OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Alfred Kelley [1] *********************************************************************** OHGENWEB NOTICE: All distribution rights to this electronic data are reserved by the submitter. Reproduction or re-presentation of copyrighted material will require the permission of the copyright owner. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. *********************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 June 7, 1999 *********************************************************************** Historical Collections of Ohio The Kelley Family Collections Newspaper article, Plains Dealer compiled by S.J. Kelley-- 1925 And Then They Went West by Darlene E. Kelley 1998 *********************************************************************** Part 1--- Alfred Kelley, the second son of Daniel and Jemima (Stow) Kelley, was born at Middlefield, Conn., November 7, 1789. In 1789 his father removed to Lowville, N.Y., where Alfred attended the common schools and was four years a student at Fairfield Academy, from which institution he received a curious diploma bearing the date Sept. 9,1807, addressed " To all to whom these presents shall come, " and reciting that " Alfred Kelley has been a member of this Academy four years, that he has sustained a good moral character and made laudable progress in acquiring the knowledge of the Arts and Sciences, and he is accordingly recommended to the attention and employment of a generous public." In 1807 he entered the law office of Judge Jonas Platt, of the Supreme Court of New York, where he remained until 1810, when he came to Cleveland, Ohio, on horseback in company with his uncle, Judge Joshua Stow, of Conn., Jared P. Kirtland, then a young medical student, and others. At the time of their arrival Cleveland contained three frame and six log houses. Its population that year was 57 people. Alfred Kelley was admitted to the bar on November 7, 1810, and on the same day, bring his twenty-first birthday, was appointed by the court to the office of prosecuting attorney, which office he held by successive appointments until 1822. He was the prosecutor at the famous trial of the Indian murderer, John O'Mic, who was executed on the Public Square at Cleveland, June 24, 1812. He is said to have been an advocate of extraordinary force and cogency; and when he relinquished his practice, to take charge of the construction of the Ohio Canal, of which he had long been an earnest projector, his business in his chosen profession was as large and lucretive as that of any attorney in Northern Ohio. In 1814 he began the construction of a stone house on the bluff overlooking Lake Erie. a short distance easterly from the old light house. The ground plan of thos house was prepared by his mother, Jemima Kelley, and it was intended as the homestead of his father and mother upon their arrival in Cleveland the following year; but before its completion, Jemima Kelley died, and the house, which was finished in 1818, became the Cleveland homestead of Alfred. To it he brought his wife in 1817, and in it was born his daughters and his son Edward. This house was standing not many years ago, near the corner of Water and Lake Streets. It was pulled down to make room for business blocks. The Union Depot now stands where Alfred's children used to play on the beach, The ground plan referred to is contained in a letter from Jemima Kelley to her son, Alfred, dated Lowville, N.Y.. April 15, 1814. Alfred was the first President of the Commercial Bank of Lake Erie, the first bank in Cleveland, organized in 1816. In June 1814, he was elected first "President" (mayor) of the Village of Cleveland. The same year he was elected a member of the Ohio House of Representatives, and, with William A. Harper, represented Astabula, Cuyahoga and Geauga Counties. He was the youngest member of the House, which met at Chillicothe, then the temporary capitol of the State, but was neverless one of its most prominent and influential members. He was the author, in 1818, of the first legislative bill, either in this country or in Europe, to abolish imprisonment for debt. It failed then to become a law, but in a letter to a friend Mr. Kelley said; "The time will come when the absurdity. as well as inhumanity, of adding oppression to misfortune will be acknowledged." During the session of the legislature of 1822-23, he made an effort to abolish all fictions in the action of ejectment, but could not overcome the attachment of the attorneys to usless forms and anitquated usages. This was one of the first steps, however simplifying legal proceedings and preparing the way for our present practice. It illustrates the character of his mind, and its preference for the clear simple statement and sound reality. Among the important matters, with which he was called upon to deal, was the claim of the older states of the Union to public lands for school purposes. This claim, set forth in various reports submitted by the legislatures of Maryland, New Hampshire and Vermont, was referred to a committee of which Mr. Kelley was chairman. On Dec. 26,1819, he submitted a committee report, of which he was the author, dealing with the pretensions of the older States in an elaborate and convincing arguement. The report and resolutions accompanying the same were adopted by both branches of the legislature. After that time, this claim does not appear to have been urged. He continued at intervals a member of the legislature, first as representative and then as senator, from Cuyahoga and adjoining counties, until 1823, when he was appointed, with others, State Canal Commissioner. ********************************************* Con't in part 2