Kelly View

This house sitting on the site of what is today Appalachia Elementary School. This house belonged to John J. Kelly Sr, who Kelly View is named after. Dr. J.J. Kelly who was Superintendent of Wise Co Schools from 1917 to 1963 was born in his house.

The old Kelly View School located campus of  Appalachia Elementary School. The original site was near the road. When AES was built they relocated the school to the back of the campus.

The first Settlers of Kelly View Va

The spot where Appalachia Elementary school sits today was the original home of the Clemmy Joseph family. Clemmy Joseph was from Austria he was thought to have been settled here around 1830’s but there is no proof found of this. But at the time Wise County was organized in 1856, and several years thereafter land records prove that Clemmy Joseph was one of the wealist men in Wise Co.

 At the outbreak of the Civil War Joseph, his sons and son in laws were Union Sympathizers. This didn’t set well with their neighbors. One day a band of home guards visited the Joseph's house and demanded money from them. Neither he nor his wife would tell where the money was hidden. The men shot Clemmy and hanged his wife Bessie to a tall gate post. A small boy who was living with them begged for their lives and finally persuaded Clemmy to tell where $300.00 was hidden. The men took the money cut Bessie down and rode away. But the bulk of Clemmy’s wealth was hidden in a grave yard close by. Thankfully their injury wasn’t life threating.

 After the Civil War the Joseph family moved to Perry County Kentucky. On December 15, 1977 Clemmy Joseph sold five tracts of land located on the Little Stone Gap Fork of the Powell River to John J. Kelly Sr. Late on October 30, 1889 Bessie Joseph still living in Kentucky now a widow sold 300 acres to John Kelly.

The Kelly Family whom Kelly View is named after.