WM. H. H. KELLEY.
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON KELLEY wan horn in Montgomery township, Wood county, Ohio, on May 12, 1836. His father, John A. Kelley, was born in Virginia, but emigrated to Richland (now Ashland) county, Ohio, when very young. He settled in Wood county in 1332, where he lived on the same farm for twenty-seven years, and where he died in 1859. During most of this period he was justice of the peace: also serving as county commissioner several terms, and as probate judge one term. The mother of the subject of this sketch was Rachel Shawhan, a native of Maryland, but who moved with her parents to Ohio when a child, and settled in Richland county. Her she grew to womanhood and married John A. Kelley, and moved with him to Wood county, where she died in 1840, leaving eight children.
Harrison, the youngest, a boy four years of age, grew up and thrived amid the privations and early civilization of the black swamp of Northern Ohio. He received such education as the common schools of that time afforded, supplemented by two terms at the Perrysburg high school and one term at the Fostoria academy, Fostoria, Seneca county, Ohio. He was also a pedagogue for four terms in Wood county. His choice of occupation was farming. He emigrated to Kansas territory early in 1858, drawn there principally by the exciting events then transpiring in the contest between liberty and slavery. He settled at Ottumwa, in Coffey county, on the Neosho river, and here he lived until 1888, when he purchased his son's (Harry E. Kelley) residence near Burlington, and moved into it, hoping to recruit his failing health. He engaged in farming and stockraising, meeting with reasonable success.
Harrison Kelley enlisted as a private soldier in the Fifth Kansas volunteer cavalry October 1, 1961, and was mustered out June 5, 1866. He served through all the grades to captain, when he was commissioned as such, and for the remaining two and one-half years of his service was captain of the same regiment. He was in active service during the entire period, in Missouri, Arkansas, and Mississippi, and participated in all the engagements and skirmishes in which his regiment was engaged, including Helena, Little Rock, Pine Bluff, Mount Elba, Cauley's Ridge, Saline River, etc. At the close of the war, in 1866, he returned to his home in Coffey county.
General Kelley was appointed brigadier general of the state militia in 1866, and in 1868 was made a director of the state penitentiary, serving in the latter position for live years. During this year, 1868, he was a member of the state legislature. In 1870 be became assistant assessor of internal revenue, retaining the office until its abolishment. In 1878 he was appointed receiver of the United States landoffice at Topeka. He was elected state senator in 1880. He also held the offices of chairman of the livestock sanitary commission of the state and treasurer of the state board of charities, and was twice appointed regent of the agricultural college, at Manhattan, being president of the board of regents at the time of his death. He was a member of the State Historical Society for many years, and when he died was its president. General Kelley was elected to the fifty-first congress as a republican, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Hon. Thomas Ryan, receiving 10,600 votes, against 2010 scattering. In religion General Kelley was a freethinker and an agnostic, governing his life according to the practical precepts of Christ, which he believed had never been improved upon, while rejecting theological pretensions and inventions. In June, 1807, he accepted Christian Science. Politically he was an abolitionist until the republican party came into power, since which time he had always voted that ticket until 1891, when he identified himself with the people's party.
He was married to Tabitha McCombs, of Wood county, Ohio, on October 4, 1866, his wife dying in Kansas on November 16, 1869. He was again married, June 26, 1861, to Caroline E. DeWitt, of McCutchinville, Seneca county, Ohio. Four children blessed their union: Harry E. Kelley, residing at Fort Smith, Ark.; Henna T. Kelley, living at Burlington, Kan.; Artie K. Palmer, of Cripple Creek, Colo.; and Fannie K. Armour, of Fort Smith, Ark. H. Leigh Kelley, of Fort Smith, is the only grandchild, and in him his grandfather took great pride and interest.
During his extended public career General Harrison Kelley exhibited to an exceptional degree the qualities of inflexible courage, stern honesty, and lofty and self-sacrificing devotion to duty. He was never a seeker after office, and all the official honors he received came to him unsolicited, and often against his earnest protest. Yet his intense interest in public affairs, his anxious concern for freedom, equality and good government and his constant striving to alleviate the sorrows of the poor and oppressed urged him forward in political conflicts.   He was a natural leader of men. His wisdom, experience and firm integrity of purpose inspired confidence; his vigor and enthusiasm encouraged, stimulated, and cheered; his authority compelled obedience; and his commanding abilities secured admiration and esteem.
General Kelley was ever a radical in the best sense of the term. He looked to the future, not the past. He was broad in mind, judicial in temper, catholic in charity.   His chiefest concern and unremitting labor were for the betterment of his fellow men, and in the attainment of thin end no barrier was sufficiently great, no tie sufficiently strong, to restrain him. Vet, despite his long and arduous public service, the intensity of political strife, and the animosities which it of necessity engendered, General Kelley ever remained singularly free from personal enmities. His candor, sincerity and courtesy won for him comrades even amongst his foes, and his bitterest political opponents were often his warmest personal friends.
The heartfelt philanthropy which distinguished his whole life was particularly displayed toward the colored race, the laboring masses, and the unemployed. His sturdy democracy recognized no classes, no prestige of wealth, no social distinctions. He was a patriot of the most perfect type, always enthusiastic for his country and no less so for his adopted state. The educational interests of the state were amongst his most cherished cares, and much of his best energy and thought were given to their furtherance.
The life of General Kelley was of a sort to attract, inspire, and ennoble, to beget reverent admiration, to demonstrate the best in human nature, and to furnish a matchless example for those who should come after him. In his death, his family and friends, his state and nation, endured a deep and irreparable bereavement and deprivation.