Nancy (Kelly) Merrill (1807 - 1878)

Born 8 Mar 1807 in Wilkesbarre, Luzerne, Pennsylvania, United States [uncertain]

Wife of Adrian H. Merrill — married 1823 in near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania?

Descendants

Died 28 Oct 1878 at age 71 in Bear Grove Township, Guthrie, Iowa, United States [uncertain]

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Jim Sparling [send private message]

NANCY KELLY: a memoir by A.M. Merrill (slightly edited)

Nancy Kelly was born, March 8, 1807, and probably near Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania. Her mother was Katherine Travers, of Hollandish parentage. Of Katherine Travers, Nancy’s descendants know not a word further. Nancy’s father was Arthur Kelly, a native of Ireland. The family tradition says that he was a rebel against English authority, and that the officer with a warrant, found Arthur and brother in bed. By playing an Irish trick, the officer purposely took the wrong brother and Arthur fled to a seaport and shipped to America and never returned to Ireland. Said tradition saith (and doubtless truly) that a small bag of gold from Arthur’s mother’s hand persuaded the officer of the righteousness and general desirableness of the trick. Furthermore be it said that had not said officer acted so modernly, it may be gravely doubted whether said Arthur would have had a great-grandson named Arthur to print this record or a great-great-great- grandson by the same name to read it. Let us shun such fearful questions! Tradition further saith that Arthur`s brother followed him to America [relief] and [as often] that they were of the aristocracy and that [as more often] an estate awaits the claim of their descendants. Be all this as it may, Arthur Kelly settled in Pennsylvania and reared a family.

To the Kellys were born at least six children - Arthur, William, Mary, Nancy, Julia and the youngest, whose name has been forgotten, but who is said to have had "beautiful red hair" - a peculiarity which did not appear in any of Nancy’s descendants until in one case in the third generation. Where they lived is unknown, but it is remembered that it was not more than twenty miles from Tunkhannock.

Arthur and William were deaf mutes, but expert gamblers. I believe both died childless.

Mary married a blacksmith named Brady. They lived many years in Pottsville, Penn. After Mr. Brady’s death she came to Iowa and generally made her home with Nancy, but as she would eat no man’s bread without paying for it, she often kept house for months at a time for her Irish friends. She was a devout Roman Catholic. Her word was as good as a bond and she was faithful in all things. I knew her well and loved her much. She lived to an old age, and was buried in the Catholic Cemetery near Guthrie Center, Iowa.

Julia married William Shultz. They came to Iowa a short time before Adrian Merrill came. They settled some twenty-five miles south-west of Bear Grove. Julia was congenitally partly deaf and for that fact always mispronounced many words. She, like her sister Mary, was childless. I was at her home twice and saw her when she made visits to Nancy. She was industrious, shrewd, thrifty, capable, yet kind. They adopted an infant who grew up to be an honorable man and took the name William Schultz and inherited the property. Julia’s husband was a kind man and in spite of suffering some forty years with old-fashioned tuberculosis, lived to an old age. Of Nancy’s youngest sister. I can learn nothing except that she had beautiful red hair, had a very fine and large house and remained in the east.

Nancy was a very capable woman - strong, diligent and thrifty. She had a big stock of that hard common sense that was so much needed by pioneers. I knew her from my infancy until her death, October 28, 1878, when I was twelve years old. During her long life, duty but not pleasure, had been her interest. She reared a family of eight to maturity and clothed them from her own loom. Well do I remember the shawls and blankets of great plaids and the counterpanes that were real works of art. Her cooking made her famous among the pioneers and I can taste the cookies, dough-nuts and pumpkin pies yet. She was the small boy’s friend and fed him to almost the danger point. She was a hater of shams and slothfulness. She was a great talker and appeared to be the spokesman of the household, as Grandfather was more pleased to listen than to be heard. In religious opinion she was a Methodist. She never had an opportunity to know or acquire the refinements of life for hers was a life of toil to wring from the soil a plenty for her family. The one word which above all describes her is FAITHFUL. She was one who helped to make her age, and her descendants are above the average in intelligence and diligence. Strange it is that but few of her descendants resemble her, yet I can see her shadow when several of them pass by.

In her day, early marriage for girls was the custom. If a girl was not married by eighteen, her friends feared that she might never be chosen. The date of grandmother’s wedding has been forgotten, but it seems she was married at sixteen and was the mother of her son Isaac at seventeen. It is probable that the marriage of Adrian Merrill and Nancy Kelley occurred in 1823. We should all be greatly pleased if we could print a picture of Nancy as she appeared as a bride more than 100 years ago. However, Daguerre did not announce his daguerreotypes until 1839 when Nancy had six children. After that the tin-type was soon perfected and within the financial reach of all. Before 1839, the rich employed the portrait painter, but the innumerable daughters of the middle class and of the poor passed on without leaving us any pictures of their comeliness. I believe the bride, Nancy, would not be called a beauty if we had a likeness of her 16-year-old features. As I remember, her appearance was too strong - too masculine.

At her Iowa home she had hundreds of chickens and eggs by the pailful. She was a great gardener and loved flowers very much. I remember her beds of old-fashioned flowers - zinnias, marigolds, larkspurs, balsams, petunias and phlox. At that time the florist had not created the beautiful forms of to-day. In moving to Iowa she knew she was going to wilderness and she took with her many kinds of seeds. Soon she had an orchard and the small fruits. She persisted in calling her currants “them kerns". Strawberries were plentiful on the prairies and raspberries, gooseberries, plums and crabapples grew in the woods. Grandmother was skilled in making "jams, jells and butters" of all of them. Much sorghum was used and the lowly pumpkin was a staple.

The school of Herbert Spencer teaches that a perfect program of living for any form of life is a complete adaptation to its environment. In general this is the truth but the human spirit insists on changing its environment to meet human fancy and needs. Nancy Kelly would have been one of the last to submit to the limiting bars of environment. If she grew wider, she made a wider place for herself - she would not be squeezed. For nearly three-fourths of the 19th century she made a successful struggle with pioneer surroundings and won. When she left Ohio, she did not bring her spinning-wheel and loom. The factory had come. The exposed life of the frontier woman made the filmy garb of present-day poodle-dog society an impossibility. Heavy and durable fabrics were used and other needs were met with calico and gingham and an occasional black alpaca. One silk dress in a life-time I made its owner happy and distinguished. Nancy’s iron constitution made her able to do as much hard work as a load of the painted "flappers" of 1925.

Nancy (Kelly) Merrill died October 28, 1878, in her 72nd year and was buried by the side of her husband in Bear Grove Cemetery. There also are buried her sons, Virgil, James and George and several of her grand-children. That cemetery is well kept and occupies a beautiful site on a high hill and commands a wide view.

The Merrill lots were along the fence on the north side of the original cemetery and when the north addition was made, the family bought a large block adjoining the first lots. In distant coming years, this resting place will probably be visited by strangers from many lands - strangers who will come to view the graves of their ancestors, Adrian and Nancy Merrill.

When the Merrill family moved from Wyoming County to Ohio, Adrian drove an emigrant wagon to Pittsburg where he loaded team, wagon and family on to a river steamboat for Portsmouth, Ohio. The next morning after he had disembarked at Portsmouth, the boiler blew up and killed one man. The remainder of the trip to Delaware county was made by wagon.

As I have already said, Nancy Kelley Merrill was a strong tower. She was religious. As I remember from her conversation, she was mostly interested in the joys and sorrows of her family and neighbors and the disputes of the modernists and the fundamentalists did not worry her. Her God was a terror but He was the popular one of those days. Religious services then were limited almost to class meetings and to the furious annual revival meetings. Her generation seemed to bend to these methods but the next was rebellious and the ranter lost most of his control.

This person was created through the import of Wilson.ged on 14 September 2010. The following data was included in the gedcom. You may wish to edit it for readability.

User ID

User ID: 7B55EB95A29943D6A6BA59B053AB84BC4B42

While processing relationships in the gedcom some additional information was found which may be relevant.

@F1494@ FAM

Husband: @I2628@

Wife: @I3548@

Marriage:

Source: #S244

Page: p. 60

Quality or Certainty of Data: 2

Data Changed:

Date: 18 Sep 2004

Time: 17:47

Sources

Source S244

Media: Book

Abbreviation: Hoyt Family

Title: A genealogical history of John Hoyt of Salibury and David Hoyt of Deerfield (Massachusetts) and their descendants.

Author: David Webster Hoyt, 1833-1921

Publication: Boston, Massachusetts: C.B. Richardson, 1857. Downloaded from Heritage Quest (Ann Arbor, Michigan: Proquest Information and Learning Company)