Carrie Kelly Beatty papers

Collection

Identifier: IWA0127

Staff Only
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Scope and Contents

The Carrie Kelly Beatty papers date from 1874 to 1999 and measure 3 linear inches. The papers contain biographical information about Carrie Kelly Beatty and her family, as well as copies of deeds to the Iowa homestead and materials pertaining to Hancock County. Also included in the collection is a photocopy of Bertha E. Bush's "A Prairie Rose," which was based upon Carrie Kelly's life.

Dates

Creation: 1874-1999

Creator

Beatty, Carrie Kelly, 1853-1925 (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

The papers are open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright held by the donor has been transferred to the University of Iowa.

However, copyright status for some collection materials may be unknown. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owner. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility and potential liability based on copyright infringement for any use rests exclusively and solely with the user. Users must properly acknowledge the Iowa Women’s Archives, The University of Iowa Libraries, as the source of the material. For further information, visit https://www.lib.uiowa.edu/sc/services/rights/

Biographical / Historical

Carrie Louise Kelly Beatty was born in New York in 1853 to Samuel Robert Kelly I and Mary MacDonald Kelly. She was educated at the Bedford Female Seminary in Rochester, New York.

After her father died in 1856, Carrie Kelly's mother remarried. Carrie Kelly and her brother Samuel Robert 'Rob' Kelly II did not get along with their stepfather, so in 1868 when she was fifteen they both moved west to Iowa where their father had purchased land sight unseen before he died. Her experiences during her first year in Iowa were the basis for the book "A Prairie Rose" by Bertha E. Bush. In the fictionalized account, Carrie Kelly's name was changed to Rose Kellogg.

In 1880, Carrie Kelly married Samuel Bates Beatty at the Baptist Church in Clear Lake, Iowa. They raised four children, Donald, Zelda, Robert, and Clarence. They divorced for a time, but eventually remarried. In 1905, Samuel Beatty bought a casket company in Butte, Montana and the family moved there for a time. However, Carrie Beatty became homesick, so her husband bought back his business in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Samuel Beatty died in 1919, and Carrie Beatty in 1925 from an inoperable tumor.