Ahnentafel

26. Emma[5] Kelley (James, 49) (A27). Born, 3 Nov 1859, in West Florence, Preble Co., OH[28]. Died, 1 Nov 1947, in Richmond, Wayne Co., IN, bur. Earlham Cem[25]. Extra 4: 1860, in West Florence, Preble Co., OH. Census: 1870, in Jackson Twp., Preble Co., OH. Census: 1900, in Richmond, Wayne Co., IN, 1920. Census: 1880, in Jackson Twp., Preble Co., OH. Occupation: Homemaker.

Emma left a diary

Mystery photos that we think were hers, or her sister Elizabeth's

A letter: Addressed "Miss Minnie Windsor/ Richmond Ind/ Box 430" "West Florence Ohio/ Feb 28 1876 Dear Minnie I was going to commence to write another letter I wrote one last Saturday night but didn't finish it.

"Our school was out last Thursday noon we had a big dinner and had a splendid time. Josie treated us to six sticks of candy apiece. Ella Gard come down a went with us. We went through the fields and Etta fell from the top a fence and hurt her thumb. We went from the schoolhouse down to Eli Congers.

"Mr Arrasmith is going to teach our next school. I am going every day. Viola and I was all over the farm last Saturday.

"In the morning we went up to Shepherds and got some Horseradish got back home in dinner. We then eat our dinner and went up in the woods with Willie and Johnnie to tap some Sugar trees. Viola rode the horse home and Addie and I rode on the sled and it was so muddy we slatted (?) 2 or 3 times.

"I suppose you are making Sugar and mollas now.

"Friday night-I suppose you have heard that Nannie has been very sick and has had the spirits Hovering around her. I guess she is about well now or was the last I heard from her.

"We heard that Angie Carney Jessie Swishers daughter had moved down to the farm I don't know whether it is true or not Annie Brubaker and the schoolteacher were down and staid all night with us a few nights before school was out.

"I reckon Will Kelleys were over in your part of the neighborhood not long since. They came to our house on Monday evening and staid till the afternoon. Mart took them to Kell Gards Isa Swisher was over last Friday afternoon She got two Valentines they were real nice. One was the long tongued woman. They were from Richmond and She didn't know hardly what to say to them

"Have you ever got a letter from Dora Gray since they moved to Logansport. She promised to write but I haven't seen anything of the letter so far. Mart.

"I guess I had better quit writing as I am getting sleepy I will close by asking you to write soon and come over

from Emma Kelley"

A story by Hazel Reid Gennett: "When Emma was a curly headed young miss, she attended a little brick school-house about two miles north of West Florence. On sunny and warm days she and her brothers Ebeneezer, Martin, and Willie and Johnnie, an older sister Lorinda and little sister Addie, all walked the distance to school, but on rainy or stormy or snowy days, Grandfather piled them all with their books and lunches into the carriage and took them there, where out they jumped and ran into the school and hung up their coats on hooks in the entrance hall, unwound their scarves, pulled off their yarn mittens, hoods, and their galoshes, and hurried to the center of the room to stand by the big iron stove, in which a roaring fire was burning. Several other pupils were already crowded around the stove trying to get thawed out from their cold trip, for many had to walk a mile or more in the freezing cold.

"By the door of the school house stood a small table on which was a large tin pail filled with ice-cold water from the well, the tin cup hanging conveniently to the side to accommodate whomever wished to be frozen inside as well as out-side, and it made no difference whether he had a cold or not for germs were unknown in those days, although I can imagine on those cold days, the water bucket wasn't as popular as on the warm days of Autumn or Spring.

"The pedagogue or teacher in this school, was a strapping young man who lived about 18 miles away in the northern part of Preble County. He was practically self taught and when old enough, drove nine miles every day into Richmond to attend High School and then drove back home again at night. He excelled in mathematics and when he finished school was offered the position to teach the subject in High School, but unfortunately he had had no Latin and the laws at that time required a teacher in High School have some knowledge of that subject. So that is how he happened to teach the youngsters from West Florence and from what I gather he was very thorough in this undertaking.

"There came a time when this young teacher granted Emma special favors and taught her more than the regular eighth grade course and as a result, all her friends began to call her the teachers pet, which of course she frantically and emphatically denied, but, evenso, she might just as well have admitted the fact. She soon finished school and the teacher left those parts to teach in White Pressure School near his own home. As regular as Saturday came around, Emma would sit out on the front porch in the summertime in the summertime or by the window of the sitting room in the winter and nothing could coax her away, try as she might to assume an air of indifference, and, just as soon as the noise of a horse cantering across the bridge nearby came to her ears, away she would run with blushing cheeks and shining eyes to meet the rider on the horse who was none other than young Pettis the former pedagogue. He had been on the road for hours and as was customary in those days, he always staid over night and slept in the third floor with all those of Emma's brothers who were still single and living at home, leaving early Sunday morning for the long eighteen mile journey home. That was courting typical of the times, and yes, Emma and Pettis were my mother and father. They planned to marry quietly and move into their little furnished home, but grandfather slipped away one morning and invited all the neighbors for miles around to the wedding and then when he returned, told Grandmother what he had done. You can imagine the hurry and scurry and hustle and bustle that went on preparing for such a large number of guests, baking bread, pies, cakes, roasting hams and turkeys for all this happened in November, churning, cleaning, and sewing.

"Mother said that the long dining table was loaded down with food and that it was beautiful with flowers and with the new silver caster in the center, but father told me confidentially that mother was beautiful that night in her wedding dress of wine colored taffeta with plaited ruffles. I wish that I might have seen her."

Receipt: Richmond, Ind. 2/12 1886 Bought of L.M. Jones & Co. Dry Goods and Carpets Wescott Block, No. 721 Main Street. Terms Net.
Feby 11 4 skeins cpt Thread 20
" 1 spool cot 5
" 2 Pa Needles 10
" 12 Curtains 80 9 60
12 38 1/3 yds Ong cpt [?]75 28 75
" 37 " Lining 5 1 85 " 1 pr Lace Curtains 5 00
" 2 Cherry [?] Poles 70
" 2 setts drap Hooks 20
" 4 skeins cpt Thread 5 20 46
" 2 chains 25 50
" 2 Hooks 20 0
47 65

My father said that this Tiffany punchbowl was given to Emma and Pettis by Dan Reid "The Tinplate King" for their anniversary. "R" is engraved on the bottom inside.