Photo
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November 2002
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Faces and Places
A battered sign lying in the mud in 1912 is grim evidence that bad luck seemed to follow entrepreneurs James E. and Lizzie (Minerd) Kelly. An early jeweler and timekeeper in our family, James specialized in watch repair and in 1893 opened a business in Lizzie's hometown of Dunbar, Fayette County, PA. The store was across the street from the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad station, giving James an unusual marketing advantage over his competitors in an era where there was no standardized timekeeping. Said the Uniontown Genius of Liberty in 1895: "He will receive time by telegraph every day over B&O lines, and thus relieve the borough people who desire accuracy from running your correspondent down in the township to get correct time."
Unfortunately, the Kellys suffered two major setbacks in the early 1900s. First, a devastating fire in 1910 destroyed their residence and store, forcing them to rebuild. Then, just two years later, on July 24, 1912, "on account of the heavy rains and a cloud burst in the mountains," said the book Dunbar: The Furnace Town, "Dunbar experienced its worst flood. Kelley's jewelry store ... was washed away." A photo was taken of the of the Kelly store sign, lying damaged among the rubble. Overall damage to the town was estimated at $200,000.
Copyright © 2002 Mark A. Miner. Photo courtesy of the Dunbar (PA) Historical Society.