Jennie and Charlie McKelvey

Harriet Taylor Upton, wrote in her book HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RESERVE,that Jennie Adams McKelvey was born on January 22, 1873, and died on April 8, 1876. Her brother Charles Sumner McKelvey was born January 3, 1875, and died on August 17, 1875. These siblings who died young were children of John McKelvey,a prominent Sandusky business man, and his wife Jane Rowland Huntington McKelvey. The tombstone in the shape of the tree stump often symbolizes a life that ended prematurely.

John and Jane's son John Jay McKelvey, born May 24, 1863 in Sandusky, became the first editor-in-chief of the Harvard Law Review. Another of John and Jane's children was Ralph McKelvey a museum director, painter, teacher and art critic. One can only wonder what little Jennie and Charlie could have achieved, had they survived to adulthood. Charles and Jennie McKelvey are buried with their parents in Sandusky's Oakland Cemetery. A biographical sketch of their father John McKelvey is found on page 529 of HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY, OHIO, edited by Lewis Cass Aldrich.