Patrick D. Kelly,
Black Hawk County Pioneer, 1836-1926.
Patrick Kelly was baptized at Allihies parish, west County Cork, Ireland on 6
November, 1836. His father, Daniel Kelly, died when Patrick, youngest of
seven or eight children, was very young. His elder brothers, Timothy and
John D. Kelly, migrated to America in the 1840s and settled in Wisconsin to
begin lead mining at New Diggings, Lafayette county. Patrick, his mother,
Catharine Fleming, and his sister Julia came to America when he was about 10
years of age. His other two sisters, Mary Harrington (who married in
Ireland) and Margaret also came to Wisconsin. He received no further
education, but instead began working at a young age. When he and his
mother and sister Julia lived for a short while in Philadelphia, while waiting
for housing to be prepared for them in Wisconsin, Patrick received his board in
return for turning a crank to provide water from a well. Later, as a very
young man, he performed farm labor while living in Lafayette county, Wisconsin.
He also traveled to Houghton, Michigan, where his sister Julia Kelly Dunn was
living, and worked on farms and perhaps also in copper mining. By 1868 he
had saved $300, and traveled by train and on foot with Michael Lynch, son-in-law
of Patrick's sister, Mary Kelly Harrington, to Black Hawk county. There on
July 23 they each purchased adjoining 80 acre plots for $500, land which had
never been farmed.
Patrick now ventured west, to near Pioche, Nevada, and engaged in silver mining
for the next three years, presumably to obtain money for animals and supplies
with which to begin farming. He was joined there for some time by his
nephew, Patrick Harrington. After his return to Wisconsin Patrick Kelly
married his sweetheart, Catharine Barry. Catharine was born near London to
Irish parents, James Barry and Catharine Condon, sometime around March of 1851.
On 1 October of 1871, Patrick Kelly and Catharine Barry were married at St.
Augustine church in New Diggings, Wisconsin. Sometime that same winter
Patrick's mother died. The church where Patrick was married, which yet
stands in 2006, was designed and built under supervision of Father Samuel
Mazzuchelli, an Italian missionary priest who tended spiritual needs of
immigrants in the upper Midwest. Patrick's sister, Margaret Kelly, had
been married by Father Mazzuchelli, probably in that same church, to Dennis
Haggerty in 1854. In March, 1872, Patrick and his nephew Michael Lynch
returned to Black Hawk county with a team of horses, wagon and plow. They
began farming and starting preparing to build houses for their families,
meanwhile staying in the barn of a neighbor, Jim Conroy. When, during the
first year they lost a horse, their friend Mr. Conroy stood by them and signed a
note so that they could purchase a replacement.
Fourteen children were born to Patrick and Catharine Kelly at their farm in
Lincoln township, Black Hawk county. The twelve who survived to adulthood
were Mary, Timothy F. (husband of Bride Stefflre), Thomas P., John (Jack,
husband of Nora Duffy), James Edward (husband of Corinne Mae Decelles), Daniel
Matthew (husband of Lillian Wade and Helen Meagher), Catherine (wife of Dr.
Martin J. Hagan), Helena A. (Nell, wife of William J. Cavanaugh), William F.,
Raymond Walter (husband of Mabel Kathryn McKenna), Leo (husband of Mary P.
Greaney), and Clement Joseph (Clem, also known as "Punch," husband of Azlene
Dwyer and Elizabeth Bernadine "Brownie" Haley Johnson) Kelly. Most of the
sons farmed at one time or another in Iowa, South Dakota or Montana, and at
least three children spent some time working as school teachers. James and
Dan graduated University of Iowa college of law in 1906 and 1905, respectively,
and their pictures now hang in a corridor of the law school at Iowa City.
The two brothers practiced law together in Montana, where Daniel eventually
became Attorney General of Montana and later legal counsel for Anaconda Copper.
Patrick expanded his farm with additional acreages (80 acres adjoining in 1880,
80 more from the estate of Thomas Cahill in 1891, and 120 more in 1912 purchased
for one of their sons to farm). He and Catharine retired from farming in
the 1880s and moved to a new house on their own land. In 1915 they moved
to 516 Vermont street in Waterloo. Their oldest daughter, Mary Kelly, who
had taught school in Montana for twenty years, returned to Iowa to care for them
about 1922. Patrick Kelly died on 26 February, 1926. In 1930 the
home on Vermont street was sold, and Mary Kelly kept a smaller place on 5th
street for her mother, herself and at times her brother Thomas. Catharine Barry
Kelly died there 14 March, 1931.
Patrick D. Kelly and his family came from Ireland with little education and
almost no resources, other than their faith, courage, and willingness to work as
hard as necessary to find opportunity and create better lives for themselves and
for their children. Despite obstacles and by any measure they most surely
succeeded, and among their hundreds of known descendants are doctors, lawyers,
clergy and people of many other occupations. All of them can look with
pride and gratitude upon the life and accomplishments of this man.