Clarence W. Kellam; Heron Lake, MN., then Rapides Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller

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Clarence W. Kellam is successfully conducting, under the title 
of the Kellam Motor Company, the well equipped Ford agency, 
garage, service station and repair shops at 320 DeSoto Street in 
the City of Alexandria, judicial center and metropolis of Rapides 
Parish, and as agent for the Ford automobiles he has here developed
a specially substantial and prosperous business, the while he has 
gained secure place as one of the alert and progressive business 
men of the younger generation in this part of Louisiana,

Mr. Kellam was born at Heron Lake, Minnesota, March 2, 1889, and 
is a son of Dr. Charles R. J. and Mary (Schermerhorn) Kellam, the 
former of whom was born in the old Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), 
and the latter of whom was born in North Carolina.  The mother 
still maintains her home in Minnesota, the father having died in 
September, 1924.  He had been long engaged in the practice of 
medicine, and had also conducted a drug store at Heron Lake, but 
for some time prior to his death had lived retired from active 
business and professional service.  Of the eight children all except 
one are living, and of the number the subject of this review was the 
fifth in order of birth.  Doctor Kellam was a gallant soldier in the 
Civil war, in which he first served as a private in the ranks and 
later as a hospital steward, and had been for many years affiliated 
with the Grand Army of the Republic.  He was a republican, had served 
his community as justice of the peace and member of the school board, 
and was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity.  He was and his wife
is a zealous member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

The early education of Clarence W. Kellam was acquired in the public
schools of his native place, including the high school.  In January,
1909, be enlisted in the United States Navy and served a four year 
term and during this time he attended the Naval Hospital Training 
School in the City of Washington, District of Columbia, besides which 
he later attended night school in the City of St. Louis, Missouri, 
where he took various courses of supplemental study.  He took also a 
special course in the Alexander Hamilton Institute.

As a youth he clerked in his father's drug store, and it was after 
leaving Washington, D. C., that he took a position in the St. Louis 
offices of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad.  He was for two years 
in the service of the Ralston Purina Company in St. Louis, Missouri, 
and he next passed one year with the Ford Motor Company's agency in 
Memphis, Tennessee.  He then came to Louisiana, and after being for 
six months with the Ford agency in New Orleans, he purchased, in 1917, 
the Ford agency at Alexandria, where he has since continued the business 
under the title of the Kellam Motor Company.  Here he has a large and 
well equipped establishment that gives the best of service in all 
departments, and an idea of the splendid growth of the business is 
conveyed when it is stated that in initiating business here.  Mr. Kellam
originally employed only two men, while at the present time a corps
of thirty-eight employes is retained.  Mr. Kellam is one of the most 
3.  He gives his political allegiance to the democratic party, and he
takes loyal interest in all that touches the welfare and advancement 
of his adopted city and state, the while he is giving close attention 
to the business of which he is the general manager.  He is a popular 
member of the Alexandria Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order 
of Elks.

September 30, 1916, recorded the marriage of Mr. Kellam to Miss Margaret
E. Uits, who was born and reared in St. Louis, Missouri, and their one 
child is a son,  Winthrop G., who was born in 1923.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 218-219, by Henry E. Chambers.  
Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and 
New York, 1925.