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Kelly, Charles, president of the Box Elder Stake of Zion, is the son of John Philip Kelly and Eliza Long, and was born June 9, 1841, in the city of Hereford, England. His parents joined the Church in 1859, and Charles was baptized July 5, 1860, by Joseph Dilworth, in the parish of Bishop-Frome, Herefordshire, Nov. 22, 1860, he married Emma Price. He was ordained a Priest in April, 1862, by Elder Wm. Thurgood, and in 1866 he emigrated to Utah, together with his wife and four children, crossing the sea in a sailing vessel ("St. Mark"), which arrived in New York July 26, 1866. The family crossed the plains in Capt. Andrew H. Scott's ox train, which arrived in Salt Lake City, Oct. 8, 1866. On the overland journey two of Bro. Kelly's children died, and his wife gave birth to a child near Coalville, Utah, Oct. 4, 1866. Bro. Kelly located with his family in American Fork, Utah county, where his parents had resided since 1862. Here Bro. Kelly, who was ordained an Elder by Alonzo H. Raleigh in 1868, took an active part in Church affairs and acted as a Teacher in the Sabbath school. In 1868 and 1869 he worked on the Union Pacific Railroad. In March, 1869, he changed his place of residence to Brigham City, Box Elder county, where he became an important factor in the United Order. He collected all the shoemakers of Brigham City together and started a United Order boot and shoe department, having previously assisted in gathering pine bark to start a co-op. tannery. He acted as superintendent of the shoe department for ten years, during which time about $250,000 worth of boots and shoes were manufactured, mostly from leather tanned in the co-op. tannery of Brigham City. In 1874, having acted as a teacher in the Brigham City Sabbath school since 1869, he was set apart as second superintendent of the school Some time afterwards he became an officer in the Y. M. M. I. A. of Brigham City. When the Box Elder Stake of Zion was organized in 1877, he was set apart as second counselor to Hans Peter Jensen in the presidency of the High Priests' quorum, and later he was set apart as Stake superintendent of the Y. M. M. I. A., which position he occupied for seventeen years. After the death of Hans Peter Jensen, in 1883, he was chosen as president of the High Priests' quorum. In 1885-87 he filled a mission to Great Britain and labored in the Birmingham conference. After his return he spent eleven months in seclusion at Rockland, Idaho, in order to avoid U. S. deputy marshals, who sought his arrest for infractions of the Edmunds law. After his return to Brigham City in 1888, he was arrested three times on the charge of unlawful cohabitation, and was tried and acquitted each time. At the quarterly conference held at Brigham City, in April, 1888, he was chosen as second counselor to Rudger Clawson, president of the Box Elder Stake, which position he held until April 26, 1897, when he became first counselor, succeeding Elder Adolph Madsen in that position. President Rudger Clawson having been called to the Apostleship, Elder Kelly was chosen and set apart as president of the Box Elder Stake, Nov. 20, 1899, which position he now occupies. Besides the positions named in the foregoing, Pres. Kelly has filled many minor positions both of an ecclesiastical and civil nature. He is also the father of 24 children by three wives, as follows: By Emma Price (whom he married in England Nov. 22, 1860), eleven sons and four daughters; by Marie Christine Thomsen (whom he married Oct. 13, 1873, in Salt Lake City), three sons and two daughters; and by Sarah Ann Wrighton (whom he married in Salt Lake City Oct. 8, 1883), one son and three daughters. Andrew Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia: A Compilation of Biographical Sketches of Prominent Men and Women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 4 vols. Salt Lake City 1:389 |
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