W.H.H. Kelley, familiarly known as General Kelley, of Hanging Rock, Lawrence County, Ohio, was born at Union Landing, Lawrence County, Ohio, on 18 Feb. 1814.
His Grandfather, Luke Kelly [Kelley], came from Virginia to Ohio in 1796, and entered? seven hundred acres of land to the vicinity of Hanging Rock, for which, with the assistance of his oldest son, John Kelley, he principally paid with the game of his rifle. The parents of our subject were Charles Kelley and Mary Harshbarger, both natives of Virginia. His father built the first water mill on Pine Creek, in Lawrence County, Ohio, the post office taking its name from him, being known as Kelley’s Mills.
He served as a physician in the War of 1812. As an early boy, he was engaged in the iron business and was one of the builders of the Etna Furnace in Lawrence County, and of the Jackson Furnace in Jackson County, Ohio.
He was a prominent official member of the Baptist denomination in southern Ohio, and his eldest brother, John Kelley, was one of the early clergymen of that church in that part of the state.
Our subject is one of the two survivors of a family of nine children, Colonial I.W. Kelley being the other. His boyhood has passed amid the rude scenes of pioneer life with scarcely anything worthy of the name of school privileges.
When he was ten years of age his father’s family removed to Kelley’s Mills, on Pine Creek. Here he worked for his father on the farm and in the mill until he was about twenty-three. He then married 14 June 1837 Maria Lawson of Portsmouth, Ohio, and started living for himself.
In 1846 he formed a partnership with his father in the mercantile and milling business, under the firm name of C. & W.H. Kelley, and so continued until February 1853, since which time he has devoted himself exclusively to his farming interests, in which he has always taken special delight, his particular pride being the raising of fine stock. He was one of the builders of the Jackson Furnace in Jackson County, Ohio, and one of the original stockholders in the Ohio Iron and Coal Company, the Iron Railroad Company, and of the Second National Bank of Ironton.
He was originally a Henry Clay Whig, and an intimate friend of that statesman. Since the birth of the Republican party, he has been a staunch advocate of its policy. For the last thirty years, he has kept a regular diary, in which will be found a very full history of our late Civil War, and many other interesting reminiscences.
He has had a family of four children, three living. His only son, Charles Kelley, served during the late Civil War as a Clerk in the commissary department and was among the last to leave the land of the rebellion.
He was educated in Ironton, at Dennison University, at Grandville, and at Smith’s Commercial College in Cincinnati, and now a druggist in Brownville, Missouri. He married Maria, daughter of Colonel J.J. Montgomery, of St. Louis. His daughters, Mary and Lucy M. Kelley were educated, the former at the Granville Female Academy, and the latter at Mount Auburn, Cincinnati, and now reside at home.
In 1867, General Kelley sold his interest in the Ironton enterprise and invested the proceeds in western land and in assisting his son Charles to start in business, intending to remove with his family to Missouri, but being unable to dispose of his homestead without too great a sacrifice, concluded to remain where he is, is well situated in one of the most beautiful country seats on the Ohio River, it being part of the ground settled by his Grandfather in the last century.
For some twelve years, General Kelley filled the office of Justice of the Peace. Since 1837?, he had been a faithful member of the Baptist church, having held various positions in that communion as a man of fine social qualities, and an honorable and sincere Christian gentleman.
Source: Biographical Cyclopaedia Portrait Gallery of the State of Ohio
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