The Irish standard., 1903-06-06
Honesty, Sobriety, Intense Application and
Dogged Tenacity Of Purpose are
Elements of Success.
On New Years, 1904, He will Retire at the
Age of Sixty-Five Years, Worth
Four Million Dollars.

1t was known that there was coal
underlying much of the surface Of
the county near Danville. Along the
banks of Grape creek it cropped out
bare to the eye in thick strata. Mich
ael Kelly, working as a laborer in the
brickyard. discovered Il bit of land to
the northwest of the town upon which
the soil lay thin and light, and hts
first investment was in ten acres Of
this land which he could not nearly
pay for even at the low prices then
asked.
But he bought it, and when the
days work was done in the brickyard
he ate his supper and by the light Of
the moon stripped" coal, sometimes
till 2 or o'clock in the morning. All
through one summer he stripped the
dirt from this coal deposit, and when
the winter closed down the work in
the brickyard Mike Kelly had coal
to sell to the farmers and to the
townspeople in Danville.
Soon he had q team and wagon Of
his own and made deliveries on orders.
One team became two. and the two
became half dozen. and Mike Kelly
quit making bricks for other men and
went into the coal business, quitting
one acre of it's coal and buying more
acres in the proportion of ten to one.
1t was not long until Danville, from
it's position as Il stopping place on the
old state road between Vincennes and
Chicago, discovered a method in the
operations Of the awkward young
Irishman. But he could buy land
even more, for by this time Mike
Kelly had credit established. And
Mike bought and bought.
One day it was discovered that the
"Grape creek vein" had something
more than counterpart at a depth of
sixty to seventy feet, and when Mike
Kelley's shaft No. tuocled the "Dan-
vile deposit the discovery was made
that Mike owned hundreds Of acres
of this coal land, averaging eleven
feet in thickness.
Shaft No. was and is about six
miles south of Danville. Only coun-
try road led to it in the early history
of the shaft, and it was necessary that
the miners make their homes nearby.
Kelly built the first houses for the
first of the miners. He built more of
them as his trade in coal grew and
widened.
"Kelly's Patch" somebody called it,
and still it grew until Kellyville took
shape and name, and shaft No. was
added to in shafts 2. 3. and 4, and the
village of Westville, a half mile south
of the original 'patch." touched lines
with Kellyville, until to-day the two
are identical on the map, with the
postoffice at Westville serving the two
places under the one name.
There are scores of men in Danvillc
to-day who recall the figure of Mike
Kelly in his buggy trotting out the
winding road that led toward the
| slla fits Seven o'clock in the morn
| ing was late for him to turn the
corner at the plaza. Ordinarily he
came jogging back again about 2
O'Clock in the afternoon. When the
| interurban line ran out to Westville
the old horse and buggy We're given
| up. and Kelly took to the bucking
romping cars. that pitch and toss over
an uncertain rOadbed as far south as
Georgetown.
With Kellyville and the interurban
line came the Kcllyville Coal com
pany. in all the dignity of a corpora,
ton. composed largely of Mike Kelly
and his son. NJ w. Kelly. Then, the
other day. when capitalists from
Chicago decided that the property of
the Kellyville Coal company would be
a profitable investment, Mike Kelly
proceeded to take an inventory. Not
| that he needed it for himself. He
knew every pine board. garden patch,
engine. chimney. and tenant on the