Kelly, Lewis E. bio

History of Fulton County, Illinois; together with Sketches of its Cities, Villages and Townships, Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History; Portraits of Prominent Persons and Biographies of Representative Citizens. Chas. C. Chapman & Co., Peoria, Illinois, 1879, page 660, Farmers' Township
Lewis E. Kelly, proprietor of the Kelly House, Table Grove, was born Nov. 1, 1816, in Fleming Co., Ky.; was educated in a log school-house, using Dilworth’s Speller, Guthrie’s Arithmetic, Kerkham’s Grammar and the Bible as text books. In 1836 he came with his parents to the wilds of Vermont. At that time there was but one house between Table Grove and Macomb. Mr. Kelly taught school four years, and then for eight years he was unable to pursue any occupation on account of sore eyes. He was Postmaster of Vermont 1851-4; he then engaged in the mercantile business in Vermont; also operated a saw and grist-mill in connection with the store, until 1860. He then engaged in farming until 1876, when he became proprietor of the Kelly House in Table Grove, which he successfully conducts. His father, Francis Kelly, was a prominent farmer of Vermont, and died in 1846, at the age of 67 years. He was drafted in the war of 1812, but circumstances being such that he could not leave home, he employed a substitute.