|
|
Reference: Mrs. Bell Kelley who resides with her husband, Alexander Kelley, in Muncie, Delaware County, at 1630 East Kirk Street, Whitely.
The maiden name of Bell Kelley was Bell Deam. Her father's name was King Deam, a slave born on the King Deam plantation near Port Royal, Henry County, Kentucky. Her mother's name was Susan Dickens, who was born on the George Dickens' plantation adjoining the King Deam plantation. King Deam, the slave on the King Deam plantation, married Susan Dickens on the George Dickens plantation. They were given a shack on the Deam plantation, but both masters consented to their getting married. Both masters held them as property without change; Mrs. Deam remaining George Dickens' property and the slave, King Deam, remaining the property of the King Deam plantation. One did not sell to the other and they worked apart through the day. They were the parents of eight children born to them on the plantation in slavery.
Bell Kelley, or Mrs. Alexander Kelley, was born December 25, 1857 on the King Deam plantation. She is now eighty years old and states that her father, Kind Deam, back in the old slave days, was quite a musician. His instrument was the "fiddle" and he was called into the mansions of the white people to fiddle for their balls and dances. These occasions were often apple-pealings, then a title that brought the fashionable together.
They were on the plantation when they were freed and the parents gathered the family together and came west, arriving at Indianapolis, Indiana. They all found work and had many advantages in schooling. From this point they were married and the family was divided in their various homes. None are living of the family of eight slave-born children but two and one granddaughter. The aged parents died in Indianapolis several years ago.
Mrs. Bell Kelley was married in Indianapolis to Alexander Kelley about the year 1883, when she was about 21 years of age. She and her husband were attracted to Muncie by the gas boom. She was an expert housekeeper and her husband a professional Chef in a leading hotel.
Knowles, Merton Fountain County, Indiana (Merton Knowles 8/18/36)
