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Second generation compiled by Tom Goldrup
CHILDREN OF JOHN AND MARY (ANDERSON) KELSAY (#5 above) John's tombstone
1.) Sarah Nelson Kelsay, born February 16, 1782 in Rockbridge County, Virginia. She
married in Wayne County, Kentucky on January 19, 1809 to John Huff. In 1829 they
accompanied her father to Missouri where they raised their family and lived the remainder
of their days.
2) Alexander James Davis Kelsay, born October 3, 1783 in Virginia. He married in Wayne
County, Kentucky on February 20, 1816 to Jane "Jennie" Kelly. They moved in 1829
to Morgan County, Missouri, where they lived out their days. Alexander died July 23, 1842;
Jennie died September 16, 1877. They had several children, two of whom moved to Oregon
where one (John) became a judge and the other (James) a minister.
3) Elizabeth Anderson Kelsay, born May 21, 1786 in Greene Co, Tennessee. She married
Zachariah Loveall there on April 24, 1802. They moved by 1818 to Wayne Co., Kentucky; in
1820 they were in neighboring Pulaski County; and by 1829 to Lawrence Co., Indiana where
they resided for the rest of their days.
4) John Kelsay, born April 8, 1788 in Greene County, Northwest Territory of North Carolina
(Tennessee). He was married in this same county on February 20, 1809 to Nancy Niel. They
moved about 1815 to Wayne County, Kentucky where they lived for several years before
settling in Cartwrite, Clinton County, Kentucky. John was a gunsmith by trade. It is said
that he contacted tuberculosis and for this reason did not accompany his brothers, sisters
and several of his children to Missouri (another story has it that he went to Missouri,
but became homesick for Kentucky and moved back.) Nancy died before 1850 and John died
sometime between 1850-60; they are buried in Davis Chapel, Clinton Co., Kentucky.
5) Margaret C. Kelsay, known as Peggy, born 1790 in Greene County, Northwest Territory of
North Carolina (Tennessee). She married there on February 19, 1810 to James Maners (also
spelled as Menor and Manis). In April of 1813 they purchased land in this county from
Peggy's father, and by 1820 were living in Wayne County, Kentucky, and then by 1829 moved
west to Morgan County, Missouri. James died by 1860, at which time she was living as a
widow in Miller Co., Missouri, with her daughter Elizabeth Stark.
6) William Kelsay, born June 2, 1792 in Greene County, Northwest Territory of North
Carolina (Tennessee). William grew to manhood in this county and became acquainted with a
gunsmith named George Harmon, who accepted William on as an apprentice and taught him this
craft. It has been described by a descendent that the rifles William made were "very
well made, accurate, but muzzle loaded by hand." As he was engaged in this
apprenticeship he became acquainted with his teacher's daughter, Barthena, and courted
her. As was sometimes the custom in the hills of eastern Tennessee where there could be
periods of time without a minister or other authority to perform a marriage present,
William and Barthena entered into a marriage promise and later, after moving to Wayne
County, Kentucky, had the marriage "solemnized" by a formal wedding on April 15,
1818. Barthena, the daughter of George and Nancy (Neil) Harmon, was born 1800 in Greene
County, Tennessee. Her grandmother was a full-blooded Cherokee woman. They moved back and
forth several times between Wayne County, Kentucky, and Greene County, Tennessee, as he
was again listed as a resident of this latter' county in 1819 when they signed a document
relinquishing their inheritance of 140 acres in this county as heirs of George Harmon,
deceased, to Barthena's brother Peter. At this time they made their final move to Wayne
County, Kentucky. William settled a claim in this county and, like many early settlers,
did not file a claim with the county.
Years later he lost this land due to his failure to do so. On October of 1831 William
purchased fifty acres on the Little South Fork of the Cumberland River, and several years
later under the date of March 1833 bought (in conjunction with his nephew Alexander
Kelsay) another 50 acres of adjoining land. The following month William sold 100 acres of
land on the Cumberland River (these two 50 acre parcels). He moved his family about ten
miles into the town of Monticello where he operated his gunsmith shop. On March 8, 1849
William purchased 80 acres on Otter Creek in Wayne County near the border of neighboring
Clinton County. In 1850 he and his family appear as residents on the census in Clinton
County, and on June 26, 1851 sold their Otter Creek
acreage. This was the year that William and his family bid farewell to Kentucky and moved
westward. They had the idea of going to California but stayed ten years in Missouri.
Leaving their home in Kentucky, they took their wagons (some pulled by horses and some by
oxen), loaded them with their household goods, their farming and gunsmithing equipment and
supplies for the trek. Barthena and the grandchildren rode in the wagons while most of the
adults and older children walked as much as possible so to keep the wagons as light as
they could for the animals to pull. William would ride his horse ahead in the late
afternoons to find a good camping place, get a fire going, and many times would have wild
turkeys dressed and ready to cook when the others caught up to him. This is the manner
they traveled the several hundred miles to Saint Louis, Missouri. Once here they traveled
by boat up the
Mississippi to the Missouri River, and then sailed up this river nearly across the entire
state to Ray County, Missouri, where they homesteaded land for 25 cents per acre. The land
was good for farming but the mosquitoes were plentiful and soon all were sick with
malaria. They thought, at this time, that their illness was caused by the fog from the
river. However, William and Barthena endured and did well in this area. The 1860 census
lists William and Barthena as residents of the town of Knoxville in Ray County. In 1861,
the Kelsays decided that their "layover" on their' trek to California was at an
end and they joined a wagon train led by Captain William Harriman and began their very
eventful trip over the plains. Among the more than one hundred people in the company were
William and Barthena Kelsay, their son Nathaniel, daughter Sarah, daughter-in-law
Permelia, and at least eleven grandchildren. It seems all went well on their trek until
they camped one night on the Raft River in southern Idaho. The Raft River is a short river
(more like a creek) that flows north into the Snake River about fifty miles southwest of
Pocatello. During this night, August 1, 1861, they were attacked by a group of Indians led
by white renegades, and a battle ensued. The wagons were rounded into a circle. Permella
Kelsay and her young children were placed in a wagon and her feather bed and pillows were
placed over them (bullets and arrows of those days did not always have power enough to
penetrate a pillow). It is said of William Kelsay, by his daughter Sarah, that during this
battle that "every time his gun would pop, an Indian would drop." The fight
continued until the attackers were able to stampede the horses, and as this was what they
were after, they left after accomplishing their objective. Thus, the travelers and their
wagons loaded with all the possessions they owned in the world were stranded in the middle
of the wilderness about 600 miles from their destination of Sutter's Fort in California.
The party waited four days in case another wagon train happened along and they could join
with it, but none came. They decided that the necessary supplies that could be carried on
their backs would be unloaded from the wagons, and then they bunched the wagons together
with remaining supplies and were set afire so that nothing would be left for the attackers
if they should return to loot their abandoned belongings. The salvaged supplies consisted
mostly of food, blankets, pots and pans. The route they traveled, by foot, was as follows:
After leaving Raft River, they followed the Emigrant Trail up through the City of the
Rocks, up over Grouse Creek Mountains down into Grouse Creek Canyon, thence over a
dividing range into Thousand Springs Valley, on down into Bishop Canyon, finally arriving
at Humboldt Wells, Nevada (now the town of Wells). From this point they followed the
Humboldt River, originally called Mary's River, to the point where it sank into the sands
of the desert. Across a forty mile stretch of Humboldt Sink, they finally arriving in a
town called Ragtown (a town of tents) on the Carson River. Ragtown is near the modern town
of Fallon, Nevada. From Ragtown they hiked over the pass in the Sierra Mountains and into
the valley of Sacramento in California. One story has Barthena flagging down a rider' who
brought the news of this company ahead to Sacramento and they were met by soldiers with
food and supplies. William Nobles, who was a neighbor to the Kelsays, stated
"Everybody had to carry a pack. Even little children had to. They didn't know what
they were going to run into, the whole country was infected with wandering bands of
marauders. Well, everybody was pretty much scared, and some of the women and children were
crying. It was there, and later, that Sarah Kelsay and her monkeyshines kept some folks
from going crazy. Well, Sarah tied some frying pans and a lot of tin things that rattled
together and slung them over her back. Then she pretended she was a horse and pawed the
ground and snorted and whinnied and bucked and made a great clatter, til folks just had to
laugh in spite of themselves. And they used to say when the party arrived in California
that Sarah was still cutting up and making them laugh. It was the night of August 1st they
were robbed and they had to walk hundreds of miles over mountains and through sand and
sagebrush with little to drink but alkali water that made them sick. Those that carried
the bacon had their clothes and their backs soaked with grease. But after while that
didn't trouble them because they didn't have anymore bacon and not much food of any sort.
The grown up people had been going on half rations most of the time and saving the best.
for the children. But soon there wasn't enough for anybody...and the women had a terrible
time with their feet. Their thin shoes wore out, and they had to wrap their feet in sacks
and old rags. Lots of times the rags would be bloody where they'd cut their feet on sharp
rocks. Must have been pretty hard for Sarah to prance in those days, but they say she did
it. After crossing a lot of mountains and rocky canyons, they straggled down the Humboldt
River to the Sink, and into the desert. Things were desperate, but there wasn't anything
to do but go on. Grandpa Kelsay (William) got sick but he wouldn't let them stop. He kept
on walking while two other men carried his pack. He was wiry though and soon he perked up
again. Some days he and Grandma led the whole train. One day in the desert when the heat
was just awful, a big man named Isaac Johnson put down his load and said he couldn't go
another step. Grandpa piped up and said, "All right Ike, I'll carry you and your pack
too." Everybody laughed and he was so mad picked up his things and led the line the
rest of the day. Another day the captain's daughter lay right down on the sand and said
she couldn't go any farther, tier father bent down over her and said they'd have to leave
her there, or they'd all die. After a while she got up and went off with some folks
helping her. On September 28th, almost two months after they'd been robbed, they staggered
into Ragtown on the Carson River. Folks were kind to them and they rested several days.
Then they walked on over the pass and down into the valley toward Sutter's Fort. About
thirty or forty miles before they got to the fort, they were met by soldiers sent out to
meet them with provisions and to escort them to the fort. When at last they arrived, they
got plenty to eat and rested until they were ready to go on. The Kelsays there came here
to Big Valley." They settled in Big Valley, near Kelseyville, Lake County, California
in October of 1861., and William continued his trade as a gunsmith. Barthena died there on
January 16, 1877; William died December 6, 1878. They are buried in the Pioneer Cemetery
in Kelseyville. They had fourteen children.
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