John Duke Kelly was born on January 18th, 1830, to Missouri Territory pioneers Thomas H. Kelly and Nancy Zumwalt Kelly.

John was a prominent citizen of Nevada, Vernon County, Missouri, when John Brown led a murderous raid from Kansas on Vernon County civilians on December 20th, 1858. Already an indicted murderer at this point, Brown led the 1858 “Christmas raid”, with two dozen followers from Kansas, and attacked the Vernon County homes of James Lawrence, Isaac LaRue, David Cruise . The raiders murdered the elderly Mr. Cruise in his home, held his wife at gunpoint, and robbed her of their possessions. By the end of the raid, the Brown gang had attacked several families and stolen 11 slaves, thousands of dollars’ worth of livestock, wagons loaded with farm equipment, food, clothing, bedding, and the farmers’ cash.
According to the late Patrick Brophy, Bushwhacker Museum curator, this raid contributed greatly to the fact that per capita, Vernon County would provide more men to fight for the South than any other county in Missouri.

John D. Kelly served as a lieutenant in the Missouri Volunteer Militia organized by the Governor to patrol the county and fight off the abolitionist raids. The 14 May, 1861 “Military Bill” authorized Missouri Governor Clairborne Jackson to disband the Volunteers and reform them as the Missouri State Guard. The next day former Missouri Governor Sterling “Pap” Price was appointed Major General and positioned as field commander for the new Missouri State Guard. The Vernon County Volunteers reorganized as A, Seventh Cavalry Regiment, 8th Division of the Missouri State Guard but were still known locally as the “Vernon County Partisan Rangers”. They frequently operated independently on the borders, mainly in Vernon County protecting their own homes. Kelly saw action at Carthage, Wilson's Creek, and the Battle of Dry Wood, all Southern victories. On 17 May, 1862 General Price merged the Missouri State Guard into the Confederate Army of the West. John Kelly, like many others, resigned his Guard commission to stay local and fight for Missouri as a Bushwhacker. Frank James named John Kelly as a fellow raider with Quantrill, and John Kelly is named in an 1862 letter as a man who could take Southern fighters to both General Price and Quantrill. John Kelly is named in an 1862 letter as a man who could take Southern fighters to both General Price and Quantrill, and Kelly was also identified by Frank James after the war as someone who rode with Quantrill.

On April 27th, 1865, the SS Sultana was carrying over 2,300 passengers up the Mississippi River, mostly Union Soldiers recently released from Southern prison camps. The Sultana’s boiler exploded, sinking the boat and killing approximately 1,700 people. John Kelly was arrested swimming away from the boat and sent to a federal prison in Memphis. It is noteworthy that Kelly was a known associate of Quantrill and Frank James, as was Arthur McCoy, because McCoy was also the brother in law of Robert Louden. Louden was a Southern spy, Bushwhacker supporter and boatburner in St Louis. Louden claimed on his deathbed to have sunk the Sultana with a coal bomb, but the cause of the Sultana explosion remains disputed. Neither Kelly nor anyone else was convicted of the suspected sabotage.

After the war, Kelly moved to Afton, Cherokee Nation, in neighboring Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). In Indian Territory he misrepresented his background, claiming Indiana as his, as well as both his parents’ native state on censuses for the remainder of his life (all antebellum censuses list Missouri for both John and both his parents). John raised and raced horses into his old age, with his older brother Joseph, a former Confederate First Sergeant, joining him in Indian Territory by 1880. John Duke Kelly, Cavalryman, Partisan Ranger, “Bushwhacker”, and suspected Boatburner, died 14 February 1903 at Afton, Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory. He rests at Ballard Cemetery, Bernice, Oklahoma.

Family:

John D. Kelly outlived three wives. His first marriage was 10 July 1855 at Warren County, Missouri to Susan J. Jones With her he fathered Commodore (1854-1859). His second wife was Muta Angleline Davis (1835-1889) of Bates County, Missouri. With her he fathered: Theodore Kelly, 24 March 1866-), John Duke Kelly jr (30 March 1858-19 March 1943), Mary Francis (15 September 1860-21 March 1917), Robert Egbert Kelly (30 November 1863-), William Theodore Kelly (1 March 1866-), Joseph A. (1869-), Franklin Kelly (1871-), Charles Kelly (1875-). He married Josie Pierce 21 March 1891 in Vernon County, Missouri.