Sarah Rowan

1860s–1880s

Born in 1861 in Xenia, Ohio, to Irish immigrants John Rowan and Sarah Cullen. Grew up in Greene County with her sister Katie and, from her father's second marriage, five half-siblings.

1890s

Married Amon E. Kelble at St. Brigid's Church on 20 October 1891. Children Francis (1892), Mary Louise (1896), and John (1898) were born.

1900s–1910s

Kept house on South West Street in Xenia. Visited Francis's family in Lima and Philadelphia during the war years.

1920s

Hosted her sons' families for holidays and her grandsons for summers, despite illness from 1924 on. Died at home on 29 November 1927.

An Irish Xenia Family

Sarah Rowan was born in Xenia, Greene County, Ohio, in 1861 (the records give May 13 or March 15), the daughter of the Irish immigrants John Rowan and Sarah Cullen. In 1870 the family was living in Beaver Creek Township. Her sister Catherine, called Katie, was a year or so younger, and from her father's later marriage there were five half-siblings: Hannah, Delia, Jennie, James, and Daniel. Katie married Lewis Heaton, and the Heaton cousins turned up again and again in Kelble family life. Jennie married Frank Hustmyer, and a Frank Hustmeyer, a cousin of Sarah's son Francis, lived near him in Florida in the 1960s.

Wife and Mother

On October 20, 1891, Sarah married Amon E. Kelble, then co-manager of the Xenia Opera House, at St. Brigid's Church, and they set up house in a cottage on Spring Hill. Their son Francis was born in December 1892, Mary Louise in 1896, and John in 1898. In June 1893 Sarah and Amon gave a wedding reception at their home for Katie and Lewis Heaton. By 1901 the family had settled at 249 South West Street, Sarah's home for the rest of her life. That July a relative, Miss Sarah Cullen, fell ill while visiting and died there.

Amon's working life was restless, running from the opera house to printing, an oil wagon, and a construction job in Baltimore, while Sarah kept the household on South West Street. She was a member of St. Brigid's Catholic Church. In September 1917 she and Amon gave a farewell dinner for three young Xenia men, Arthur Heaton, Walter Lunn, and George Geiger, who were leaving for military service at Chillicothe.

Grandmother

Once her sons married, Sarah's calendar filled with family visits. She spent a few weeks with Francis and his wife, Margaret, in Lima in June 1916, just before their first baby was born; went to Philadelphia in October 1917 because a grandson was ill; and stayed with them there for about a month in 1920. When Francis's family moved to Columbus in 1922 the visits grew more frequent, and John, who married in Dayton that year, brought his family often. The Kelbles gathered at Sarah's house for New Year's, Easter, Labor Day, and Christmas, and Francis's oldest boys, John and Francis, spent summer vacations with her in 1923 and 1926.

Illness shadowed her last years. She had the flu in 1922 and a severe attack of rheumatism in 1924, and that November she spent nearly two weeks at the Espey Hospital recovering from an operation. She was seriously ill again in the summer of 1925, suffered from heart disease for her last two years, and was gravely ill in the fall of 1927. She seemed to be improving in mid-November, but she relapsed and died at home on South West Street on November 29, 1927, at sixty-six. She was buried in the Catholic cemetery in Xenia.