Part 1: Born in 1907, Mrs. Kelley talks about her ancestors first on her father’s side and then on her mother’s side. She can count eight generations of her family born on Cape Cod.  Her father was born in Dennisport.  All of her father’s ancestors were from the Plymouth Colony and most from the Mayflower.  She mentions some were “saints” (William Brewster and William Bradford) and some were “strangers” (Richard Warren, Stephen Hopkins and Joseph Rogers).   Her father was born in Harwich in 1884.  Her mother Grace Lillian Farrington was born near Dedham and brought up in Boston and Westwood.  Louise was born in Providence and traveled to the Cape by train to visit grandparents on the Cape.  She remembers as a young girl, her family taking the train and being met at the North Harwich train depot by Uncle Will, who with his horse and carriage, took them to their destination in Dennisport.  She remembers her grandparents, Edgar Poe Kelley and Edna Colby Stone Kelley, great grandfather Warren Snow, great aunt Georgianna Hopkins Kelley, Great aunt Etta Kelley, great great aunt Olive who was married to Captain Horatio Kelley and who had a daughter Annie Smith who started the telegraph office in Dennisport.  She tells us of her experiences with her relatives, what their homes were like and relates several interesting stories of their lives.  Her uncle was a retired sailor and would walk with a roll as if he was still on a ship.   She describes Dennisport when she was a young girl.  It had crushed shell roads and there were split rail fences with pineapple posts.  She remembers another uncle who said he would walk ten miles one way to go a courting and then walk ten miles back to his home. 

Part 2: Mrs. Kelley reads some excerpts from her uncle Will’s letters including a New Year’s resolution in December 1877 when he was 21 and on board ship.  He resolves not to swear, spend foolish money, and will knock off chewing tobacco.  She also reads a sad letter from Anthony Baker to his sister-in-law about the death of his wife.  She also talks about Foster Rogers’ letter to his wife while he is at sea near Mobile, Alabama.  Foster was born in 1788 in Orleans and died at sea in 1826.  She also talks about the Moody family including Rhoda Moody who was married to Foster Rogers.  She reads a poem from Ethel M. Kelley who was 12 years old and writing about the death of her grandmother.  Mrs. Kelley reads several Kelley family obituaries.  She tells several humorous stories about her father and grandfather.

Notes: The Tales of Cape Cod Oral History Collection is housed at the William Brewster Nickerson Archives in the Wilkens Library at Cape Cod Community College in West Barnstable, Massachusetts. For more information about the collection, please contact the Nickerson Archives, http://www.nickersonarchives.org/.