Fresno County, California Biographies

Source: History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches of 
the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with 
its growth and development from the early days to the present (1919)

History By Paul E. Vandor 
Illustrated, Complete In Two Volumes 
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1919
 
Notes: Missing+page1185-1186

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


MRS. GERTRUDE MANEELY.� A very estimable lady, whose family 
is creditably associated with the pioneer history of California, is Mrs. Ger- 
trude Maneely, a native of St. Louis, Mo., and the daughter of Nathaniel 
Kelly, who was born in Dublin, Ireland, and who came alone to America 
and New Orleans when he was only seventeen years of age. There he began 
clerking, and in time became a merchant at Seguin, Texas. He next removed 
to St. Louis. Mo., where he clerked for Crawford & Co. ; and leaving their 
employ and that state, he returned to Texas and again established himself 
as a merchant at Dallas. In Houston and at Waco he also, at one time or 
another, had stores. 

In 1896, Mr. Kelly removed to San Francisco where he was again busy 
as a merchant, and at the beginning of the new century, when more than 
ever Central California was awakened to its natural destiny, he came to 
Fresno County and started in business at Herndon. Later he bought Mr. 
Yount's store at Barstow, and, with his long and varied experience, he was 
able to make of it still more of a general merchandise establishment that 
that district had ever before enjoyed. In 1917. at the end of the year, he sold 
out and retired, conscious of having both merited and won the good wishes 
of his patrons and friends. Mrs. Kelly was Sarah T. Mansfield before her 
marriage, and is a native of San Antonio, Texas. She was left an orphan at 
five years of age, but was fortunate in being reared and educated in her 
native state. She is the mother of two children : Gertrude, who married John 
Maneely, a rancher at Barstow ; and Lillie, who is Mrs. Smellie of Madera. 

Gertrude Kelly came to California with her parents, and was educated 
at the famous convent of St. Joseph at San Francisco. She was married, at 
Fresno, first to James Emery, a native of Ohio, who came to California in 
the boom period of 1888, when he was twenty, and for a while was in the 
employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, leaving that system to 
assume a responsible post offered by the Fresno Irrigation and Canal Com- 
pany, at Empire. There, for sixteen years, he was in charge of their ditch, 
and a better superintendent the company never had. In 1909, Mr. Emery 
embarked in viticulture and bought eighty acres at Barstow which he greatly 
improved. He took pleasure and pride in his work, and continued to operate 
his ranch until his death, on January 13, 1917. During the last seven years 
of his life, which he devoted to farming, he had eighty acres, twenty-five of 
which were devoted to an orchard of peaches, and twelve acres to a vineyard 
of muscat and Thompson grapes, while considerable of the land produced 
alfalfa. 

Thirteen months after Mr. Emery's death his widow became the wife of 
John Maneely, a native of Canada, whose interesting life story is elsewhere 
given in some detail in this work. As a practical, progressive woman of im- 
portant affairs, who has shown exceptional executive ability, Mrs. Maneely 
belongs both to the California Associated Raisin Company and to the Cali- 
fornia Peach Growers, Inc.