Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1913-05-16
MRS. MARY ]. KELLY
CLAIMED BY DEATH
Burke's Garden Lady, Mother of
Well Known Family, Dies at Age
of S4---Bom in New Jersey.

Mrs. Mary j. Kelly, one of
our Oldest inhabitants, ended a
long life on Monday afternoon,
at her home in Bmke's Garden,
surrounded by a number of her
children, and neighbors. She
was 81 years old, and life long
member of the Catholic church.
Father Oliver, of Bluefeld, her
pastor, conducted funeral SER
vices at the home on Tuesday
afternoon.
Mrs. Kelly was the mother of
nine children, all of whom sur
vive but one, viz: George,
Simon, Francis, Henry and
John; daughters, Agnes, Annie
and Mary. One daughter,
Catharine, died some twenty
five years ago. The father.
George Kelly, died some years
ago, a highly respected and sue
cessful citizen OF the county.
Francis Kelly is the proprietor
of the Jelfersonville Hotel in
this town, and George, the
oldest member of the family, is
manager for JOS. S. Gillespie.
The other members of the family
are all living in Burke's Garden,
and successful farmers.
Mrs. Kelly was Il Miss Bowen,
originally from New Jersey.
Little is known of her family
history. She was not related to
the Bowens of this county. She
came to Tazewell about the year
1850, from convent in Rich
mond, where she had been at
school for several years, to
accept Il position as governess in
the family of John w. johnson,
the well-known lawyer, father
of the distinguished physician
and surgeon OF Richmond, DR..
Geo. Ben. Johnson. This
bright, young girl of about 20
years OF age, taught in the
family about two years. The
late Mrs. Margaret Harrison
and Mrs. Barbara Gillepsie, also
deceased, were pupils in this
private home school, with the
older children of Mr.. Johnson.
The probability is that DR.. Geo.
Ben. Johnson had not yet been
born.
About this time a young man
named George Kelly, drifted
into Tazewell, Il strong robust
young lrishman. He was one of
a very large family OF children
which broke up and scattered
when the mother died at their
home on the Emerald Isle, and
receiving his share of the goods
falling to him, (about $1300.0O),
drifted across to the New World,
went to Texas, didn't like it,
came to Huntington, w. Va.
There a good fairy directed his
footsteps to Tazewell and to
Burke's Garden, where he pur-
chased land at once, and where
he spent a long, quiet life.
Just how and where he met
the bright young governess no
one living knows, perhaps, but
they met, and in the year 1852
in the month Of August, they
were married at the home of
Mr.. Johnson, and the young
people took up their life's work
in their humble home in Burke's
Garden. She was, as was also
her husband, a great "home
body, and with the exception
OF an occasional visit to town to
stores and church, never per-
haps was outside Burke's Gar
den. Her life was given to her
children and right nobly was
her work done.
From the young girl, fresh
from the school in Richmond at
the age of twenty years, to the
quiet cemetery in Burke's Gar
den, at the age of S4, seems a
long way, and it is, looking
ahead, but it isn't long looking
backward along the path. The
aged and weary mother wrought
ceaselessly and successfully and
sleeps well! M
So shalt thou come to thy
grave at a full age, like a shock
of corn cometh in inits season. J"