The present collection is related primarily to the descendents of Samuel Kelly (1776-1834) and his wife Nancy Kennedy Kelly (1781-1841) who lived in Virginia and Kentucky. Their son Clinton Kelly (1808-1875) was a Methodist preacher and an anti-slavery advocate. A native of Kentucky, he came overland to Oregon with his family in 1847 and took a donation land claim on the east side of the Willamette River, opposite Portland. He platted the land in 1872, and the area was eventually annexed by the city. Clinton's oldest son (by his first wife, Mary Bastin), Plympton Kelly, fought in the Yakima Indian wars of 1855-1856. Another son of Clinton Kelly (by his third wife, Moriah Maldon Crain) was Penumbra Kelly (1845-1928), who lived much of his life in Portland, Oregon, and married Mary Marquam in 1875. He served as a member of the Oregon House of Representatives, County Commissioner, and Sheriff of Multnomah County.
Clinton Kelly's younger brother, Albert Kelly, (1814-1873) was born in Clifty Creek, Pulaski County, Kentucky. In 1837 he married Nira Chandler Bingham (1816-1898) in Athens, Ohio, and in 1847 they traveled overland to Oregon with Kelly's family. They settled eventually on a donation land claim southwest of Portland, an area that now includes Albert Kelly Park. In the early 1870s the Kellys moved to Yakima County, Washington, where Albert died in 1873. His wife Nira moved to Portland around 1886.
A son of Albert and Nira Kelly, Silas Gilby Kelly (1848-1920) was a farmer of Hillsdale, Oregon, and married Nellie Griffith Baker. A daughter of Albert Kelly, Martha Elizabeth Kelly Plummer (1850-1935), married Orlando Pleasant Shields Plummer (1836-1913), a physician of Portland, Oregon. Their daughter, Marian Lee Plummer Povey (1885-1975) married John Harold Povey (1884-1964). Another daughter of Orlando and Martha Plummer was Agnes Plummer Burns (1877-1975), who married William Wesley Burns (1861-1937) and lived in Troy, Oregon.
From the guide to the Kelly family papers, 1831-1982, (Oregon Historical Society)
