One of the nourishing villages of Saline county, Illinois, located on
the Big Four Railroad, just fourteen miles southwest from Harrisburg, is
that bearing the name of Stonefort, which name was given it from the
remains of an old stone fort, erected some time during pioneer days,
probably by the settlers or military to guard against the Indians. This
village, which has advanced wonderfully during the past several years,
is now the home of some of Saline county’s most progressive business
men, and a leader among them may be found in George H. Kelly, proprietor
of Stonefort’s largest business establishment. Mr. Kelly was born in
Perry county, Illinois, August 23, 1865, and is a son of George W. and
Mary A. (Harreld) Kelly.
George W. Kelly was born in Portsmouth,
Ohio, and was married in Jackson county to Mary A. Harreld, a daughter
of the Hon. James Harreld, an early dealer in general merchandise and
lumber, who served as a member of the State Legislature during eight
sessions when the State House was at Vandalia. His grandson still owns a
land patent of 1839 for land in Union county, where his death occurred
when he was well advanced in years. His wife, who bore the maiden name
of Lydia Swartz, died August 11, 1880, at the age of seventy-three
years. Mr. Kelly, after marriage, enlisted in the Eighteenth Volunteer
Infantry, for service in the Civil war, and after his first term of
service was completed returned home, but eventually re-enlisted in the
Eighty-first Infantry, Illinois Volunteers, becoming second lieutenant
of his company. In the fall of 1863 he resigned his commission and
became a government sutler at Vicksburg, but in the next year returned
to his home and settled on a Perry county farm. In 1867 Mr. Kelly opened
a general store at DuQuoin, Illinois, but in 1876 sold out and came to
Stonefort, where in 1880 he established the business of which his son is
now the owner. He died November 26, 1885, when still engaged in active
work, and his widow still survives him, and is the owner of over eight
hundred acres of land, which she looks after herself. Mr. Kelly was a
popular member of the G. A. R., was an active Republican in politics,
and a consistent member of the Baptist church, in which he was serving
as a deacon at the time of his death. He and Mrs. Kelly had a family of
four children: A. I., who is proprietor of a store in Chicago; Mary L.,
who conducts the Stonefort millinery store; Edith, a teacher of music at
Portland, Oregon; and George H.
George H. Kelly received his
education in the public schools of Stonefort, and was reared to the
mercantile business, being ready to take up the work where his father
left off at the time of his death. For three years following Mr. Kelly
conducted the business for his mother, but in 1888 purchased the place,
which at that time carried a stock worth three thousand dollars and did
a yearly business of twelve thousand dollars. So rapidly has Stonefort
grown since that time, due to the earnest, persevering work of such men
as Mr. Kelly, that he now commands a yearly business of forty thousand
dollars, and has a stock that could not be duplicated under twenty
thousand dollars. An excellent farm of four hundred and sixty acres also
belongs to Mr. Kelly, which he is devoting to general farming and stock
raising, hired help being employed to look after this place and two cars
of cattle being shipped to the big city markets each year. The large
business done by the store necessitates the use of a double store
building, where Mr. and Mrs. Kelly and three clerks are constantly kept
busy waiting on a patronage that has grown swiftly and steadily as it
recognized and appreciated the advantages of giving its trade to a store
the principles of which have always been along the lines of honest
dealing and fair values.
In 1890 Mr. Kelly was married to Miss
Maria Joyner, of Stonefort, daughter of George W. Joyner, who carries on
agricultural operations near the village. Mr. and Mrs. Kelly have had no
children. He is a member of Oriental Consistory, Chicago, where he is
also connected with the Medinah Temple of the Mystic Shrine, and also
holds membership in Stonefort Blue Lodge, where he is past master and
during 1887 and 1888 represented his local in the Grand Lodge of the
state. Mr. Kelly owns a comfortable home in Stonefort, and he and his
wife are prominent in social circles and have numerous warm friends.
Extracted from 1912 A History of Southern Illinois, by George W. Smith, volume 2, page 1057.