Montrose County CO Archives Biographies.....Kelsey, J.M. 1826 - ?
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Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado

     Among the most fertile and productive regions of this country is the

renowned Wabash valley in Indiana.  Nature there has enriched the soil with

every element of fruitfulness, and seems to have pleasure also in suiting the

climate with generous hand to its advantage, making the seasons just as they

should be for the best results, retarding the approach of winter until the crop

is ripened and harvested, yet not withholding the benignant smiles of spring too

long for their proper planting.  And the population that inhabits this region is

in keeping with its munificence.  After its first wild condition was transformed

to one of comeliness and salubrity, its bounty to the toil of the husbandman

became impressively apparent, and men grew broad, progressive and forceful in

consonance with the conditions around them, so that now the region is a

continuous succession of highly cultivated farms with stirring marts of commerce

and industrial productions at frequent intervals, and is rich in schools and

colleges, churches and libraries, hospitals and asylums, and all the other

concomitants of cultivated life.  It was in this region, at Crawfordsville,

Montgomery county, that J.M. Kelsey, one of the esteemed farmers and apiarists

of Montrose county, this state, was born, reared, learned farming and practiced

the art for more than half a century.  His life began in 1826, and he is the son

of Edward and Eliza (Miboer) Kelsey and the third of their family of seven sons.

 His father was a native of Ohio, born near Springboro, Warren county, and

settled near Crawfordsville, Indiana, in 1825, among the first hardy adventurers

who occupied that section and who laid the foundations of its present

prosperity.  He remained there, a well-to-do farmer and a leading citizen until

his death in 1859, at the age of sixty-seven.  In politics he was an

uncompromising Democrat of the old school, and in church connections a

Methodist.  His parents were old Ohio pioneers, and he and his family helped to

repeat on the soil of Indiana the triumphs they had aided in winning on that of

Ohio.  The mother was a native of Wales, daughter of Jacob and Rhoda Miboer, and

accompanied her parents from that country to this in her childhood.  They lived

awhile in New Jersey, then moved to Ohio where she grew to womanhood and was

married.  She died in Indiana in 1877, at the age of seventy-four, having seen

two states of that section of the country redeemed from barbarism and grow to

greatness within the short space of her life.  Mr. Kelsey’s early years were

passed on the paternal homestead in whose labors he took his part as a boy and a

young man.  He attended the schools of the neighborhood, acquiring a fair degree

of book knowledge and a substantial equipment of common sense and practical

utility under the ministrations of the typical “Hoosier Schoolmaster,” and at

the age of twenty-one began farming in his native county for himself, and soon

after was married and doubtless felt that he was established for life among his

own people.  He rose to influence in local affairs, served the county well as

sheriff, filled with credit other county offices, and was regarded as one of the

substantial yeomen of his district on whom its present safety and future hopes

depended.  For fifty-three years and longer he lived on that same farm and

concentrated his efforts on its improvement and development and built up there a

profitable agricultural business.  In 1880 he sold the farm and his other real

property, and came to the mountains of Colorado to prospect and mine for the

precious metals.  He followed this interesting but uncertain occupation for six

years in the vicinity of Ouray and Telluride, and located a number of promising

claims.  He then turned again to the vocation of his former years, purchasing

the place on which he now resides and giving himself up to its improvements and

the development of the general farming industry which he started on it and which

he conducted until about 1884.  At that time he conceived the idea that there

was room in this locality for the cultivation of bees and the production of

honey on a large scale, and with all the ardor of a man of strong convictions he

went into that business.  He has confined his efforts mainly to the Italian

breeds of bees and since the inauguration of his enterprise in this line has

handled more than four hundred colonies of their best and most vigorous workers.

 In politics Mr. Kelsey was in early life an ardent Democrat; but being at heart

in earnest opposition to slavery, he joined the Republican party at its

organization and cast his vote in 1860 for Lincoln for President.  Since coming

to Colorado he has trained with the Populists, and while not an active partisan

in the sense of seeking or desiring office, has given the principles and

candidates of that party effective support.  For many years he has been an

enthusiastic Odd Fellow, holding membership in Crawfordsville Lodge, No. 29, of

the order.  In 1847 he was married to Miss Mercuria Harlan, who was born and

reared on the farm adjoining that of his father in Indiana, the daughter of

George and Ruth (Gregg) Harlan, natives of Ohio who settled in that portion of

Indiana in 1825, about the time the Kelseys did.  Her father was a farmer of

note in his day and locality, and an influential Whig and Republican in

politics.  Mrs. Kelsey is still living and has reached the age of seventy-three.

 They have had four children, Josephine; Hortense, who died in Indiana and was

buried in the Masonic cemetery in Montgomery county; Eva; and Ruth E., who died

after the arrival of the family in Colorado and is buried at Montrose.  

Additional Comments:
From Progressive Men of Western Colorado.  Chicago:  A.W. Bowen & Co., 1905

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