Person:George Kelley (4)

Notes for George Walker Kelley: George spelley his name "Kelley"--later family deleted the "e" to Kelly. George's date of birth questioned; born 1861-62 from 1884 Michell County Marriage Records he said he was 22 years old. We know nothing of his parents. Ancestry.com has his place of birth as CANADA?? Family stories tell of him immigrating from Ireland--or that his parents were from Ireland, possibly the Isle of Man or Northern Ireland. We have an old photo of a man named "W.B. Kelley--brother of George". Nothing else is known of siblings. George was a rail road worker, who can to the Kansas area to work on the railroad which was heading west. That is where he met and married Sarah Helen Bridges--at a dance. Sarah's father, Orin, did not like George, but knew he couldn't stop the marriage. George was rather "shiftless" and didn't do well with responsibility of wife and children. He beat Sarah badly, so badly that her father, Orin, swore out a warrant for his arrest, but he had disappeared. He left Sarah Helen in Kansas with two small boys in 1888. One story tells of him heading "west" and never seen again. Another report has him dying in Kansas. Either way, he was not much of a husband or father. Marriage Notes for Sarah Bridges and George Kelley: They were married at the home of Sarah's father, Orin O. Bridges.