Anthony Kelly

Bio- "Anthony Kelly was born at Swinford, County Mayo, Ireland, Aug. 25, 1832. When fifteen years of age he came, with his parents, to America and settled near Montreal, Canada. After acquiring a good common school education and the rudiments of a business training he located at Macon, Georgia, where he conducted a retail grocery store for several years.

In the spring of 1858, having sold out his business at Macon, he came to Minneapolis on a visit to his brother, P. H. Kelly, who came to Minnesota the year previous. He was so well pleased with the opportunities for business that he decided to remain, and soon after associated himself with his brother, opening a retail grocery store on Washington avenue near Helen street, now Second avenue south.

The Kelly brothers were popular and successful from the first. In a few months their business had increased so that they needed more room, and they moved into the Woodman building, on the comer of Helen. Later the Kelly brothers found that the central point for business was working towards Bridge square, and quickly deciding to be at the front, moved again. In 1863 P. H. Kelly withdrew from the firm and went to St Paul, and Anthony conducted the business alone for three years, when Hiram W. Wagner joined him as a partner under the firm name of Anthony Kelly & Co.

They then began to fill wholesale orders for goods in their line, and by gradual degrees this department became more important than the retail business, which was discontinued. Soon after the business increased to such an extent that more room needed, and Mr. Kelly built the stone building on the corner of Washington avenue north and Second avenue. Mr. Wagner died in 1895, after which time Mr. Kelly conducted the business alone. During all of the years Mr. Kelly was in business in Minneapolis he devoted a portion of his time to the local interests of the city.

Mr. Kelly had hosts of friends, especially among the old settlers and his long time associates, who felt and expressed real sorrow when the announcement was made on the morning of June 1, 1899, that he was dead.

In politics Mr. Kelly was a staunch Democrat, but never an office holder or office seeker. He was an earnest believer in the Catholic faith, but tolerant and charitable towards all Christian religions.

Mr. Kelly was married in Minneapolis, April 26, 1863, to Anne Willey, widow of Ulysses S. Willey, a prominent attorney, who came to Minnesota in 1857 and died in 1860, while a member of the state legislature. Mrs. Kelly was the daughter of Hon. Wm. C. Haymond of West Virginia, where she was born. Two sons and four daughters were born to Mr. and Mrs. Kelly."

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