1826 KELLY-KNEEN-TEARE

Introduction

This page is reprinted from A History of Cleveland and Its Environs The Heart of New Connecticut VOLUME II - BIOGRAPHY published by The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago and New York 1918

1826 KELLY-KNEAN-TEARE

Early in the year 1826, two sisters and a brother with their families bid a final farewell to the Isle of Man and set sail for America. In May of this year, these people, thirteen in number, weary from weeks of travel and anxious for some place they could once more call home, settled in Newburgh in a locality now known as Broadway and Stafford Place. Had a roll been called of the little colony, the following would have responded:

William Kelly and wife Ellen Kneen Kelly, and their son John Kelly.

Patrick Teare and wife Ann Kneen Teare, and their daughter Mary Ann Teare

William Kneen, brother of Mrs. Kelly and Mrs. Teare, his wife Mary Kenyon Kneen, and their children William, Mary, John and Jane Kneen.

Patrick Teare died soon after his arrival here, and in time his widow married again, a Mr. Kelly, and removed to Warrensville, Ohio. Nothing has been furnished the writer concerning the above pioneers save a brief sketch of Mrs. Teare-Kelly. She is depicted as a remarkably active and ambitious woman, the life of any gathering with her quick wit and jokes. When past 60 years of age, she visited friends in a neighboring town and upon going to the depot to return to her home, found her train already pulling out. She ran, and with a squirrel's leap, landed upon the platform of the last car, and was borne away amid the loud applause of bystanders.

It is said that she would carry her butter and eggs from Warrensville to Cleveland, a distance of nine miles, walking both ways, and returning the same day. She endured many hardships, but through them all was noted for her gentleness and patience.

Her daughter Mary Ann Teare married John Radcliffe. He died leaving her with three small children. She was a woman of rare excellence, industrious, economical, generous, and kind-hearted. She lived in Cleveland on Cedar Ave., and was a member of the Euclid Ave. Baptist Church. She died in 1890. Her surviving children are William and Eliza Radcliffe.

William Kneen and his wife grew tired of their "huckleberry patch," as they called it, in Newburgh, and removed to Carroll County, O., where Mrs. Kneen died at the age of 91. Their daughter Mary Kneen married Rev. Hugh Gibson, and died in Los Angeles, Cal.

Jane Kneen, youngest daughter of William and Mary Kenyon Kneen, became the only survivor of the party of thirteen from the Isle of Man in 1826. She was proud to relate that her mother frequently entertained John Wesley at her home. She, Mary Kenyon, was one of the first, if not the first woman convert to Methodism on the Isle of Man. She had a remarkable voice and led the singing at all the Wesley religious meetings.

Jane Kneen married Elijah Shepherd, and after his death she left Carroll County, and returned to Cleveland, where she resided on Eglendale Avenue with her daughter Mary Shepherd, and her son Frank Shepherd of the HOLMES, SHEPHERD LUMBER CO.

Notes

Wesley visited the Island on two brief occassions - a short account is available but which includes no mention of the Kenyon family. It is probably the 1781 visit to which she refers as Wesley spent a few days in the North of the Island visiting Ballaugh and Dalby (Patrick).