Company. Mr. Kelly is the owner of a fourth interest in 100 acres of coal and pasture land and a half interest in a valuable little tract of ten acres of coal land, besides which he is a stockholder in the Buckhannon Light & Water Company. He is one of the vital and valued members of the Buck- hannon Board of Commerce and the local Rotary Club, is president of the Board of Education of his home city, is a republican in politics, and both he and his wife are active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, he being a trustee of the church at Buckhannon. Mr. Kelly is affiliated with the Lodge, Chapter and Commandery bodies of York Rite Masonry, and is a past master of the Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons at Terra Alta, Preston County. His wife, whose maiden name was Maude L. Warden, is a daughter of Rev. J. M. Warden, a clergyman of the Methodist Church, and her public-school discipline was supplemented by a two years' college course. Mr. and Mrs. Kelly have one child, Mary E., born July 28, 1914.