Nicholas Kelly - Paternal Grandfather
Our grandfather Nicholas Kelly was born in Buenos Aries, Argentina on April 4th 1890. Baptized at Nuestra Senora del Pilar, Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Capital Federal, Argentina on May 17, 1891.
He is the father of our father Peter Kelly and is the first born child of Irish Immigrants James Foley Kelly and Claire Mary O'Shaughnessy. His parents moved to Argentina separately. James was educated as a "bookkeeper" and moved to join a friend who was in the newspaper business.
Clare and James met and married. Nicholas Kelly was born in 1890. Shortly after his baptism the young family moved to Toronto Canada - as family stories say -
Toronto at the time was a bustling city of about 200,000 people. Churches dominated the skyline and paddle wheelers ploughed the waters.
In 1894 Nicks little sister Clare was born and by 1900 the family once again packed their belongings and moved the 317 kms north to Trout Creek, Ontario where their father was able to find work as a bookkeeper for a lumber camp nearby.
According to the book "Kellys of Rathcabbin" the father was away with work a considerable amount - so in 1905 Clare and James made the decision to join a group from Trout Creek that was going out west to homestead in Alberta. The Canadian Government was encouraging settlers to homestead the praire provinces, offering free land if they would settle their families and farm. The Kellys chose a 160 acres 50 miles east of Stettler, Alberta.
Nicks younger sister Clare wrote about their life in her later years
Clare married in 1918, Nicholas in 1919 and their younger brother Bill shortly after. Nicholas (Our grandfather) homesteaded 45 miles west of Edmonton at Lac St Anne. His brother homesteaded near Calgary. Their mother and father remained at their farm until the moms death in 1936. Their father then sold the farm to a neighbour but continued to live there part of the time.
Nicks homestead entry states his property location as the NW quarter section of Section Number 32 of the 87 township in the 12 Range W of the 4th Meridian.
On November 24th 1919 he travelled the 20km east to Castor to apply for his marriage certificate and was married in St Anthonys Church at Coronation, Alberta to our grandmother - Winnifreth Florence Constance Davis the same day. They settled on property at Thor Hill where some of the children were born. Then moved to Lac La Nonne. His children are as follows: Winnie, Robert(Bob), Sybil, Peter, Doris, Sheila. The family settled first on the west side then moved to eastern shore where Nicholas built the log cabin and their youngest child Doris and Sheila were born. After Lac La Nonne they moved over to Lac St Anne where they rented a house on the lake. This lake is interesting because it is an annual religious pilgrimage location for both first nations and Catholics at Alberta Beach. Supposedly the reeds, weeds and mud some think are spiritual. A large tourist industry has built up around this summer pilgrimage. The Kellys settled around the other side of the lake.
Our Dad remembers their land and home well, raising skunks, mink, having a cow or two. The log house was built by their dad in a quiet bay on a slight hill with a gentle slope down to the lake. They had neighbours across the lake and all the 6 kids walked 4 1/2 miles past their neighbour - The Dunskies (Swedish brothers) around the lake and then through the Phillips farm to school, collecting their schoolmates as they went. In the icy northern winters they were able to shortcut across the frozen lake. The family lived off the land, hunting, fishing, selling meat and fish to the McDonald Hotel in Edmonton. All the children remember doing lots of ice fishing.
Game Wardens were tough in those days, licenses were expensive at $5 for 100 ft net. Nick set fish nets in hidden coves on Lac St. Anne anyways. Wardens would find them and pull them out. They would hide in the bull rushes watching for illegal fishing and chase him around the lake on countless occasions. Of course he didn't have a license to hunt and fish and especially to sell to the McDonald Hotel in Edmonton. According to our dad, they would hang outside the kitchen door selling grouse for pheasant (which was illegal to hunt at the time).
Dad remembers good times at the place. His dad was often tending traplines so him and his sisters and mom would take care of the cows and horse, tend to chickens and raise the mink. Grannie spun wool for sweaters and blankets, they all chipped in with canning and preserves for the winter.
Grannie, Doris and Winnie had a cafe during some of the time on Lac St Anne.
Even through the moves the children continued to go to the same one room school house with the same teacher Ms VanHusen. Their doctor was Dr. McDonald who not only tended scrapes and accidents to the kids - like when Peter got bit by the postmistresses (Mrs. Phillips) dog during lunch hour and Dr McDonald stitched him up but also when their dog "Pup" got into a tangle with a porcupine and the Dr carefully took each hooked quill from Pups snout. Unfortunately one quill broke and weeks later the dog died when the broken piece reached his brain.
One cool fall day their dad announced the family was moving to British Columbia before the winter snows blocked the pass. WWII was ongoing and the Canadian government was offering land confiscated from Japanese farmers. They packed up their belongings, as much as they could fit in their ford flatdeck truck and headed to the coast via Calgary.
Winnie(the oldest child) remained in Edmonton as she worked at a munitions factory.
Nick stopped at the family farm in Calgary along the way. His brothers son Tommy had just been killed in the war and it was a sad visit. Nick brought fish, venison and furs to them, and when they left it was a final farewell as they never saw them again.
The seven of them drove through the pass and landed in Ft Langley where they managed a strawberry farm that was most likely a Japanese confiscated farm. Promptly tearing up the strawberries and planting green beans for the war supplies effort.
Nick didn't stick around the farm for long and sourced a fishing boat named the PACIFIC Ocean through Canadian Fish Company. He went fishing that first summer and their oldest boy Bob got conscripted. Winnifreth, Sybil, Peter, Doris and Sheila managed the farm. Hiring and harvesting beans as needed.
The next fishing season, Nick bought a boat and moved the family off the farm over to Nanaimo, BC.
This was the beginning of a very lucrative and successful fishing career for Nick Kelly. Eventually both his sons Peter and Bob built their own boats and the three boats - The Lady Bille, Barbara K and Rose-Lind plied the coastal BC waters from the Fraser River at Vancouver to Prince Rupert and further - very often as highliners. Nicholas pioneered the usage and development of reel seiners in British Columbia which remain dominant in commercial fishing today.
He retired in his late 50s but sadly passed in his mid 60s just after his grandson John was born. I say this about the birth of my older brother John because Mom recalls being in the hospital with her new baby in her arms and Nicholas marching down the hallway bellowing to the nurses he had to see his grandson. Once in the room he emphatically stated:
Even tho he was raised Roman Catholic and baptized in an Argentinian church he was not a religious man and in fact disliked the church for their rules and pressures on him and his family.
Nick was an avid curler and was part of the Nanaimo Curling club with his sons.
He lived all his Nanaimo life at the same address with his lovely wife Winnifreth at 38 McClarey Street
His funeral was quite an affair as he had a large family and many friends in Nanaimo. The Coastal fishing fleet was his second family and all showed up to show their respects to this fine man.
He is the father of our father Peter Kelly and is the first born child of Irish Immigrants James Foley Kelly and Claire Mary O'Shaughnessy. His parents moved to Argentina separately. James was educated as a "bookkeeper" and moved to join a friend who was in the newspaper business.
Clare and James met and married. Nicholas Kelly was born in 1890. Shortly after his baptism the young family moved to Toronto Canada - as family stories say -
"the intense heat in South America was detrimental to the fathers health..."
Toronto at the time was a bustling city of about 200,000 people. Churches dominated the skyline and paddle wheelers ploughed the waters. In 1894 Nicks little sister Clare was born and by 1900 the family once again packed their belongings and moved the 317 kms north to Trout Creek, Ontario where their father was able to find work as a bookkeeper for a lumber camp nearby.
According to the book "Kellys of Rathcabbin" the father was away with work a considerable amount - so in 1905 Clare and James made the decision to join a group from Trout Creek that was going out west to homestead in Alberta. The Canadian Government was encouraging settlers to homestead the praire provinces, offering free land if they would settle their families and farm. The Kellys chose a 160 acres 50 miles east of Stettler, Alberta.
Nicks younger sister Clare wrote about their life in her later years
We travelled by train to Lacombe where we waited for the freight train bringing the men and provisions. We then travelled by regular train to Stettler. This was the end of the railway. We stayed in Stettler for a brief time while the men went to build a house, dig a well etc...on the homestead.
The house was really a shell, but sufficed for the the time. We were soon organized and a garden was planted, which I believe did very well, although sown on prairie sod.
The winter of 1906-7 was dreadful and some stock was lost due to cold. During the summer of 1906 a school board was organized. And their father was secretary treasurer. The local Glencoe school opened in 1908.
In 1909-10 the railways extended to Castor and Coronation, with a side line to Bulwark. Bulwark was a small town that sprang up very quickly with grain elevators, 2 grocery stores, a bank, restaurant and a hall. Eventually the United Church and Catholic Church had buildings too. Bulwark is now a ghost town, overgrown and neglected.
The family enlarged their house, they shipped a new piano from Winnipeg. They enjoyed musical evenings with friends. Mother taught many local girls the piano and also helped with the church choir. Their father worked very hard and took a great interest in community affairs. He was a councillor for the Local Improvement District and was also a magistrate making it much easier for the local people to have legal documents signed without going the 50 miles to Stettler.
Bulwark (now a ghost town)grain elevator
Clare says their father planted several hundred trees around the garden to act as a windbreak. Many still stand today.The start of WWI made big changes in their lives. So many young men were enlisted and never returned.
Clare married in 1918, Nicholas in 1919 and their younger brother Bill shortly after. Nicholas (Our grandfather) homesteaded 45 miles west of Edmonton at Lac St Anne. His brother homesteaded near Calgary. Their mother and father remained at their farm until the moms death in 1936. Their father then sold the farm to a neighbour but continued to live there part of the time.Nicks homestead entry states his property location as the NW quarter section of Section Number 32 of the 87 township in the 12 Range W of the 4th Meridian.
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| Marriage certificate |
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| Marriage certificate- bottom |
Our Dad remembers their land and home well, raising skunks, mink, having a cow or two. The log house was built by their dad in a quiet bay on a slight hill with a gentle slope down to the lake. They had neighbours across the lake and all the 6 kids walked 4 1/2 miles past their neighbour - The Dunskies (Swedish brothers) around the lake and then through the Phillips farm to school, collecting their schoolmates as they went. In the icy northern winters they were able to shortcut across the frozen lake. The family lived off the land, hunting, fishing, selling meat and fish to the McDonald Hotel in Edmonton. All the children remember doing lots of ice fishing.
Game Wardens were tough in those days, licenses were expensive at $5 for 100 ft net. Nick set fish nets in hidden coves on Lac St. Anne anyways. Wardens would find them and pull them out. They would hide in the bull rushes watching for illegal fishing and chase him around the lake on countless occasions. Of course he didn't have a license to hunt and fish and especially to sell to the McDonald Hotel in Edmonton. According to our dad, they would hang outside the kitchen door selling grouse for pheasant (which was illegal to hunt at the time).
Dad remembers good times at the place. His dad was often tending traplines so him and his sisters and mom would take care of the cows and horse, tend to chickens and raise the mink. Grannie spun wool for sweaters and blankets, they all chipped in with canning and preserves for the winter.
Grannie, Doris and Winnie had a cafe during some of the time on Lac St Anne.
Even through the moves the children continued to go to the same one room school house with the same teacher Ms VanHusen. Their doctor was Dr. McDonald who not only tended scrapes and accidents to the kids - like when Peter got bit by the postmistresses (Mrs. Phillips) dog during lunch hour and Dr McDonald stitched him up but also when their dog "Pup" got into a tangle with a porcupine and the Dr carefully took each hooked quill from Pups snout. Unfortunately one quill broke and weeks later the dog died when the broken piece reached his brain.
One cool fall day their dad announced the family was moving to British Columbia before the winter snows blocked the pass. WWII was ongoing and the Canadian government was offering land confiscated from Japanese farmers. They packed up their belongings, as much as they could fit in their ford flatdeck truck and headed to the coast via Calgary.
Winnie(the oldest child) remained in Edmonton as she worked at a munitions factory.
Nick stopped at the family farm in Calgary along the way. His brothers son Tommy had just been killed in the war and it was a sad visit. Nick brought fish, venison and furs to them, and when they left it was a final farewell as they never saw them again.
The seven of them drove through the pass and landed in Ft Langley where they managed a strawberry farm that was most likely a Japanese confiscated farm. Promptly tearing up the strawberries and planting green beans for the war supplies effort.
Nick didn't stick around the farm for long and sourced a fishing boat named the PACIFIC Ocean through Canadian Fish Company. He went fishing that first summer and their oldest boy Bob got conscripted. Winnifreth, Sybil, Peter, Doris and Sheila managed the farm. Hiring and harvesting beans as needed.
The next fishing season, Nick bought a boat and moved the family off the farm over to Nanaimo, BC.
This was the beginning of a very lucrative and successful fishing career for Nick Kelly. Eventually both his sons Peter and Bob built their own boats and the three boats - The Lady Bille, Barbara K and Rose-Lind plied the coastal BC waters from the Fraser River at Vancouver to Prince Rupert and further - very often as highliners. Nicholas pioneered the usage and development of reel seiners in British Columbia which remain dominant in commercial fishing today.
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| Nicholas Kelly - right with wife Winnifreth and oldest son Robert (Bob) |
"This boys name is John William".Our grandfather has been gone a long time now. And passed before I was born, but as I enquire about him at family gatherings - the comments are always warm and positive. They portray a man of great respect, a solid community man, full of life and love for his family, a natural leader, adventurer, outdoorsman, always carrying a book with him.
Even tho he was raised Roman Catholic and baptized in an Argentinian church he was not a religious man and in fact disliked the church for their rules and pressures on him and his family.
Nick was an avid curler and was part of the Nanaimo Curling club with his sons.
He lived all his Nanaimo life at the same address with his lovely wife Winnifreth at 38 McClarey Street
His funeral was quite an affair as he had a large family and many friends in Nanaimo. The Coastal fishing fleet was his second family and all showed up to show their respects to this fine man.
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