Carroll County IAGenWeb

HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY IOWA

A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement

VOLUME II ILLUSTRATED

CHICAGO THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY 1912

Transcribed by Sharon Elijah October 5, 2020

The medical profession finds a worthy representative in Dr. Bernard Charles Kelly, who for over eighteen years has engaged in practice at Carroll. He is a native of Lee county, Iowa, born November 19, 1860, and a son of Peter and Margaret (DeVine) Kelly. The parents were both natives of Ireland, the father having been born in County Louthe and the mother in the town of Dingle County Kerry. The father engaged in the British merchant marine and in 1849 came to America, landing at New Orleans. He went to Cincinnati, Ohio, and in 1852 took up his residence on a farm in Lee county, Iowa, where he continued until his death which occurred in 1894, he being then seventy-one years old. The mother died in 1897 at the age of sixty-eight. They were both devout members of the Catholic church. There were seven children in their family, namely: Bernard Charles, of this review; Mary, who married Bernard Dennings and is now deceased; John, who lives in Nebraska; Maggie, wife of H. J. Meier-Otto of Clinton, Missouri; James S., of Fairfield, Iowa; Sarah, wife of Theodore Denning of Mount Hamill, Iowa; and William, of Munster, Texas. The paternal grandfather of our subject, John Kelly, was a captain in the English army. He married Mary Nolan, daughter of an Irish lord, and she inherited a large estate. They were the parents of three sons and one daughter—Peter, John, Bernard and Ann. The maternal grandfather was Timothy DeVine, a laborer, and his wife was Mary McDonald. They had six children who lived to maturity, namely: Kate, Margaret, Bridget, Ellen, Honore and Johanna.

Bernard Charles Kelly was raised on his father’s farm in Lee county and gained his early education in the district schools. Later he attended the high school at Novelty, Missouri, and Howe’s Academy at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, graduating from the latter in 1883. He then worked several months in the Mount Pleasant Insane Asylum, and having decided to follow a professional career, matriculated in the Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago, from which he was graduated in 1887 with the degree of M.D. He began practice at Seneca, Kansas, but being desirous of a wider field came to Carroll in December, 1892, and has engaged continuously in practice in this city since that time. He is recognized as one of the prominent members of the profession in Carroll county. Being a man of wide reading and clear judgment, his opinions command respect and he ranks high in the estimation of his brother practitioners as well as in that of the public. Professionally, he is a member of the County and State Medical Societies and the American Medical Association.

On the 1st day of May, 1888, Dr. Kelly was united in marriage to Miss Anna M. Meier-Otto, who was born at St. Paul, Lee county, Iowa. Her parents were natives of Cologne, Germany, and came to Iowa in 1846, settling in Lee county. The father died at Muenster, Texas, in 1895, having reached the advanced age of seventy-eight years. The mother was called away at the age of sixty-eight. They had six children—Elizabeth, who died in infancy; John; Mary; Henry; Margaret; and Anna, now Mrs. Bernard Charles Kelly. The paternal grandfather of Mrs. Kelly was Christ Meier-Otto, and his wife was Elizabeth Meier-Otto. Of their children may be named Henry, Christ, Elizabeth, Margaret and Casper. The maternal grandfather was a merchant in Germany and lived to be over a hundred years old. His wife before her marriage was a Miss Schoring, and they had two daughters, one of whom, Marguerite, grew to maturity. Eight children came to bless the union of Dr. and Mrs. Kelly, namely: Bernard S., Margaret Anna, Mary C. E., Casper Peter, Paulina Nellie, Paul Joseph, Frances Margaret and John Thomas. Margaret Anna died at the age of six years and ten months.

Fraternally, Dr. Kelly is identified with the Knights of Columbus and the Modern Woodmen of America and he has many friends in those orders. Politically, he is not allied with any party organization, preferring to remain independent and to vote for the individual. He and his estimable wife are life long members of the Catholic church. His energies are devoted conscientiously to his profession and the high reputation he bears in Carroll and adjoining counties in convincing evidence of his skill.

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