The Ellen G. White Letters and Manuscripts: Volume 1

KELSEY, Eunice Rebecca (1820-1906) and Asa Post H. (1818-1857)

Asa and Eunice Kelsey settled in Leroy Township, near Battle Creek, Michigan, prior to 1840 and became Sabbathkeepers in 1852. According to Eunice Kelsey's obituary, “it was from Brother Kelsey's sawmill that lumber was secured for the erection of the first church building” in Battle Creek (1855). Eunice was left a widow in 1857 with four children, and Ellen White wrote caringly in her 1859 diary, “I feel the deepest sympathy for this devoted widow.” 1EGWLM 856.5

Eunice Kelsey's older daughter, Hannah Louise, married Edwin R. Jones, minister and church administrator in Michigan, Colorado, and the West Coast. Her younger daughter, Mary Ellen, married James and Ellen White's son William Clarence White in 1876. Ellen White developed a warm relationship with Eunice and often referred to her fondly as “Mother Kelsey” in her diaries and correspondence. 1EGWLM 857.1

See: Obituary: “Eunice Rebecca Kelsey,” Review, June 21, 1906, p. 23; obituary: “A.P.H. Kelsey,” Review, Aug. 13, 1857, p. 119; Edward A. Claypool and Azalea Clizbee, A Genealogy of the Descendants of William Kelsey Who Settled at Cambridge, Mass., in 1632; at Hartford, Conn., in 1636; and at Killingworth, Conn., in 1663 (Bridgeport, Conn.: Marsh Press, Inc., 1947), vol. 3, pp. 622, 623, 785, 786; Ellen G. White, Ms 5, 1859 (Mar. 2 entry); SDAE, s.v. “Mary (Kelsey) White.” 1EGWLM 857.2