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| Nellie A Healy 1864-1945, photo courtesy of the Healy House Museum |
Nellie A Healy was the niece of Maytor Healy. Her father immigrated from Co. Kerry, Ireland with his brother, Maytor Healy about 1858. After he arrived in North America, he separated ways with Maytor, met and married Nellie's mother then Nellie was born September 1864 in New Hampshire, United States. Unfortunately Nellie's father became a widower and Nellie spent most of her youth in a Catholic convent in Quebec, Canada. Completing her formal education, Nellie A Healy earned her teaching degree and became a school teacher. [2]
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| Daniel Healy, cousin to Nellie A. Healy, abt. 1890 |
While teaching school in the east, Nellie received a letter from her cousin, Daniel Healy who was living in the booming mining town, Leadville Colorado. Knowing of Nellie's health issues, Daniel thought the high altitude of Colorado may be beneficial to Nellie and invited her to join him in Leadville. Nellie left the east and travelled to Leadville, Colorado arriving in 1895. [2]
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| Leadville's Ninth St. School, In 1895, Miss Nellie Healy taught in room 5. |
In 1895 Leadville had five schools, Central, Ninth St. Carbonate Hill, Seventh St. and Bucktown with a total of 1200 students in the month of March. Nellie was able to secure a teaching position at the Ninth St. school, teaching in Room 5. Her students were Charlie Coston, Harry LaSalle, John Rawson, Ella Brunton, May Wright, Maggie Dolan, Nellie Fenno, Eva Hale, Ella Mackey, May Hunt, Ethel Moore and Nellie Miller.
The other teachers at the Leadville Ninth Street school that year were Mary L. Darling, Carrie Miller, Cora B. Davis, Edith Cretney, Estella I Wilkin, Lena Patrick, Saidee Edwards, M.J. McCoy and T.J. Fox. [6]
Nellie A Kelly became good friends with a fellow teacher, Miss Saidee Edwards and beginning in she rented one of the upper bedrooms at the Kelly House.
In March of 1895, Nellie was teaching and Belle Kelly was attending the Ninth St. School. Daniel was employed as a Clerk for Justice _____. Patrick Kelly owned the "Kelly Saloon" on 130 E. Sixth St. where he was a bartender and he worked in the Leadville mines.
Daniel's older sister, Ellen had also been living in Leadville with her husband Patrick Albert Kelly and three young daughters, Mary, Ellen Claire and Helen Belle. On May 25, 1895 Ellen died during the birth of her fourth child, a son who also died. After the deaths of his wife and son, Patrick Kelly was overcome with grief and sold the boardinghouse to his brother-in-law, Daniel. When Nellie arrived she began helping Daniel with the day-to-day management of the boardinghouse.
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| Daniel built a third floor to the boardinghouse adding five more rooms for boarders. [2] He hired Mr. and Mrs. Harper to manage the operations of the boardinghouse when Nellie started teaching at the Ninth St. School. [2] |
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| The Healy House in Leadville Colorado, Daniel and Nellie with boarders - 1890 |
Daniel and Nellie both lived in the boardinghouse. Nellie became more involved in social affairs in both Leadville and in Ogden Utah where her other cousin, and Daniel's oldest brother Patrick Healy lived with his family. She also obtained a full-time teaching position in 1892 at the Ninth Avenue School in Leadville so Daniel hired Mr. and Mrs. Harper to manage the operations of the boardinghouse. Many of the schoolteachers Nellie worked with boarded in the third floor bedrooms of the boardinghouse called "The Kelly Place"
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| 1899, Nellie and her friends at the boardinghouse. Nellie became good friends with Miss Saidee Edwards, also a teacher at the Ninth Street School and in 1899 Saidee began renting one of the upper bedrooms at the Kelly Place boardinghouse. |
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The Ninth Street School, Leadville Colorado, Miss Nellie Healy and her 5th grade class [5]
1900 US Census, Leadville Colorado - 21 boarders living in the boardinghouse.
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Nellie Healy's drawing. As a girl, Nellie created this charcoal sketch during her days in the Catholic convent in Quebec, Canada. She brought it with her to Leadville and it remains in the Leadville Healy House which is now on the National Register of Historic Places and a museum.
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| This watercolor painting belonged to Nellie Healy. It hangs in the entry, staircase of the Healy House Museum in Leadville, Colorado. |
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| Nellie A Healy's bible. It remains in Nellie's upstairs bedroom at the Healy House Museum in Leadville Colorado |
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| The Salt Lake Herald, Salt Lake City, Utah, Wednesday, September 4, 1901, page 3 |
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| The 1906 Leadville City Directory, Nellie Healy is living in the Healy House and teaching at the Ninth St. School. - note - James M Heffernan is the brother of Patrick Albert Kelly, the husband of Nellie's deceased cousin, Ellen Healy Kelly. |
May 1912 - Daniel Healy drowned
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| Nellie Healy's mourning gown - worn after Daniel's death. Photo courtesy of the Healy House Museum, Leadville Colorado |
Sept 1912 - Nellie ran for the Democrat ticket as Lake County Treasurer but lost to Frank E. Kendrick, 1418 to 553 votes.
1915 - Patrick Albert Kelly dies in New Mexico and his sister brings his body home to Leadville to be buried. The boardinghouse is still called "The Kelly Place"
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| The Healy Hotel, Ogden Utah 1901 |
Nellie's cousin (and Daniel's oldest brother) Patrick Healy built the Healy Hotel in Ogden across the street from the train Depot Station. Nellie would visit her cousins and stay in the Healy Hotel or in Patrick and Mary Ann Healy's home on Jefferson Avenue in Ogden.
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| The Lobby of the Healy Hotel, Ogden Utah |
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| The Salt Lake Tribune, Salt Lake City, Utah, Sunday, October 14, 1923, page 34 |
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| The dilapidated west facade of the Healy House in 1936 |
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| The Daily Sentinel, Grand Junction, Colorado, Sunday, July 26, 1936, page 8 |
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| The Steamboat Pilot newspaper, July 31, 1936. [3] |
In 1936, Nellie met Marian P. "Poppy" Smith, the head of the Leadville Historical Society, and Clara Gaw. During the meeting, she gave Smith a set of encyclopedias. At the end of the meeting, she handed over the keys to the historic home. Thus, Nellie Healy donated her inherited home and the furnishings to the Leadville Historical Society.
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| Healy House pamphlet with Marion P. "Poppy" Smith's signature. |
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| Original Healy House Museum Pamphlet, Pages 1 - 4 |
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| Healy House Museum Pamphlet, back cover |
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| The Salt Lake Tribune, Salt Lake City, Utah, Sunday, December 25, 1938, page 40 |
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Sources
[2] Historic Colorado Mansions and Castles by Linda Wommack
[3] Presents Building to Leadville Club, Steamboat Pilot (Steamboat Springs, Routt County Colorado) , July 31, 1936
