About the Mallory-Neely House Compiled by Edward Kirtland Hine, Jr. ("Ted") - March 2015
The Mallory-Neely House was built starting in 1852 by Isaac Billius Kirtland (1807-1885), the first cousin of my 2nd great grandfather Billius Kirtland (1807- 1891) of Boardman/Poland Townships, Ohio. The cousin's common grandparents were Constant Kirtland (1727-1792) and Rachel Brockett-Kirtland (1732-1812) who had lived in Connecticut. Billius descends from their son Turhand Kirtland (1755-1844) and Isaac from son John Kirtland (1759-1843). While the first cousins were both born the same year (1807) it's not known if they ever knew each other, Billius having been born on the Ohio frontier where he lived his entire life and Isaac in Granville, NY. On the other hand it's much more likely that Billius' older brother Jared Potter Kirtland (1793-1877) knew his cousin Isaac as Jared had stayed behind in Connecticut when father Turhand moved the rest of the family to the Ohio frontier in 1803 and Jared wouldn't join his family there until 1823. In the book "Jared Potter Kirtland - Naturalist, Physician, Sage of the Western Reserve" author Thomas Daniel mentions a letter written by Jared in 1855 "to a relative living in the South whom he addressed simply as 'Respected Relative'" in which Jared talks about the evils of slavery. I suspect that this letter could have been written to his cousin Isaac as the timing and location fit and the topic is appropriate to this historical period.
Isaac Billius Kirtland was successful in banking and insurance and had moved to Memphis from New York. After building the mansion starting in 1852 he only occupied it for a little over a decade before selling it in 1864 so he could move back to New York. He subsequently returned to Memphis (where he is buried) but lived elsewhere in the city. The timing of Isaac's temporary exit from Memphis makes me wonder if perhaps his motivation had something to do with the Civil War but I have no evidence of this.
The home would then have several owners but the longest and far and away the most notable were the Mallory and Neely families. Frances Neely-Mallory would live in the 25 room mansion for 86 years till her death in 1969. After her death the family in 1972 deeded the mansion and it's furnishings to the Daughters, Sons, and Children of the American Revolution to be preserved as a museum. In 1984 the property was transferred to the City of Memphis where it became part of the city's museum system. Since then the historic home has been regularly open to the public for tours and historians (with the exception of a some years when city funding was in short supply). One major attraction of the home to historians of such things is it's furnishings (including carpet, drapes, etc.) which are original to the mid to later 1800's and among the few remaining examples of such items dating back that far. I have digitized two brochures which provided details about the Mallory-Neely house. One is in full color and includes numerous photos of the home and it's interior.
How The Genealogical Connection Between Cousins Billius And Isaac Was Made There's a multi-generational "small world" story as to how I came to be aware of my Kirtland ancestors connection to the Mallory-Neely House. Isaac Billius Kirtland built the home but since he only lived there for a short time by historical standards, his name isn't commonly associated with it. It took two independent long term events to accidentally come together to make the connection. First, I have a life long family friend, Bill McKelvy, who's family and mine go back 3 generations. Bill's grandfather and my great uncle, Alfred Blakelee Hine (grandson of Billius Kirtland), attended the same college and spent their careers together as business partners in Pittsburgh, PA building large construction project such as bridges. Bill's grandfather's son and my father (who was nicknamed "Kirt" after his middle name which honored his great grandfather Billius Kirtland) attended Yale together where they became lifelong best friends. It thus was natural that the Hine's and McKelvy's of my generation would come to know each other well. Bill and I have known each other our entire lives, attended summer camp together as children, and have stayed in contact over many decades. While Bill certainly knew my father "Kirt" well being his father's best friend, he apparently and understandably never knew that the name was short for Kirtland and perhaps had never known even it's spelling which is often confused with "Curt" by those who have never seen it in writing. Second, in the early 1970's Bill McKelvy and his new wife Dana moved to the Memphis, TN area where he had taken a job as one of the early pilots for the then upstart overnight package delivery company Federal Express (now FedEx). Wife Dana, being civic minded, soon became involved with local projects, one of which was doing volunteer work for the Mallory-Neely House shortly after it was donated to the Daughters, Sons, and Children of the American Revolution in 1975. She soon ended up running the entire restoration and public display project which she would continue doing for long after it was transferred to the City of Memphis in 1984. Early on and as part of her volunteer activities she researched the home's early history finding that it had been built by Isaac Billius Kirtland and she followed up by doing some genealogical research regarding him and his ancestors. In the mid 1990's the McKelvy's and my brother Henry Hine's family (by then living near Nashville, TN) were together catching up over a weekend when the derivation of Henry's youngest son's and father's nickname "Kirt" came up. When Henry explained that it was short for Kirtland, an old family name, it immediately caught the McKelvy's attention. And the light bulbs really came on when the name Billius came up as Henry was aware that this name was in his Kirtland ancestry. It took the two families some time to check and compare their genealogical notes but the exact relationship relationship of first cousins Billius and Isacc was eventually confirmed. On the way to spend the Christmas holidays with brother Henry near Nashville in 1998 I spend a couple of days with the McKelvy's in Memphis during which I was given the "super-deluxe" tour of the Mallory-Neely house. Since Dana had by then spent decades running it, I was given access to parts of the home not open to the general public and given a personal tour the by the lead docent/historian (in addition to Bill and Dana). To the best of anyone's knowledge I was the first Kirtland relative to ever tour the historic landmark (Isaac Billius Kirtland being my 1st cousin 4 times removed). |
