Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1880-12-16

w. P. MCKELvEY, ESQ, whose sick
sickness we have heretofore noted, died
at his residence, southeast of this place,
on Friday afternoon, after several weeks
of intense suffering. MIR. McKelvey who
was an ardent member of the Order of
Odd Fellows, and an officer of the Grand
Lodge of West Va, went in August or
September to attend a meeting of that
body at ParkerSburg. On his return he
got off the midnight train al Quincy, land
undertook to walk home, distance of
81 miles, by way of the Narrow Gauge
Railroad The night was dark, and be-
fore he had proceeded fan, he fell through
a bridge, but after recovering somewhat
from the fall, he proceeded on his way,
falling through several cattle guards
and bridges, and injuring himself quite
seriously before he reached home, about
daylight. From these injuries he never
recovered. Deceased removed from
Wheeling to this place about four years
ago. and was deemed one of our most
worthy and. intelligent citizens, enjoying
the confidence of the community.
w. p. McKelvey was born in the coun-
ty Antrim, Ireland, April 20. 1916, and
was educated in the city of Belfast. AL
though he early in life entered the mer
camille profession, the bent of his mind
leaned strongly towards literary ca
reer. He was close student, and burn
ed the midnight oil in the pursuit of his
favorite studies. He became a contrib
utor while yet a young man to the pages
of the Irish periodicals and newspapers
of the day-a pleasant pastime that he
engaged in throughout his life in the
country of his adoption. Gifted with
retentive memory, his mind was richly
stored with the choicest cullingS from
the field of English literature, and often
disputed quotations or questions of au
thorship were submitted to him for de-
cision. Mild in manner, modest and re-
firing, sometimes to painful degree, he
was yet fearless and brave in expressing
his convictions. Emigrating to Ameri-
ca in 1850, deeply imbued with the prin-
ciples and sentiments of Lord Brougham
upon the question of slavery, he heSi
tated not, even upon the sacred soil of
old Virginia, to express his detestation
of that great curse. His place of buSi
ness in those days was the recognized
rendezvous of all the old-time Abolition
lists of Wheeling. There, during the po-
litical campaign of 1856 would assemble
the HornbrOoks (Thomas and jacob
Isaiah Cooper, DR.. Thoburn, James Will
son, Isaac Chesley, and others of like po-
litical views, for consultation and en-
couragement, and this little coterie was
the nucleus around which the Republi-
can party of Virginia formed which
saved West Virginia to the Union in
the struggle for national existence. Mr..
McKelvey was one of perhaps twelve
citizens, who under the old UiUd UOce
system voted in Wheeling in that CAM
paign for John G. Fremont. He grew
up in the Methodist Church, and very
early in life became an active and con-
sistent member of the same. In his bu-
siness relations he was esteemed by ev-
cry one as an honest man.
Funeral services were held at his late
residence on Saturday, and the remains
were removed to the residence of his
daughter, on Wheeling Island. Inter
ment on Monday at Mt. Wood Cemetery,