James T. Kelsey 1877 - 1930

KELSEY

Posted By: Connie Swearingen- Volunteer (email)
Date: 1/22/2016 at 00:50:48

Onawa Sentinel
9 January 1930

TRAGIC END COMES TO PROMINENT FARMER

James T. Kelsey, Stock buyer and Farmer, Take Own Life Hear McNeill Schoolhouse

The entire community was shocked last Saturday morning when it was announced that the lifeless body of James T. Kelsey, 52 year old, prominent farmer and stockman of Onawa, had been found north or the McNeill schoolhouse. The body was discover, when a passerby who stopped notified William Hatt. Mr. Hatt notified Mr. Kelsey's brother, Charles and Dr. Scheffler was summoned. The body was removed by N. C. Gray, funeral director, and on Saturday evening was taken to the farm home.

Funeral services were held from the home at 2 o'clock Monday afternoon. Surviving Mr. Kelsey are two brothers, Charles and Lawrence and one sister, Rose. Rev. Louis J. Savage preached the sermon. Mrs. William Rowles sang. Burial was made in the family lot in the Onawa cemetery.

Those few lines chronicle the sudden demise of a lifelong resident of Monona County who was perhaps one of the best stock buyers and one of the best farmers in the county. Jim Kelsey was born July 16, 1877, the son of John and Ellen Kelsey. He grew up in Franklin Township.

With his other brothers he shouldered the burden of the early pioneers and accomplished success. In the last 2 decades, Kelsey brothers purchased thousands and thousands of dollars worth of cattle from the farmers of the three counties: Woodbury, Monona and Harrison. Many a young farmer was help in to becoming a successful stockman by Jim Kelsey.

Ho often was sent to the yards to select stockers and feeders for farmers. Bankers who were making loans for cattle' purchasers often insisted that Jim Kelsey be sent to the yards to Select the cattle and perhaps it was on one of these occasions that the break came which caused the untimely end of Jim Kelsey. He had been sent to Sioux City last fall to purchase cattle for a customer for an Onawa Bank. Somehow he became separated from the custom, and a short time later when a sharper was about to dispose of some cattle to the man at a high price Jim Kelsey appeared and in his frank, honest, sincere manner, he shouted to this customer, that the cattle were top high and not to buy thorn. The sharper struck Jim on the point of the jaw and he fell to the cement driveway unconscious for several minutes. Since that time Jim Kelsey has never been the same fellow.

With a double responsibility of managing 600 acres of land alone and the care of several hundred head of stock, Jim Kelsey suffered a break down. At the time of his death he was in charge of the Harrison farm and the Colby farm near Blencoe. He had raised perhaps one of the best crops in 1929 that was ever raised on any farm in the Missouri bottom.

While his passing is untimely and tragic, we can record that Jim Kelsey was one of the squarest men, one of the best neighbors that ever lived. The family have the sympathy of thousands of people who knew and trusted Jim Kelsey and who had dealt with him in the past 25 years. The sympathy of these people go out to his brothers and sister in their sad hour.