John Kelly, Jr.
Monroe Township, Logan County, Ohio

"JOHN KELLY [JR.] FARMER and stock-raiser; P.O. West Liberty is among the stanch farmers of Monroe Township, and was born Oct. 8, 1807, in Greenbrier County, Virginia He was the eldest of a family of twelve children born to John and Susan (Osborne) Kelly. She was a near descendent of Josiah Osborne, a noted Baptist minister. Peter Kelly was the grandsire of John, and was born in the Old Dominion. John, the father of our subject, was born July 16, 1781, and immigrated to this State in 1820, locating on the land now in possession of his representative, which had been purchased in 1819. previous to his coming.

Only twenty-five acres were cleared on the tract at that time. The Red Men's fires still burned in Mad River Valley, they making frequent passages through the valley on their road to Upper Sandusky. Bellefontaine had just recently been laid out. After the family located here, it became their permanent settlement.

He died in December, 1859; his wife in 1844. The recollection of those living, as that of a just and honorable man. He was for many years a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and a member of the Masonic Order. The subject of these lines lived a bachelor until 35 years of age, and, perhaps, "might have been" to this day, had he not met Parmelia Downing, who led him captive to the hymeneal altar. She was born April 10, 1818, in Augusta County, Virginia and immigrated to this state in 1835, iocating on the Aspinwall farm. Since their marriage they have been constant residents of the farm they now own, consisting of 310 acres, situated in the Mad River Valley, two miles north of West Liberty.

Farming and stock raising have the business of his life, sheep husbandry having been his choice, at which he has been measurably successful. Of a family of ten children born, eight survive -- Josiah, Addison, Darby, John, William Robert, Nathaniel, Susan and Anna.

For nearly forty years he has been connected with the Methodist Church, and has served his township in an official way as Clerk, Justice of the Peace, and has always been recognized as one of its esteemed solid Republicans."

Source: History of Logan County and Ohio, Compiled by William Henry Perrin, and J. L. Battle, Published by O.L. Baskin and Co., Historical Publishers, Chicago, Illinois, 1880, Biographical Sketches, pp. 671-672