One of the drawbacks for using a real locality and attempting to pull in some historical characters and incidences is that the available information can get murky. That quite often sends me down the research rabbit hole. In Sonora, those rabbit holes often lead to dead ends, such as the one I traveled in an attempt to find the location of the P. Kelly Feed and Stable business.
The following is taken from my Author’s Notes at the end of A Watchman for Willow:
For my book, I wished to use the incident of the shooting that took place at the P. Kelly Stable on April 26, 1886. It was in neighboring California newspapers—most notably the Stockton Mail, the Merced Sun-Star, the Mariposa Gazette, and the Daily Alta California newspapers that I found sufficient details to get a general idea of what took place between Peter Kelly and Michael Keefe and the outcome of the incident. Finding unindexed, microfilmed issues of the Union Democrat, which might have offered more details that came out in the trial, would have required a day or two (or more) of perusing the microfilms at the California State Library.
Since this incident was not the primary plot in my novel, but simply a climatic action incident I set up for my hero’s night watchman work, I chose not to go into more detail than that available in the above-mentioned newspaper sources, or refer directly to this family. For one thing, Michael Keefe coming to visit Peter Kelly took place in the morning. Since my character, Jesse Randolph, worked as a night watchman, the timing did not work. The other reason is because this might still be a sensitive issue for the descendants of both the Kelly and Keefe families, some of whom might still live in Tuolumne County. It was an unnecessary and unfortunate incident that I imagine resulted in a great deal of grief and hardship for two families. Instead, I chose to write a fictional scene inspired by the incident.
Here is some of the information I found:
P. Kelly Feed Stable was a livery run by Patrick Kelly. It operated a stagecoach between Sonora and Strawberry to the east, as well as hauling lumber for various logging companies.
According to the 1870 U.S. Census for Columbia, which is five miles to the north of Sonora, three Kelly brothers lived there in 1870. All three were born in Ireland. One head of household shows the older brother, Michael Kelly, age 35, working as a stable keeper. He did not sell the Columbia livery business to George M. Trask until 1888. Enumerated with him in 1870 was his wife, Bridget, and three children.
On the same census, the youngest brother of three in Columbia, Patrick Kelly, age 21, who appeared to live in the same dwelling as Michael, worked as a stage driver.
Peter Kelly, who lived next to Michael and Patrick, listed his occupation as miner. He was enumerated with his wife, Ann, and one young daughter. In 1873, he advertised that he bought the Copperopolis Stage Line.
By the time of the 1880 U.S. Census, Patrick lived in Sonora. His occupation was Livery business. The above beautifully staged photograph shows the livery and several citizens of Sonora. Patrick Kelly is the man in front wearing the waist coat and the hat set at a jaunty angle.
In 1880, Peter Kelly, who bought out the Copperopolis Stage Line, still lived in Copperopolis. His occupation was listed as Stable Keeper. A newspaper article in 1885 indicated that, upon injury of the regular Copperopolis stagecoach driver, Peter Kelly assumed the ribbons and drove the stagecoach. I do not know if, between 1880 and April 1886, he sold his Copperopolis stable business and moved to Sonora, or if he was in Sonora the day after Easter because he and his family joined his younger brother to celebrate the holiday.
I am not sure where the P. Kelly Stables and Feed business was located in Sonora other than documentation I found states it was on South Washington Street. None of the historic maps show its location. However, According to Michael Gahagan, author of Images of America – Sonora, this livery was the oldest livery stable in Tuolumne County.
This does not coordinate well with my findings that all the Kellys lived in Columbia during the 1870 U.S. Census, and the livery purchased by Michael Kelly took place in February 1870. Since Patrick Kelly was listed as a stage driver on that census, I do not believe he opened his stable business in Sonora prior to 1870. Also, an 1866 photograph of Sonora includes the City Livery.
A careful study of the photograph of P. Kelly Stable shows a rock side wall and brick with iron doors in front. Unlike other stables in the city, it appears surrounded by greenery rather than being abutted by buildings. It looks like it was most likely by either an open area as opposed to being abutted by buildings, which is why I initially thought it might be the livery found along Sonora Creek.
By studying photographs online and in the book, Images of America Sonora, I first thought the City Livery, which is visible in an 1866 photograph, was near a bend to the left in the road. There are three places like that on Washington Street. One is close to where the road continuing to Columbia bends to the east, and the other two—depending on whether the viewer is facing north or south—is between Linoberg Street and Gold Street. I finally found a source that identified it as the livery along Sonora Creek.
It later became Pickle’s Stables. After the fire of 1970, which destroyed several buildings around Sonora Creek, the city decided to build Coffill Park rather than replace the destroyed buildings. Discovered in the ruins following the fire were the rock and brick walls of an old livery. Although this “old livery” was not identified in that article, I suspect this would have been the old City Livery/Pickle’s Stables.
The Pioneer Stable operated by famed (locally, at least) stage driver, John H. Shine, was located on South Washington Street near where the old Stockton Road intersects. This would have placed it almost across the street from the City Livery as well as being fairly close to the original plaza area and the spring that provided potable water in Sonora’s early days.
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| View from second floor of Opera Hall |
Its location was verified in one of two photographs I found of Shine’s Pioneer Stable which showed it located across the street and slightly to the north of the Sonora Opera Hall.
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| Map courtesy of Sonora Remembered, A Nostalgic Tribute to a Gold Rush Town by Patricia Perry, City Historian, Editor (corrected to show location of P. Kelly Feed Stable) |
I still do not know where the P. Kelly Livery is located. For a livery that, if the 1900 U.S. Census is to be believed was still in business, and the image of which is impressive enough that it graced a book cover about Sonora, California, if the Sonora historians know the location of they are keeping this information close to the vest. Since I used the story of the shooting of Peter Kelly by Michael Keefe as the inspiration for one scene in my story, for my purposes, I decided to place my fictional livery near Sonora Creek.
Update as of September 25, 2023. I found the location of the P. Kelly Livery and Feed on a July 1895 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map. In some respects, it was in my research files all along. However, I needed to do some photo-editing to find it.
It is located across from and south of where Silver Street intersects with South Washington Street. Since the time of the 1895 Sanborn map, Silver Street has been renamed to Williams Street. The current address is possibly 435 S. Washington Street.
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