Edmund Kelly

Edmund Kelly (May 23, 1818 - October 4, 1894) was the first African-American Baptist minister ordained in Tennessee. He escaped slavery in the 1840s to New England and returned after the US Civil War. He worked as a preacher and teacher in Columbia, Tennessee and was a frequent participant in national Baptist Conventions.

For the speaker of the House of Assembly of Jamaica, see Edmund Kelly (Jamaica).
Edmund Kelly
Born(1818-05-23)May 23, 1818
Columbia, Tennessee, U.S.
DiedOctober 4, 1894(1894-10-04) (aged 76)
New Bedford, Massachusetts, U.S.
OccupationMinister
Political partyRepublican
Personal
ReligionBaptist

Early life

Edmund Kelly or Kelley[1] was born in Columbia, Tennessee on May 23, 1818 to Edmund Kelly,[2] an emigrant from Dublin, Ireland, and a slave woman, Kittie White,[1] who was also born in Columbia.[3] His father wished to buy the freedom of his mother and son, but was not able. When Edmund was six, his mother was sold away and he and his sister remained. In 1833, Kelly was hired by a school-master to run errands and serve as a table waiter. Kelly saw the advantage of an education, and in secret gave candies to students who came to the house in exchange for a speller, a child's English textbook, and lessons. When the mistress of the house discovered Kelly's learning to write, she was upset, but because those responsible were children, nothing was done and Kelly continued to learn, although he never attended a formal school.[2] He married in September 1839.[4]

Career

In April 1837 Kelly was baptized and joined a missionary church in Columbia. He was born to the Catholicism of his father, but was convinced by the Baptist teachings. On May 19, 1842 he was licensed to preach[2] from the Mission Baptist Church at Columbia,[1] and on October 1 of that year he was ordained by Rev. R. B. C. Harell and the First Baptist Church of Nashville to be an evangelist. His first posting was at the Mt. Lebanon Baptist Church in 1843, which at that time had only six members.[2] This posting made him the first black Baptist preacher ordained in Tennessee.[5] He is also credited for organizing the First Negro Baptist Church in Columbia in 1843.[1]

Escape to New England

Around this time, he escaped from slavery on the underground railroad to Massachusetts.[6] He then purchased the freedom of his wife and four children for twenty-eight hundred dollars.[2] For this purpose, he collected money in New England and in England. While in England, it was recommended to him that he purchase not only his family's freedom, but also his own, so that he would not be captured under the Fugitive Slave Act.[7] His children included J. H. Kelly, a teacher in Columbia and W. D. Kelly who was a member of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment in the US Civil War.[2] In 1848, he organized the 12th Baptist Church in Boston, Massachusetts.[1]

Free, Kelly moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he was a prominent leader in the local church and the national American Baptist Conventions.[8] In 1845 along with Thomas T. Allen he became leader of the newly founded Second Baptist Church of New Bedford, Massachusetts which was dedicated in January of that year. Allen served as the head pastor for three years, followed by William Jackson and then Cummings Bray. In 1855, Jackson returned to lead the church, and in 1858 left to form the Salem Baptist Church. Kelly again took charge, but only for a short time.[9] In 1857, Kelly was a preacher in Philadelphia. That year, he preached at the American Convention of Colored Baptists in Boston[10] and served as its president.[11] He preached at the 1864 convention as well. That year, he was still preaching in New Bedford.[12] On May 10, 1864 he founded the Shiloh Baptist Church in Newport, Rhode Island in a house at 73 Levin Street owned by Esther Brinley. William James Barnett was installed as the first pastor, followed shortly by Theodore Valentine.[1]

Return to Tennessee

After the civil war, Kelly returned to the south. He first moved to Arlington, Virginia where, in 1866, he organized the Zion Baptist Church.[1] He then moved back to Columbia, Tennessee where he preached and taught.[6] Kelly was an outspoken Republican, and in 1869 he was assaulted by a black Democrat in Columbia in a political dispute.[13] In 1870 he organized a school for blacks at D. T. Chappell's, who supported the endeavor.[14] He did not receive regular pay for his work. Among Kelly's students was a young nephew of his, who was the father of Lyman T. Johnson.[6]

Return to New England

After about six years in the South, Kelly faced a dispute in the church over the use of alcohol, and in 1873 he returned to New England.[15] He moved to Portsmouth, New Hampshire and organized the Mount Olivet Baptist Church.[16] Around that time, he also organized three other churches, Calvary Baptist Church in Haverhill, Massachusetts in 1873; Calvary Baptist Church in Hartford, Connecticut in 1874, and the Myrtle Baptist Church in West Newton, Massachusetts in 1874.[1]

Kelly attended the 1876 Conference of Baptist Ministers in Philadelphia.[17]

Kelly wrote numerous pamphlets, which were praised by Bishop Daniel Payne.[2] By 1887, he had returned to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he continued to teach and preach, although he had become aged and blind.[2]

Death

On October 4, 1894, Kelly died of paralysis of the brain in New Bedford, Massachusetts.[3]

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References
  1. Jeter, Henry Norval. Pastor Henry N. Jeter's Twenty-five Years Experience with the Shiloh Baptist Church and Her History: Corner School and Mary Streets. Remington Printing Company, 1901, p5-8 accessed November 3, 2016 at http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/jeter/menu.html
  2. Simmons, William J., and Henry McNeal Turner. Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising. GM Rewell & Company, 1887. p291-295
  3. Massachusetts, Death Records, 1841-1915, on ancestry.com [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013. original data from Massachusetts Vital Records, 1911–1915. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts.
  4. Eastern Massachusetts, Springfield Republican (Springfield, Massachusetts), September 28, 1889, page 6
  5. Fasol, Al. With a Bible in Their Hands: Baptist Preaching in the South 1679-1979. Baptist Sunday School Board, 1994. p90-91
  6. Hall, Wade. The rest of the dream: The Black odyssey of Lyman Johnson. University Press of Kentucky, 2015. p28
  7. Girdwood, J. A Question Answered, The Liberator (Boston, Massachusetts) April 29, 1853, page 2, accessed September 27, 2016 at https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6801209/girdwood_j_a_question_answered_the/
  8. Mulderink, Earl F. New Bedford's Civil War. Fordham Univ Press, 2012. p43-44
  9. History of the Churches of New Bedford, E. Anthony & Sons, Printers, 1869, p68-69
  10. The American Colored Convention at Boston, New-York Tribune (New York, New York) August 21, 1857, page 5, accessed September 29, 2016 at https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6801256//
  11. Festival of the Colored Baptists, Boston Traveler (Boston, Massachusetts), August 21, 1857, page 6
  12. Annual Meeting of the Colored Baptist American Missionary Society, The Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, Maryland) August 23, 1864, page 1, accessed September 27, 2016 at https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6801286//
  13. Eastern Massachusetts, Springfield Republican (Springfield, Massachusetts) June 11, 1869, page 4
  14. Colored School, The Herald and Mail (Columbia, Tennessee) May 20, 1870, page 3, accessed September 27, 2016 at https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6801368/colored_school_the_herald_and_mail/
  15. Our Colored Brethren, Portsmouth Journal of Literature and Politics (Portsmouth, New Hampshire) Volume: LXXXIII Issue: 41, Saturday, October 11, 1873 Page: 2
  16. [No Headline], Mirror and Farmer (Manchester, New Hampshire), Saturday, October 4, 1873, Page: 6.
  17. Meeting of the Baptist Conference, The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) October 31, 1876, page 2, accessed September 27, 2016 at https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6801418//
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