Dr. Kelly

The Doctor Next Door- Dr. Michael F. Kelly in Fall River

by Shelley Dziedzic, © All Rights Reserved

1890 was a big year for Michael Kelly with his marriage to Mary Caroline “Carrie” Cantwell at St. Mary’s Church on Second Street.  The ceremony was presided over by the rector, Father Hughes.  Carrie Cantwell, who was born second generation Irish in Peoria, Illinois, boasted a distinguished family line which included the famous Bishop Cantwell of Mullingar, Ireland, her great uncle. Mrs. Kelly also loved books and the family would soon assemble an impressive library.  Also in 1890. Mayor John Coughlin, also a medical doctor, appointed Michael Kelly City Physician.  The first of their three children, Christopher, would be born in December of 1892.  Mrs. Kelly was five month’s pregnant on the day of the Borden crime as she hurried up Second Street on her way to a dentist appointment-nearly an hour late due to company which had dropped in at the little yellow house. Many years later she would give an interview about that fateful day and when it was pointed out that she was the last to see Andrew Borden alive she quipped, “The last but one!”

Mary Philomena was born in 1894 followed by Eva J. in 1897. Holy Cross awarded Kelly an honorary Masters of Arts Degree in 1896.

A smallpox epidemic ravaged the city in 1899 and Dr. Kelly spearheaded the effort to bring the epidemic under control, losing only one of his 60 cases.  By 1900 the census has the Kelly family in their new home at 255 Third Street, directly behind the yellow cottage where the newlyweds had begun married life.

Dr. Kelly, a specialist in childhood diseases, also managed to find time for work in the local orphanage, many civic causes as well as serve on the board of several clubs, private practice, parish church life, a busy lecture schedule, a, young family- and poetry.  The Boston Pilot, the oldest Catholic newspaper in America (still published and owned by the Archdiocese of Massachusetts), which gained its popularity through the management of poet and lecturer John Boyle O’Reilly, was a fertile plot for the poetic endeavors of Michael Kelly. As well as poems, Kelly lectured and wrote on the heroes and saints of Old Ireland and was much in demand as a speaker.  According to an interview given by Eva Kelly in the years after her father’s death, Dr. Kelly would entertain his young children with tales and legends of Irish scholars and saints when his office hours had ended . Mrs. Kelly too had her collection of stories, both full of high drama and inspiration. These golden moments would later serve as a springboard from which Eva Kelly (Betz) would launch a successful writing career. In an interview for catholicauthors.com Ms. Betz says:

“Fall River . . . . . was a splendid place in which to grow up and my home there was  a stimulating, warm, welcoming one always full of life.  I came from a family of readers and writers.  Talk was good in our dining room where guests from all parts of the world and all walks of life were welcome if they brought interesting conversation.  Irish members of Parliament, bishops, boys and girls from school, authors, travelers- the list was catholic, lengthy, and constant.  My parents, brother and sister were all intellectual.”

Eva Kelly Betz became a school teacher  in Rhode Island and then in Fall River while writing poetry, plays and one-act plays for children in her spare moments.  She would follow in her father’s footsteps and become civic-minded, organizing the Community Chest, local Girl Scout troops, the local chapter of the National Council of Catholic Women and a driver for the AWVS during WWII when she and her husband, lawyer Joseph Betz lived in Passaic, New Jersey.  After the war, Eva Kelly Betz wrote popular books for teens and enjoyed a happy family life with her husband and son Peter until her death in 1968.  All are buried with Dr. Kelly at Saint Patrick’s Cemetery in Fall River.

The middle child, Mary Philomena, called Philomena, married Bertrand K. Hart, grandson of Abraham Gifford Hart, a pallbearer for Andrew Borden.  Abraham Hart, treasurer of the Union Savings Bank had something in common with Caroline Kelly, both were among the last to see Andrew Borden alive.  Mrs. Charles S. (Clara) Hart, like Mrs. Kelly, gave birth to a son in   1892.  Mrs. Kelly’s only son Christopher, Mrs. Charles Hart to only son Bertrand K. Hart who would grow up to marry Dr. Kelly’s daughter Philomena.  They are buried in the Hart plot at Oak Grove Cemetery just across from the Rev. Augustus Buck, Lizzie’s Congregational Church champion throughout the trial.

Dr. Kelly’s only son Christopher Cantwell Kelly pursued a career in real estate and insurance with an office in the Granite Block and died tragically young  at age 27 of tuberculosis, in Fall River, only three years after his father died. His 1917-1918 draft registration lists him with black hair and gray eyes, and still unmarried. He was in the Navy.

When Michael Kelly died on a Friday, July 28, 1916 as WWI raged on, after  suffering a long illness and several days in a coma, the city mourned  a friend and unstinting servant of the poor.  The list of his accomplishments was long and distinguished: Fall River Medical Society, American Medical Association, Massachusetts Medical Society, Knights of Columbus,  Fall River Board of Health (two three-year terms), Fall River City Doctor,  Ancient Order of Hibernians, The Clover Club, President of the United Irish League, the American Historical Society, and an enthusiastic organizer of the annual Fall River Saint Patrick’s Day celebration.

“Love of native land fired the soul of the physician.  As a champion of the cause of Ireland, he was heard from often both by pen and tongue and in the more practical way of contributions.  When in health he was a leader of movements for the observance of the feast of the patron saint of the Emerald Isle.  No occasion of the kind was allowed to pass without Dr. Kelly being demanded by enthusiastic observers.  At one celebration he responded so wittily to the toast “The Ladies” as to surprise his closest friends by his display of eloquence and lightness.

His one diversion in hours of leisure which he extended far into the night , even after a day of hard work, was to sit in his library and commune with the spirits of the great writers.  He was an omnivorous and discriminate reader.  He was modest in the extreme as regards himself.” (Fall River Evening Herald July 29, 1916).

It was said that not an Irish politician came through town but that put his feet under Dr. Kelly’s diningroom table at the sprawling house on Third Street.  A strong advocate of Home Rule for Ireland, Kelly became personally acquainted with every leader of note in Ireland and America.

As his eyes closed at last at 8 p.m. on that Friday evening in the summer house on Main Rd. in Tiverton, Rhode Island, Dr. Kelly had rest at last after struggling with ill health for three years.  His Requiem after Mass at 9 a.m. on Monday at St. Patrick’s was packed to the rafters with people from all walks of life.  Gone at the age of 60, many would mourn that he had worked himself to an early grave; to the poor he was like a saint on earth. 

For his grieving family, life would never be the same.  His three children and Caroline moved to 500 Weetamoe Street in the north end of the city, the big house on Third Street having been sold in February 1916, its spacious rooms which once rang with laughter, silent.  Philomena worked as a librarian and Eva taught school until her marriage.  Caroline would leave Fall River and make her home in New Jersey with Eva and her grandson, Peter Betz.  Philomena Kelly Hart once recalled her mother’s part in the Borden story and how she was told how the women, including Irish maid Mary Doolan, her grandmother, Mrs. Cantwell, and Caroline locked up the house and peered out from behind the blinds on the day of the murders while police rampaged around the yard, waiting for Dr. Kelly to return home from his day trip.  Eva never referred to the incident.

Other items and photos of interest:

The three photos above are items found inside the walls of the second Kelly home at 255 Third Street by the current owner during remodeling.  The notebook contains notes of a medical nature and may well have belonged to Dr. Kelly.  This house was also at one time Neale’s Boarding House.  Today sinks are still found in every bedroom of the large home from its boarding house days.

Special thanks to the Tavares and Lamont families who currently live in “Kelly Houses” , and also to the lovely mother and daughter who live in the last Kelly house at 500 Weetamoe at Robeson. Also thanks to the staff at Saint Patrick’s cemetery for help in tracing the cause of death of Christopher Kelly. 

Photo credit for Dr. Kelly:  Fall River Globe and Fenner’s History of Fall River

This article first appeared in The Hatchet 2009