My Genealogy Hound

JAMES E. KELLY, of Bloomington, Nebr., was born February 16, 1842, in Westmoreland county, Pa., and is a son of F. P. and Margaret J. (Easley) Kelly. The father was also a native of Pennsylvania, and both parents died in that state, the father in 1876 and the mother in 1878. James E. Kelly is the eighth in a family of nine children, namely — Joseph, Sarah, Margaret,William, Catherine A., Martha, Henry, our subject, and Michael. He was educated in the public schools in Pennsylvania, but at the age of seventeen went to Ohio and began life for himself. At the expiration of one year he went to Indiana. In August, 1861, he enlisted in Company G, Thirty-fourth Indiana volunteer infantry, and rose from the rank of private to that of corporal, then to orderly sergeant, then to second lieutenant, then to first lieutenant, then commissioned captain, but was not mustered in as such inasmuch that the number of men in his company was below the minimum. He with his regiment re-enlisted in the fall of 1863, and was mustered out of service in February, 1866, at Indianapolis, Ind., serving in all four years and six months. Captain Kelly was in some of the fiercest battles of the war, and was in the last that was fought, which occurred May 13, 1865, on the old battle-ground of Resaca de la Palma, Tex. One man was killed, that being the last life that was lost in the great struggle to save the Union from disruption. Captain Kelly’s brother Henry was a member of the Sixteenth squadron of Ohio cavalry with Kilpatrick. He was taken prisoner and died from the effects of his treatment in Andersonville prison. Joseph, William and Michael all served in the war in a Pennsylvania regiment — Joseph four years, Michael three years, William one year in the Army of the Potomac; Joseph and Michael were wounded and made cripples for life.

Captain Kelly, after leaving the service, engaged in mercantile business in Indiana. From Indiana he went to South Carolina, and from there to Wisconsin. In 1879, he came to Nebraska, settling in Harlan county, where he took up a homestead which he still owns, and which is well improved and in a fine state of cultivation. There were but few settlers at that time in Harlan county, and he was among the earliest. In 1880 he moved to Bloomington, Franklin county, where he now resides.

On January 1, 1864, while Captain Kelly was on a veteran furlough, he married — taking for his life companion Miss Margaret J. Lawrence, a daughter of John A. Lawrence, a native of Pennsylvania. Three children have been sent to bless this union — Maud L., now Mrs. James H. H. Hewitt, of Hemmingford, Nebr.; Pearl D., and Alton L. Mr. and Mrs. Kelly are both members of the Lutheran church and contribute liberally to its charities. Captain Kelly is now receiver of the United States Land Office at Bloomington, Nebr., also a member of the Masonic fraternity, and in politics is a stanch republican. He is a refined, polished gentleman, and a progressive, public-spirited man. If Franklin county had for her officials such men as Captain Kelly, strangers entering her gates would be favorably impressed.