John F. Kelly Papers
Scope and Contents
The John F. Kelly Collection (1866-2007; one box) contains the original diary of John Felix Kelly, an early Walker County settler. His personal diary includes perspectives on events, weather, east Texas terrain, and people. The diary includes songs, scientific problems, surveying procedures, and medical treatments. The John F. Kelly Collection also contains photographs, correspondence, and additional documents that relate to John F. Kelly and his family.
Dates
- Creation: 1866 - 2007
Conditions Governing Use
The materials represented in this finding aid have been made available for research, teaching and private use. For these purposes, you may reproduce (print, make photocopies, or download) these items without prior permission on the condition that you provide proper attribution of the source in all copies.
Please contact the Newton Gresham Library's Special Collections and University Archives department to request permissions to reproduce materials for any other purpose, or to obtain information regarding the copyright status of a particular digital image, text, audio or video recording.
Biographical / Historical
John Felix Kelly, born August 31, 1845 in Ireland, immigrated to America in 1865, at 19 years old due to the Irish potato famine. Kelly made his way to Texas in 1867, where he settled for a time in Galveston, then 'Cincinnati' (now 'Old Concinnati') in Walker County. He married Mary Catherine Smith in 1892 and had four children.
He then moved his wife and children to Barado, Texas where he opened a sawmill. Kelly rose to prominency in Walker County sawmilling during the 1880s. He owned 2 sawmills and partnered 7 others in the County. In 1888, John Kelly was fataly injured in a boiler explosion at his Barado mill and died several days later on November 5th. The mill closed and the small town of Barado disappeared by the 1930s.
Extent
1 boxes
Language of Materials
English
Arrangement
The collection consists of a handwritten diary, correspondence, newspaper articles, documents, and photographs concerning John F. Kelly and the Kelly family of Walker County, Texas. The diary is arranged in the order previously assigned. All other materials are arranged by item type. This collection is located in the Thomason Room Single Item Collections Archival Box.
- Title
- John F. Kelly Papers
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Trent Shotwell
- Date
- 2014
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Thomason Special Collections & SHSU University Archives Repository