Mahlon was the youngest son of William and Charlotte Kelly, born 14 October 1886 when his mother was 43. Census data tells us that in 1900 at age 13 he attended school in Baltimore, and in 1910 at age 23 he still lived with his parents, working as a clerk for a railroad company. Some time after that he married his brother Will's widow, Elizabeth Lillian Braunreuter.
Lillian and her family immigrated from Germany in 1882 when she was 9, the eldest of 3 daughters (the family was completed with the birth of Clara in Baltimore in 1890). Her family operated the Battlefield Hotel in Gettysburg. She could have moved to Gettysburg when Will died in 1907 but she chose not to, remaining in Baltimore and operating her home as a rooming house. She was successful at it, bringing in enough to feed her sons and herself, keep a roof over their heads and even put some money away. She stayed in touch with her in-laws. My grandfather grew up in frequent contact with his grandfather, whom I get a sense he was in awe of. Lillian facilitated the contact. This also kept her in touch with her brothers-in-law, Edward and Mahlon.
Mahlon has a bad reputation in our family. I recently asked Dad about it. He answered that Mahlon lost all of Lillian's savings in a bad investment on a property in Atlantic City. It was to be a seasonal business. It failed to make the kind of money in its first summer that it needed to sustain the family over the off season. As I understand it, Lillian walked away from the property and from her husband, and returned to Baltimore. The year was 1913 or so.
The next record of Mahlon is his World War I
draft card. It indicates that he lived in the Arlington section of Baltimore, worked as a clerk for the
American Propeller and Manufacturing Company, had already spent 3 years 7 months in the military, and he was single. He wasn't actually single - the draft card is dated 6 June 1918 and Lillian didn't receive the
final divorce decree until 15 August. As for his 3 years 7 months of military service, he received an honorable discharge on 7 November 1917, so he enlisted around April of 1914. This confirms that his marriage to Lillian was effectively over by the spring of 1914. He's listed in the 1915 Baltimore City directory, his occupation recorded as "Conductor", but that has to be based on old information.
International Man of Mystery
The 1920 census finds Lillian in Baltimore with her sons and a number of boarders, her marital status listed as
Widowed though
Divorced was an option. The census missed Mahlon. He was in Baltimore - he's listed in the 1921 City Directory there - but he was gravitating towards Detroit. He entered Canada twice in the early 1920s, on 16 May 1923 and 15 May 1924, both times through Windsor, Ontario which is adjacent to Detroit. Both times he gave his permanent address as 2066 Kennedy Ave in Baltimore, his purpose as tourist and his occupation as Parimutuel - he took bets on horse races. His mother's 10 September 1925
obituary indicates that she was survived by "Mahlon G Kelly (of) Detroit", so by then his move was complete. Detroit had its own City Directory, but there's no sign of a Mahlon G Kelly in it at any time.
Mahlon married a woman named May, last name unknown, in Baltimore on 9 October 1929. There's no sign of them in the 1930 census. He did cross into Canada again though, on 1 March 1930. This time he gave his occupation as "farmer" which is ridiculous for a lifelong city dweller, and his nearest relative as his wife "Mary" (as transcribed) of 1644 Charlotte St, Detroit. The only record of May I know of besides this is her divorce decree. She filed for divorce on 7 November 1936 in Detroit, on grounds of non-support. Her petition was
granted on 26 February, 1937.
Mahlon next turns up in the 1940 census, which finds him in a Veterans' Administration facility for the indigent in Virginia. He lived with his brother Edward in Washington DC in 1950. He died on 18 January 1952 at the age of 65. He's
buried in Arlington National Cemetery in honor of his service during World War I. His inscription matches the information on his draft card, reading "PFC 115 INFANTRY, 29 DIVISION, WORLD WAR I", along with his name and dates. Better if it read, "HE HAD A PROBLEM WITH MONEY".