William Edgar Kelley William Edgar Kelley an attorney at law at Socorro, New Mexico, who was a member of the constitutional convention of 1889 and has exerted considerable influence in public affairs, was born July 18, 1836, in St. Joseph county, Michigan, before that state had been received into the Union. He was reared and educated in the north and in 1863 was married to Sophia Lincoln, who was a native of the state of New York, but at the time of her marriage was living in Coldwater, Michigan. She died in the year 1890. On leaving his native state William E. Kelley removed to Kansas and afterward went to Mississippi, where he remained for about seven years. He was admitted to the bar in that state in 1874, and practiced at Granada, Mississippi. In 1875 he was before the United States senate investigating committee at Jackson, Mississippi, as a witness concerning the election frauds that had been perpetrated that year in that state, and he served as superintendent of schools there for a year and was also in the internal revenue service. After spending seven years in Mississippi he returned to Michigan and was admitted to the bar in that state. He arrived in New Mexico in 1879 and entered into partnership with his brother-in-law in the purchase of sheep, which they sent over the trail to Dodge City and thence to Garden City, New Mexico. All that winter Mr. Kelley pumped water by hand for thirty-five hundred sheep. The next winter disaster overtook him in the loss of five thousand sheep. He then went to Socorro in 1881 and opened an office for the practice of law, in which he has since continued, having now a large and important clientage, his legal business being of a distinctively representative character. From 1882 until 1886 he served as justice of the peace, a time when the lawless element was in great force and it required strong determination and fearlessness to bring into subjection the men who were constantly setting at naught the laws of the land. Judge Kelley has always been a stalwart Republican and has long been recognized as a leader of his party in New Mexico. He was a delegate to the statehood constitutional convention of 1889 and was a strong supporter of the constitution, the question being submitted in October. 1890. He is now an advocate of joint statehood. He has been a delegate to the New Mexico territorial conventions and his influence has, in part, proved a decisive factor in settling questions relating to the public policy. In his social relations he is connected with Gem City Lodge, No. 7, I. Ó. O. F. ©2007 Genealogy Trails