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THISTLE (later KELLEY), Myra – emigrated 1873

Myra Thistle (1872-1897) was born at Badsey, in 1872, the fourth of five children of Francis Thistle, a blacksmith, and his wife, Pleasance (née Grimes). She was baptized in St James’ Church, Badsey, on 28th July 1872.  Myra spent the first year of her life in the house known today as Hollywood Villa (current-day No 10 High Street), which was where her family had been living at the time of the 1871 census.

In 1873, Myra, then aged one, emigrated to Canada with her parents and siblings.  Shipping records reveal that the Thistle family arrived in New Orelans in the United States in October 1873 on board Liberty, having boarded at Key West or Havana.  At the time of the 1880 census in America, they were living at Osage Township in the county of Allen, state of Kansas.  By the time of the 1885 Kansas State census, Myra and her sisters were living with their parents in Louisiana, Kansas.

In 1892 in Oklahoma, Myra married Simon Pleasant Andrew Kelley.  They had two children:  Albert Newson (1893) and Myra Estella (1895-1929).  

Myra died of blood poisoning at her home in Oklahoma on 26th October 1897.  A report in The Populist newspaper, printed in Stillwater, Oklahoma, on 31st October 1895, gave the following details:

OBITUARY - Died, on Saturday night, Oct 26, Mrs Myra Kelley, wife of S F A Kelley.

Deceased was the wife of one of our most prominent citizens and her death, coming as it did, unexpectedly, was a shock to the whole neighbourhood.  Her death was due to blood poisoning.  She leaves an infant babe and one child two and a half years old.  She was the daughter of Mr & Mrs Thistle who reside near her husband’s place in Clanarron Township.

The bereaved husband and parents have the sympathy of the whole neighbourhood.  She was an affectionate mother, a devoted wife and a kind neighbor and as she was a professed Christian, we believe that she has gone to join the angels.

At the time of the 1900 census, Myra’s widowed husband, Simon, was living with his two children at Pineville, McDonald, Missouri.  He was married to an American woman, Mary, whom he had married in about 1897.