SI-13 adairchs.org/cemeteries/ForestL-KLMN.pdf Warren Jirah Kellogg Birth: Mar. 2, 1840 Wayne County Pennsylvania, USA Death: Apr. 10, 1925 Kirksville Adair County Missouri, USA widowed, son of Jirrah Kellogg and Eliza Moore, husband of Susan S. Kellogg d. cert 10683 ------------ Warren Jirah Kellogg was born March 2, 1840 in Preston, Wayne County, Pennsylvania, the son of Jirah Mumford Kellogg (1810-1885) and Eliza Headon (Moore) (1818-1866), both natives of Pennsylvania. Warren was the oldest boy and the second oldest child in a family of 12 known children. According to the 1860 census of Preston, Wayne County, Pennsylvania, Jirah Kellogg was one of the wealthiest farmers in his community, with an average of six times as much real estate wealth as any of his neighbors. By the 1870 census, Jirah Kelloggs wealth had increased by one-third, again much more than his neighbors. Four of his children were living together on their own in this census, and two of his sons reported their own personal wealth as unusually large for that day. In a biographical sketch on Jirah Kellogg, it states that in 1870, after Jirahs wife died, he relocated to Missouri where he lived for a time at the town of Kirksville in Adair County. It is unknown what family members may have come with him. It is believed he established a successful farming operation in this location. When his health began to fail, the sketch states he returned to Preston, Pennsylvania. He is shown in the 1880 census in Pennsylvania before he died in 1885. On November 15, 1873, in New York, Jirahs son Warren married Susan S. Kellam, who was born October 16, 1848 in Hancock County, Delaware, the daughter of John Kellam (1819-1880) and Jane (Wainwright) (1815-1871), both natives of New York. Warren and Susan Kellogg resided in Pennsylvania after their marriage where their first 4 children were born: Raymond in 1875, James in 1876, Charles in 1878, and George in 1879. Between the birth of George in 1879 and the census of 1880 conducted in June, the Kellogg family moved to the outskirts of Kirksville, Adair County, Missouri, the town where Warrens father had lived. In the 1880 census of Kirksville, Warren Kellogg was listed as age 40 and a farmer, wife Susan was 31, and they had 5 children, Raymond 5, James 5, Charles 2, George 1, and a 4-month old unnamed baby boy [later named Fred], born in February 1880. They employed one farm hand who was listed in this census. Two more children were born to the Kelloggs after the 1880 census. They were Emma L. in 1881 and Ross in 1886. It is known that at least two of Warren Kelloggs siblings also came to Kirksville, Missouri, James S. Kellogg (1841-1915) who never married, and Adeline (Kellogg) Pearce (1843-1919), wife of J. O. Pearce. They are both buried at Highland Park Cemetery in Kirksville. It is unknown whether the father Jirah Kellogg maintained real estate holdings in Missouri after he returned to Pennsylvania, but it is possible he left property to his children. It is known that Warren Kellogg obtained a large tract of land at the northeast edge of Kirksville, Missouri, from a family named McQuire. This became known as the Kellogg estate, and the large 3-story brick house, almost hidden among the trees on the property, became known as the Kellogg mansion. This large piece of real estate included what in the year 2014 are the Kirksville Aquatic Center, Rotary Park, the HyVee Supermarket and Gas Station, and the large subdivision named Kellwood Hills, developed in the late 1950s. Highway 63 now runs through these entities. This property also had a second large wood frame mansion just south of the brick home, with a fenced causeway between the two homes. It is unknown why there were two mansions here, or who built them. For that day, this amount of land and two homes of this magnitude would have cost a small fortune. The wood mansion and surrounding land was later sold (presumably by the Kelloggs) to William Henry Parcels, Jr., a wealthy merchant in Kirksville who was also a legislator. What is known about the history of this land is that it was originally deeded to the Rowland family in 1848. Generally it is believed the brick mansion, the home in which the Kelloggs lived, was built after the Civil War in the 1870s. The architecture has elements of Colonial, Greek Revival and Victorian. Architects have said the exterior of the house is a combination of so many elements, of so many time periods, that it is impossible to date it on architecture alone. Inside the brick mansion, a solid walnut spiral staircase was constructed by a Kirksville man named Harry Tull. A parlor on the east had hand-painted wall paper, and this room and an adjacent one, the hall, and the dining room were remembered for their inlaid wood or parquet floors. There was an impressive domed skylight at the top of the staircase. The family named McQuire who were the occupants of the brick mansion just prior to the Kelloggs was known to be in the house for about 4 years in the late 1870s. It is unknown if the McQuires built it, or if they even owned it. It is possible that Warren Kelloggs father, Jirah Kellogg, built the house during the time he was living in this area. It appears he had the wealth to do so. But, some think it was the McQuires who owned the property and actually built the mansion. Whatever the circumstances, the McQuires wanted out after only four years. They experienced so much tragedy while living in the house that the McQuires daughter, Ivie, said her family couldnt get out fast enough. They lost all their cows and chickens while they were living there, went bankrupt, and their first child, Hubert, died there. They felt the house had some sort of curse on it. It is unknown whether or not they passed this information on to the Kellogg family at the time of sale. Many feel the curse was passed to the Kellogg family. They also had a child die in the home, their youngest son Ross, at the age of 13 months in 1887. He was playing with his older siblings when he fell from a barrel and suffered injuries which led to his death. The family fortune seems to have been used up rather than increased, as it appeared no improvements were ever made to the home nor any attempts made to keep up with the times. Then, evidence began to emerge showing the family members were scourged with madness. The Kellogg family was at best described as eccentric and reclusive by people in Kirksville. They interacted to some extent with outsiders as they sold strawberries grown in a large patch to the east of their house, and they would sometimes allow people to pick hickory nuts and wild flowers from their woods. However, their behavior was strange, and few people knew what the inside of the house looked like. They were not the social leaders in their community that one might expect from people of their perceived economic status. In the 1900 census, Warren was age 60 and a farmer. His wife Susan was 51, and daughter Emma 18. All 5 grown sons were still living at home with their occupations shown as farm laborers, Raymond 25, James 24, Charles 22, George 21, and Fred 20. The demise of the Kellogg family was truly sad. Son James was the only one who married. He moved away to Ohio. Oldest son Raymond died in 1907 at the age of 32 after contracting a grave illness while attending the Kirksville Normal college. After their parents died, the remaining 3 sons and 1 daughter never married and lived in the mansion as it slowly deteriorated. The parents, Susan and Warren Kellogg, died in 1919 and 1925 respectively. They were buried in Kirksvilles first cemetery, Forest-Llewellyn, where their sons Ross and Charles were buried. The Kellogg children kept to themselves and others reported only glimpses of them. Some say they would see Emma preaching in the woods and open fields of the estate. If she realized someone was watching her, she would run in the house. People described her as looking rather like a witch. When buying strawberries, some townspeople reported seeing a fleeting glimpse of Emma running to the veranda or the summer kitchen. The brothers were described as fine old men, short in stature, very quiet, and rather reclusive. Up until the 1940s and 50s when most people had cars, Charles and Fred still drove their horse and buggy to town and parked it on the square. Either the Kelloggs did not embrace change or could not afford it, as the house was found in the late 1950s to have no plumbing, no electricity, no phone, and no interior bathroom, things that people of their presumed status would be expected to have. In June 1955, George Kellogg, age 76, died of pneumonia, leaving sister Emma and brothers Charles and Fred as the only ones in the mansion described on his death certificate as being at the northeast city limits of Kirksville. Rumors say that in the mid 1950s, Emma and Charles had to be forcibly removed from their home by the sheriff, after Charles went berserk, taking an axe and chopping up the parlor organ and breaking the Haviland china. It is unknown where Charles was taken. It was reported that Emma hid in her room and locked the door when the sheriff came. She refused to come out, so the sheriff broke the door down and she was removed to Stickler Hospital in Kirksville which was about 4 blocks south of her home. A nurse there described Emma as sweet, quiet, and shy. Emma died of cancer on August 31, 1955, which was just two months after her brother George had died. Interestingly, brother Charles was the informant on Emmas death certificate. It is unknown where Fred Kellogg was at this time, but presumably he still lived in the mansion. At some point, the property was sold by the Kelloggs as records show it had two owners after the Kelloggs, and prior to it becoming a subdivision in the late 1950s. Charles Kellogg, age 81, died of pneumonia, vitamin deficiency, and senility on January 23, 1959 in Stickler Hospital in Kirksville. At that time, his usual residence was listed as La Plata, Missouri, which is a town about ten miles south of Kirksville in Macon County. His brother Fred O. Kellogg was listed as the informant on his death certificate, so Fred was the last living member of this immediate family. Information on the internet shows a Fred O. Kellogg who died October 15, 1966 at the age of 86, but no other information is given. His tombstone remains void of an engraved death year. It is presumed that his tombstone at Forest-Llewellyn was set while he was still living, and when he died, there was no one left to have his death date added. The eight Kelloggs buried at Forest-Llewellyn are the parents Warren and Susan, and their children Ross, Raymond Ray, George, Emma, Charles, and Fred. State Highway 63 was at some point constructed north and south across the Kellogg property in the north part of Kirksville. The portion on the west became a public swimming pool and large park. In the late 1950s, plans were made to develop the land on the east side of the highway into an up-scale subdivision. They named it Kellwood Hills, a take-off of the Kellogg family name. It contained 6 streets and over 100 building lots. The streets were named Kellwood Dr., Overbrook Dr., Broadview St., Catalina Dr., Vista Dr., and Center Rd. A local car dealer, McHenry-Gash Motors, gave away a new 1958 Pontiac in a drawing to be entered by the first thirty purchasers of lots in Kellwood Hills. The flyer stated the lots would soon to be ready for people to select their choice of beautiful building sites in Kirksvilles newest and most beautiful subdivision. The flyer also stated that a plot map of Kellwood Hills would be on display in the near future at McHenry-Gash. Although the flyer stated the winner would receive a Pontiac Chieftain, the winner chose a Pontiac Catalina model and was also given the privilege of naming a street in the subdivision. The winning family let their teenage daughter name the street, and she selected Catalina Drive after the cars name. Some say the curse on the Kellogg house continued even after it was torn down. A Kirksville family constructed their new home directly on the location of the old red brick mansion, and their address was appropriately numbered #1 Center Drive. People have stated that this family immediately began to experience tragedy. The husband died in 1960, near the time the new home was completed. Then the wifes store in downtown Kirksville had a fire. However, someone has continuously lived in this house to this day. (Written by Blytha Ellis. Information taken from public records and The Chariton Collector, a local history magazine published in the 1980s by Kirksville, Missouri, high school history students.) ------------ Warren J. Kellogg, a retired farmer, died at his home northeast of town, and just outside the city limits Friday morning at 6:20 oclock at the age of 85 years. He had been in failing health since last summer but had been seriously sick for about a month. He was born in Preston, Penna., March 2, 1840, and came with his father to Kirksville in 1870, when his father bought the William Parcells farm adjoining the city limits on the northeast. After a short residence here deceased returned to Pennsylvania, where in 1874 he was married to Susan S. Kellam. He returned to Kirksville in 1879 and 1881 he purchased the John T. Smith farm northeast of town and lying just outside the city limits where the family had since resided. The deceased is survived by four sons, James A. Kellogg of St.Louis; Charles W. Kellogg, George H. Kellogg and Fred O. Kellogg, all living at home; and one daughter, Emma L. Kellogg, who also lives at home. There are also two brothers, Azor E. Kellogg, and Edward H. Kellogg, both of Los Angeles, Cal., and three sisters, Mrs. Sarah Clarkson and Mrs. Esther Pierson, both of Los Angeles, and Mrs. Hattie Labarr of Summerville, N.J. Mrs. Kellogg died five years ago. The funeral services were held at the Kellogg home Monday afternoon at 2:30 oclock conducted by Rev. T. S. Williams, pastor of the Christian church. Interment was made in Forest Park cemetery. Weekly Graphic Kirksville, Missouri April 17, 1925 Family links: Parents: Jirah M Kellogg (1810 - 1885) Eliza Moore Kellogg (1816 - 1866) Spouse: Susan S. Kellam Kellogg (1848 - 1919) Children: Raymond W. Kellogg (1874 - 1907)* Charles Kellogg (1877 - 1959)* George E. Kellogg (1878 - 1955)* Fred O. Kellogg (1880 - 1966)* Emma L. Kellogg (1881 - 1955)* Ross E. Kellogg (1886 - 1887)* Siblings: Warren Jirah Kellogg (1840 - 1925) James Kellogg (1841 - 1915)* Adeline Kellogg Pearce (1843 - 1919)* Azor E. Kellogg (1849 - 1927)* *Calculated relationship Burial: Forest-Llewellyn Cemetery Kirksville Adair County Missouri, USA Plot: SL-13 Created by: NE MO Record added: Nov 23, 2010 Find A Grave Memorial# 62073834 Warren Jirah Kellogg Added by: Blytha & Donald Ellis Warren Jirah Kellogg Added by: Larry Olson Warren Jirah Kellogg Added by: Larry Olson There are 2 more photos not showing... Click here to view all images... Photos may be scaled. Click on image for full size. - Blytha & Donald Ellis Added: Feb. 22, 2014
Posted on: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 00:49:23 +0000
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