Addison Kelley Hamilton, 1889-1892

Addison Kelley Hamilton was the eldest son of Titus and Fredrena Kelley Hamilton, born in 1889. He was the great grandson of Addison Kelley, and a great great grandson of Datus Kelley, one of the namesakes of Kelleys Island. Addison Kelley Hamilton died at age two years and nine months, at the home of his great grandfather, Addison Kelley, on July 27, 1892. His funeral was held at the Kelley residence.

An obituary for the Addison Kelley Hamilton appeared in the July 28, 1892 issue of the Sandusky Register. It read in part: “He was an attractive child, physically strong and intellectually bright and his winsome baby ways were like sunshine in the home. His illness was brief and though surrounded with every comfort and attended by the best medical skill the disease yielded not to either medical science or kindly nursing. The death of the dear boy – but little more than a baby – has cast a dark shadow over the happy home to which his presence brought gladness a few years ago. In the dark hour of their bereavement this stricken household has the deep sympathy of a closely united community.”

Little Addison Kelley Hamilton was buried in the family lot at the Kelleys Island Cemetery. Frank E. Hamilton, another child of Mr. and Mrs. Titus Hamilton, would become a captain of several Great Lakes vessels, and was a well known historian of the Great Lakes and Kelleys Island.