Born 1820 in New Jersey
1850 census for Essex County, Newark, NJ lists one Edward Kelley as 30 years old.
Household includes Mary Kelley 67, Margaret Kelley, Phoebe Kelley.
This has been the only Edward Kelley or Kelly of the right age in the census records for New Jersey anywhere from before his marriage to Elizabeth Poling on May 5, 1854 in Mercer County, Ohio.
The first known record I have concerning Edward Kelly in Mercer County, Ohio is his marriage to Elizabeth Poling on May 5, 1854.
They had four children:
William, 1856
Emma, 1858
Anna, 1860
Amos, (Ami, Avis), 1862
Although we have no death record or burial record, Elizabeth must have died after her last child was born.
In the 1870 census for Mercer County, Center Twp, Neptune, Ohio, Edward is now married to Catherine Sheets who has children of her own she has brought to the marriage.
The census lists the following children brought to the marriage:
John H. Sheets, 1852
Samuel M. Sheets, 1854
Lydia Sheets, 1857
Jacob Sheets, 1859
Mary Jane Fast was also introduced into the household at this time--born in 1848.
Additional records have shown that there were other Sheets children, being Nancy A. who was born in 1850 and married Benjamin Piper May 24, 1868 in Mercer County and would not have been in Edward Kelley’s household in 1870. Her marriage and children are listed in another file.
There is a child named Elizabeth also listed to Catherine and Philip Sheets, but she is also not listed in the 1870 census as belonging to the Edward Kelley household.
Information concerning the origin of Catherine Sheets is that she came from Fairfield County, Bern Twp, Ohio, at least at the time of her marriage to Philip Sheets and her maiden name is listed as Polan (rather than Poling).
I have no information that Elizabeth Poling was Catherine’s sister even though this has been suggested to our family as being the case.
We have concluded that Mary Jane Sheets is the same Mary Jane Fast listed in the 1870 census. We have therefore concluded that she is the daughter of Catherine and Phillip Sheets. (Catherine's previous husband) Mary Jane Sheets apparently married, but her husband's first name is unknown at this time. What we do know is that she is NOT the same Mary Jane Fast listed in the Abraham Fast family who is close to this same age. This Mary Jane Fast was born in Fairfield County in 1848. She was married at least 3 times, and died in Southworth, Ohio, which is in Allen County, Ohio.
Sept 18, 1870 Mary Jane Fast married Benjamin Cook and they had a son who died at a y oung age according to the following burial record.
May 29, 1874 son William F. Cook died at age 2 years, 6 months, 0 days. Buried in Neptune Cemetery Row 4 N-S.
The 1880 Census for Mercer County, Center Twp lists Mary Jane Cook in the Edward Kelley household so Mary Jane must have lost her second husband as well as her first husband. On Aug 5, 1880, Mary Jane Fast married William Kelley, Edward’s son. They had two children before William Kelley died.
Daughter Elizabeth Kelley was born May 30, 1881.
Son Rushus Edward Kelley was born in 1883.
Edward Kelley Sr. died May 6, 1890 of consumption.
William Kelley died Sept 5, 1890 of typhoid fever.
Mary Jane raised her children in Southworth, Ohio (Allen County). We have no knowledge of how she ended up in Southworth.
Elizabeth Kelly married Unknown Haver and they raised one son, Roy Haver. Elizabeth died in Southworth on April 12, 1951.
It seems that even though both spellings of Kelly have been used, from William on back to Edward, Kelley was used most of the time in found records. From R. Edward Kelly forward to today, the spelling is Kelly. There is some story of a disagreement between father and son William and R. Edward….no record of that disagreement exists. I do know that R. Edward disliked the name Rushus very much and chose to go by the name of Edward R. Kelly. Maybe it was the name they disagreed about. Would that be enough to change the last name’s spelling over? We may never know.
Edward R. Kelly married Elva Leola Stose and had the following children: Mary Catherine (she chose Kathryn) Kelly, Richard Irvin Kelly, Dorothy Jane Kelly, William Benjamin Kelly. Note that all of these children seem to have been named for previous family members. Most of them after the Kelley ancestors, but some after the Stose/Coil ancestors. Mary Catherine after Mary Jane and Catherine Sheets Kelly; Dorothy Jane after Elva’s sister Dorothea Stose Burnett Steiger; William Benjamin after Edward’s father, Mary Jane’s son, and Mary Jane’s first husband. But who was Richard Irvin named after???? Could this be a clue as to who Edward Sr.’s father was? Does it make sense to name 3 out of 4 children after ancestors and the first born son not named after anyone? Or was Richard’s name part of the previously mentioned disagreement?
This is the current BRICK WALL in my Kelly lines. I would like to have information about Edward Sr's parents and siblings. I would like to have information about Edward and Elizabeth's other children and what happened to them. (See the Stauffer pages for Anna Kelley).