Kelleys Island is a village in Erie County, Ohio, located on the largest American island in Lake Erie. The community occupies the entire island, which covers about and is known for its limestone and dolomite geology shaped by glacial activity. As of the 2020 census, the village has a population of 256 and functions primarily as a seasonal vacation destination. The island includes notable natural and historic features, including Inscription Rock and the Kelleys Island Historic District, which encompasses the entire island on the National Register of Historic Places.
History Kelleys Island was previously home to local Native Americans of the area. During the beginning of the War of 1812, the island was occupied by the British and later the US military who used it as a military rendezvous point. The British originally renamed it Sandusky Island. Later the United States occupied it officially designated it as Island Number 6 and Cunningham Island. During the early 19th century, the island was mostly uninhabited as the colonial forces displaced the original indigenous communities It was renamed as Kelleys Island in 1840 by brothers Datus and Irad Kelley, who had purchased nearly the entire island.
After the Kelley brothers purchased the land, there was commercial development through extraction of the island's limestone and lumber resources, and the population began to grow with workers and families. There was also growing of grapes as a commodity crop. As of the 2010 census, the island's population was 312.
Today, Kelleys Island is primarily a vacation destination, and is visited by thousands of people each summer. Notable attractions include its various beaches, parks, and campgrounds. Several ferries provide regular transport to the mainland for most travelers; the island also features a number of marinas, as well as a small airfield for private planes. It is the largest of the American Lake Erie Islands, and is a part of the Sandusky metropolitan area.
Native Americans and Inscription Rock Kelleys Island is a Devonian limestone and dolomite ridge carved during the Pleistocene era. The first known occupants of Kelleys Island were Algonquian and Iroquoian, possibly including Erie, who travelled through the area to fish and at times lived in the area until 1656.
On the south shore of the island (near what is now the downtown-village area), there is a large limestone rock featuring petroglyphs carved over a number of years by these and earlier indigenous inhabitants. In the mid-19th century, scholar named it Inscription Rock. The Kelleys Island Historical Association relies on the Henry Rowe Schoolcraft investigations, which dated the carvings to roughly 1643. He theorized that the rock was used by members of "seasonal" Native American tribes, to impart information to one another about how the hunting had been in the area, and where their group would next be traveling.
Many different items and scenes are cut into the large flat top side of the rock, which measures . Over time, most of the inscriptions on this rock have been eroded away. The indigenous peoples who are thought to have inscribed these images are said to have been killed about 1665 by Iroquois nations from the New York area, who were trying to conquer territory to control the fur trade.
Early European settlers This island is called Sandusky Island on maps produced in the latter half of the 18th century.A Survey of the South Shore of Lake Erie commencing at the Narrows at Fort Erie, and ending at the entrance of Detroit River taken in 1789 by Hy. Ford Naval Offr. Pk. McNiff Asst. Surv. by Order of His Excellency The Rt. Hon'ble. Lord Dorchester Governor (Prior to U.S. occupation of this area, the name "Cunningham's Island" seems to have been applied to present-day "Catawba Island", which was then also a true island.) In the late 1790s the Connecticut Land Company surveyed the south east shore of Lake Erie. A more thorough survey was completed in 1806, when this island was officially designated as "Island Number 6". Later the name Cunningham's Island was used to refer to the island.
There is a legend that the first European American resident of this island was a man named "Cunningham" (supposedly a "Frenchman" or French-speaking Canadian). He was said to have traveled to the island in 1803 with the intention of making his home there, at a time when it was still inhabited by Native Americans. For a while, Cunningham enjoyed what he perceived to be a friendlu relationship with the native people, though he did not have their permission to move there: he built a log cabin near their village, socialized with their hunters, and traded goods with them on a regular basis. But (as the legend goes) Cunningham had a disagreement with the Native Americans, and a group tore down his home, stole all his possessions, and attempted to kill him. He escaped to the Ohio Peninsula via canoe, but died shortly afterward from his wounds. For many years after his death, the island was known as Cunningham Island. [ However, the legend of Mr. Cunningham might instead apply to present-day Catawba Island, which seems to have been formerly named "Cunningham's Island" by the British, prior to 1804. Also note that the surname 'Cunningham' is not typically of French origin, but is recorded as of Scottish origin.] Prior to the War of 1812, several other white adventurers are documented as trying to settle this island, but all of them were eventually being driven away, either by the native people whose land it was, or by the incoming U.S. pioneers and land-owners. By the time the war had ended, the few remaining Native Americans had been displaced and forced to leave the island.
During the War of 1812, the west shore of Cunningham Island was developed as a military rendezvous post by US General William Henry Harrison. In 1818, a man named Killam briefly attempted to start a logging company, but abandoned the island after the large steam-powered boat he used to transport wood to the mainland wrecked and sank. Around 1826, people slowly began settling on the island; by 1830, six families made up its entire population.
About the year 1833, Ben Napier, a Scottish-American veteran of the War of 1812, claimed ownership of this "Cunningham Island" (and also nearby Put-in-Bay), through squatters rights. Napier and his associates often bullied the incoming pioneer settlers, sometimes hijacking their cabins and stealing or killing their livestock. Napier was eventually legally ousted after the court system ruled that he had no ownership rights. In April 1842, he was sentenced to five years in the penitentiary for making false claims of ownership while under oath. Napier was the father of both Nelson Napier, captain of the PS Alpena when she sank with no survivors in October 1880, and Joseph Napier, a Life-Saving Service station keeper.
Acquisition by the Kelleys In 1830, John Clemons and his brother began mining the island's limestone, and opened its first quarry. They built a dock on the north side in order to ship the rock to the American mainland. Shortly afterward, brothers Datus and Irad Kelley became aware of the island's potential worth, and slowly began purchasing its land in parcels.
Datus and Irad Kelley were born in Middlefield, Connecticut, on April 24, 1788, and October 24, 1791, respectively. Datus moved to Rocky River, Ohio, in 1811, working as a surveyor and sawmill owner. Irad moved to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1812, eventually becoming a successful merchant, postmaster, sailor, and real-estate investor. Irad Kelley first became aware of the island after being forced to seek shelter there while transporting goods via sloop sailboat from Detroit to his shop in Cleveland. On August 20, 1833, the two began purchasing parcels of land on Cunningham Island at the rate of $1.50 per acre. They eventually owned the entire island, and in 1840 changed its name to Kelleys Island. By this time, the population had risen to 68 people.
The brothers quickly began improving and expanding the island's docks to export limestone, fruit, and red cedar lumber. Soon, 16 limestone kilns were producing lime. The village's various industries hired a number of immigrants (including young children), many of whom would work on the island during the summer and return to their homeland during the winter. Among the nationalities working on the island at that time were Irish, Poles, Slavs, Macedonians, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Italians, and Portuguese. Datus Kelley encouraged sobriety, and he paid his employees bonuses for abstaining from "intoxifying liquors".
The quarries were the origin of the Kelley Island Lime & Transport Company, which was once the largest producer of limestone and lime products in the world, operating between 1896 and the early 1960s. Numerous ruins of these operations and quarries now dot the island.
In 1842, Charles Carpenter (son-in-law of Datus Kelley) of Norwich, Connecticut, began growing and harvesting grapes for wine on Kelleys Island. By the early 20th century, the island was annually producing 500,000 gallons of wine per year.
The small village grew quickly, and soon a library and post office were erected. In 1901, the Estes Schoolhouse was built at a cost of $15,000.
Recent history and modern day Kelleys Island is heavily forested except for several residential areas, some for year-round residents, others for summer vacationers. Some small farms and a small limestone quarry still operate on the island. Each summer since 1974 (typically in August), the island hosts a weekend-long homecoming festival, which includes a theme parade featuring both locals and vacationers, a picnic, and a number of food and craft booths.
Kelleys Island has a cemetery located on Division Street, about a mile north from the center of downtown.USGenWeb Archives Special Projects: Kelleys Island cemetery information. Although the cemetery is relatively small, several hundred people are buried or have memorial headstones there. Burials include that of Datus Kelley.
In 1975, on the island's southern shore were designated as a historic district, the Kelleys Island South Shore District, and added to the National Register of Historic Places. In 1988, the district was renamed to the Kelleys Island Historic District and expanded to include the entire island.
Kelleys Island is one of 20 members of the Great Lakes Islands Alliance, which includes islands in the US and Canada. Other member islands include nearby Middle Bass, South Bass, and Pelee as well as Lake Michigan's Beaver and Washington Islands, Lake Ontario's Amherst, Howe, Simcoe, and Wolfe Islands, Lake Huron's Bois Blanc, Drummond, Les Cheneaux, Mackinac, Manitoulin, Neebish, St. Joseph, and Sugar Islands, Lake Superior's Madeline Island, and Lake St. Clair's Harsens Island.
Tourism Kelleys Island is primarily a vacation destination. It is one of only 17 islands in the Great Lakes that has a year-round population.
Beaches and wildlife Kelleys Island features a number of public beaches. Many areas allow swimming, boating and fishing.
In August 2010, a report from The Nature Conservancy in conjunction with the US Fish and Wildlife Service U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, and several other non-profit agencies listed Kelleys as the 7th most ecologically threatened island in the Great Lakes. The reasons given for the island's poor ecological health included "development, tourism and recreation, marinas and resorts, increased roads and buildings, incompatible agricultural practices and invasive species."
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