My Genealogy Hound

REV. AUSTIN A. KELLY, pastor of Zion Lutheran Church, at Newville, Pa., and one of the earnest church workers in Cumberland county, as well as a devoted Christian man, was born on a farm in Adams county, Pa., June 4, 1870, son of James N. and Ellen (Harner) Kelly.

Patrick Kelly, great-grandfather of Rev. Austin A., was a native of Ireland, emigrated to America prior to the Revolutionary war, and settled in what is now Heidelberg township, York county, Pa. There he owned two farms and died at an advanced age. His children were John, Jacob, Patrick, James, Thomas (who settled in Botetourt county, Va.), Mrs. Nancy Bowman, Mrs. Sarah Dubbs, Mrs. Mary Millheim, and George W.

George W. Kelly, son of Patrick and grandfather of Rev, Austin A., was born in 1795, in York county, Pa. He was a farmer and miller by occupation, and settled in Carroll county, Md., where he met and married Mary Ann Williams, who was born June 15, 1800, in Frederick county, Md. She was the second daughter of William Williams and Rebecca Slife, whose other children were Elizabeth, and a son who served through the war of 1812. William Williams was a native of England and served through the Revolutionary war under George Washington. George W. Kelly and his wife had children as follows: Mrs. Sarah Morelock, Emanuel, John, George, James N. and Thomas. Mr. Kelly died in 1845, at about the age of fifty, and his widow in 1884, aged eighty- four.

James Nathaniel Kelly, the father of our subject, was born Aug. 9, 1833, at Silver Run, Carroll county, Md., and was educated in an academy at Frederick City, Md., under Prof. Nathaniel Vernon, and at Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg, Pa. After leaving school he taught for some time very successfully in Carroll county, Md., and York and Adams counties, Pa. For a time he was also clerk and salesman in a mercantile house in Maryland. On Sept. 6, 1864, Mr. Kelly enlisted as a private in the 209th P. V. I., participating in the battles of Fort Steadman and Petersburg, Va., and served until honorably discharged at the close of the war. In the spring of 1866 he removed to the Mansion Farm, which he purchased from the Mearing estate in Germany township, and there successfully engaged in farming and stock raising.

Mr. Kelly married, on Oct. 29, 1857, Ellen Harner, who was born March 2, 1835, daughter of Michael and Elizabeth (Mearing) Harner. To this union were born children as follows: Laura Ellen (died in infancy), Sarah L. (died in infancy), Emma Catherine, James Hamilton, Joseph Ellsworth, Eugene Sylvester and Austin Augustus. All of the family were members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. In politics Mr. Kelly was a stanch Democrat, and he was an upright and conscientious, self-made business man.

The primary education of Rev. Austin A. Kelly was received in the common schools and the college at Gettysburg, Pa., from which he was graduated in 1893; he then entered the seminary at the same place, from which he was graduated in 1895. In 1895 he was licensed at York, Pa., by the Synod of West Penn, to preach. Ordained to the gospel ministry in Christ Lutheran Church, at Gettysburg, Pa., on Oct. 18, 1896, his first charge was Trindle Springs Lutheran Church, at Mechanicsburg, Pa., which charge he served until Oct. 1, 1899. That year he received and accepted a call to Newville, to succeed Rev. D. B. Floyd, at Zion’s Lutheran Church. This church at Newville is a fine structure, with a seating capacity of six hundred, and is supplied with an excellent pipe organ and many new ideas in architecture and accommodations.

On Sept. 9, 1896, Mr. Kelly married Miss Mary Catherine Bushman, of Gettysburg, a daughter of Althedore and Lucinda (Benner) Bushman, and one son, George Benner, has been born of this marriage. Mrs. Kelly was educated at Irving College, Mechanicsburg.

The congregation of Mr. Kelly’s church, which aggregates about 400, is a wealthy one, and he numbers among his people some of the most prominent of the county. He is recognized as one of the eloquent preachers of Cumberland county, and is pleasing in his pulpit manner, winning converts by his persuasive words as well as by his readings of the Scripture as taught by his Church.