Howard County IN Archives Biographies.....Kelvie, W. W. 
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Author: Jackson Morrow

W. W. KELVIE.

   Without searching for lineage in musty tomes or the less satisfactory
authority of tradition it suffices to state in writing this brief sketch of a
practical man and master of his craft, that his progenitors were in the broadest
sense high, their influence salutary and whose characters and sterling worth
have been reproduced on their descendants.

   W. W. Kelvie, superintendent of the Kokomo Steel & Wire Company, and one of
the leaders of industry in his adopted city, is a native of New York, and first
saw the light of day on the banks of the Hudson with which beautiful and classic
stream his earliest recollections are closely interwoven. He spent his boyhood
on a farm near Caldwell, in the state of New Jersey, President Cleveland's
birthplace, and early became proficient in tilling the soil, but when a mere
youth abandoned agriculture for a vocation more to his inclinations and tastes.
Leaving home at the age of seventeen, young Kelvie entered a wire mill at
Johnstown, Pennsylvania, for the purpose of learning the trade of wiredrawing
and after becoming efficient and master of every detail of the business he soon
found remunerative employment, the demand for skilled artisans in the wire
industry at that time being far in excess of the supply. His first position was
that of foreman of a department in an establishment at Anderson and he later
filled similar places in other factories, the meanwhile adding to his technical
knowledge until he became an expert whose services were always in demand, and he
always commanded the highest wages paid for such work.

   Mr. Kelvie came to Kokomo, Indiana, in 1900 and started what has since become
one of the largest and most important industries in the city, planning and
superintending the erection of the plant, purchasing and placing the machinery
and giving personal attention to every detail of an establishment which under
his management. is now considered one of the most successful of the kind in the
West. Upon its completion he became superintendent of the plant and as such
brought the industry to the highest possible efficiency and earned for himself
much more than local repute as a skillful mechanic and successful manager. In
addition to this connection with the wire business in Kokomo, Mr. Kelvie has
also been superintendent of a similar plant in Donora, Pennsylvania, besides
managing for some time the Steel & Wire Company at Muncie, Indiana, to say
nothing of the frequent calls for his services from other larger establishments
in the leading industrial centers, all of which he was obliged to decline to
build up and extend the business in his present field of operations.

   In July, 1907, he resigned the superintendency of the Indiana Steel & Wire
Company at Muncie to accept a similar position with the Kokomo Steel & Wire
Company, which operates what is known as the North Mill Steel & Wire Works of
Kokomo, and since that time he has been largely instrumental in building up the
enterprise and extending the scope of its operations. This establishment employs
on an average of two hundred workmen, whose payroll amounts to a large sum. From
the beginning the business has grown in magnitude and importance until the name
of the firm has become widely known among the leading manufacturing interests of
the United States.

   At this time Mr. Kelvie is not only superintendent of the large and growing
plant with which he is identified but is also a stockholder in the company, as
he was in the former firm also. He attends strictly to his business, discharges
the duties of his responsible position with conscientious fidelity and by making
the company's interests his own, has earned the unbounded confidence of the
officials and stockholders, besides gaining for himself a place of influence
among the manufacturers of the city as well as with the general public.

   The story of Mr. Kelvie's career is interesting and instructive from almost
any view and it is of little use to say that his life thus far has been signally
successful and useful and that the future awaits with still greater rewards.
During the twenty consecutive years which he has devoted to his trade he has met
and overcome difficulties and embarrassments with undaunted heart, and moving
steadily and bravely forward to a large place among the successful artisans of
his craft, he has reached the reward which is sure, or almost sure to crown
those who are fit and worthy to be crowned. Since becoming a resident of Kokomo,
he has been not only a conspicuous figure in the industrial circles, but also in
the affairs that concern the city's welfare, being interested in all lines of
material advancement and an advocate and patron of enterprises that effect the
social and moral good of his fellow men.

   Mr. Kelvie is happily married and the father of two children, a son, Russell
N., and a daughter by the name of Kathryne Elizabeth. Mrs. Kelvie was formerly
Mary Braskett, of Anderson, Indiana, in which city her marriage took place.


Additional Comments:
From:

HISTORY OF HOWARD COUNTY INDIANA
BY
JACKSON MORROW, B. A.
ILLUSTRATED
VOL. II
B. F. BOWEN & COMPANY
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA

(circa 1909)

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