It's a Dog's Life - the Bellinger home

Jack Kelly
in front of the Bellinger house
Greenwood, Nebraska

I've been scanning a lot of old photos since getting my Flip-Pal mobile scanner a couple weeks ago. I had been looking through the boxes of old photographs in search of a full view of the Bellinger home in Greenwood, Nebraska and all I had been able to find only showed a limited view.

Then I came across this photo of my Grandpa Bill Kelly's last dog, Jack, sitting in front of the house. I would have taken this photo around 1966-67 while my grandfather was still living there.


From what I've been told, this was the home of John Bellinger, my great grandfather. The Kelly house was right across the street. John's daughter, Sina Bellinger, married my grandfather, Bill Kelly.

Bill and Sina Kelly lived in this house in the late 1940s. I've not verified how long or the years when they lived there.

Henrietta Beale and Sina Kelly
circa 1947

At left is a photo of Henrietta Loder Beale and my grandmother, Sina  Bellinger Kelly (they were cousins, but we always called Henrietta "Aunt Etty"). This photo was taken in the late 1940s and shows the west side of the house.

My Mom had told me that she had lived in this house with her parents, so I'm thinking that would have been in the early 1940s.

My Mom, Dad and I moved into the house with Grandpa Bill Kelly after Grandma Sina died in 1955. We lived there until 1960. Mom said that my bedroom had been her bedroom in the olden days.

Susan and Patricia Kelly Petersen

The third photo is me and Mom in the front yard of the house, circa 1957. This photo showed as much of the house as I could find until I came across the one of Jack the dog.

When we moved into the house was when indoor plumbing was first installed in the house. I remember the pantry being repurposed as a bathroom and a kitchen sink being put it. It sure beat pumping water and *ahem* using the outhouse! I keep thinking that I'm not that old to be able to remember a time without plumbing.

The house was torn down a few years ago. I always felt a little sad whenever I would drive along the highway and not see the house where I lived during my formative years. The house was run down after my grandfather died in 1968, so it's actually kind of surprising it remained standing as long as it did.

A couple years ago, a new house was built on the lot. Even though it isn't "our" house anymore, at least someone is still living on the land that I called home for five years.