My Genealogy Hound

Thomas Kitley was born in Clinton County, Ind., in 1839, to the union of Francis and Jane (Hulmes) Kitley, natives of Pennsylvania and Ohio, respectively. He comes of English descent on his father’s side, the paternal grandfather having been a Quaker, who emigrated from England in 1801, and settled at Pittsburgh, Penn., where he died in 1844, at the age of ninety-three. Francis Kitley, after moving to Ohio, married there and then went to Indiana. In 1852 he took his family to Clay County, Ill., where he died in 1878, at the age of seventy-six years. His widow still survives, and is the mother of ten children, eight boys and two girls, seven of whom are living. Thomas Kitley, after reaching manhood, married Drucilla Chaney, whose birth occurred in Indiana in 1842; to this union were born five children (one of whom is deceased): Margaret A. (now Mrs. Coldasur), Lewis E. (who is attending school at Carlisle and studying law), John W. (a graduate of the American Medical College, of St. Louis), Amos B. (deceased) and Pearley V. In 1877 Mr. Kitley moved his family to Arkansas, and located in Lonoke County, though at that time he had nothing. Now he owns a fine farm of 160 acres all under cultivation, 200 acres being situated on the Prossi. He is a prominent Republican, politically, having been, as he tersely puts it, “rocked in a Republican cradle.” He is a member of the school board, and has held this position for a number of years. He is also a member of the A. F. & A. M. Mr. and Mrs. Kitley have been actively associated with the Methodist Episcopal Church for twenty-two years. He is a highly respected citizen, and takes an influential interest in all educational, religious and worthy public enterprises.