Martha Elliott

Fredrick Thomas Pelly came to the United States in the 1800’s, accompanied by his brother—name unknown.   Both Pelly brothers stated their destination as:  Texas.  I don’t know exactly when they got there, but they must have parted ways because I did not hear anything more about him.   Grandson Ronnie Ashworth remembers his grandfather saying that he wished he knew whatever happened to his brother.    
I know that Mr. Pelly drove a horse-drawn streetcar in New Orleans for a while.  When he arrived in the Houston area, he went to the settlement on Tabbs Bay, where he met Lucy Wiggins.  Planning to marry, he joined the army and served while settling the Nez Perce Indians on a reservation in Idaho.  He talked about their ways and witnessed a marriage ceremony beside a waterfall, describing it in detail, much like a movie starring Nelson Eddy.  Returning to the Tabbs Bay area, he and Lucy were married, thereby acquiring quite a bit of property as her part of the Wiggins property.
They attended church at the Cedar Bayou Methodist Church on Kilgore Rd.   They had Charlotte (Lottie), my husband’s mother (born January 26, 1899), then Menke in December 1899.  Later Leona followed, then Henry.  They farmed the property, and I recall Lottie telling about selling produce from a small wagon, which she and Menke pulled around the settlement.  Eventually they applied for a Post Office and sent in the local settlers’ names to Washington, D.C.  They picked Pelly for the name, and it became the name of the town. 
There were three towns there:  Pelly, then Baytown, which was the port, and Goose Creek, named for the stream running through it.  Goose Creek was just called New Town for a long time.  Fred Pelly was later a mayor of Pelly for several years.
When I came to Goose Creek in 1946, Mr. Pelly was running a tourist court along W. Main St.  My husband, Rex, and I would go visit him, and he would talk endlessly about his life, but I’m afraid that I forgot most of it.  Mr. Pelly died in Lily-Duke Hospital in May of 1948.  He is buried in Hill of Rest Cemetery in the Wiggins’ Family plot with a number of family members.