Multnomah-Clackamas County OR Archives Biographies.....Kelly, Richmond September 15, 1855 - 
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Ila L. Wakley iwakley@msn.com April 16, 2008, 9:29 pm

Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

     RICHMOND KELLY, M. D.  A notable example of a well spent life is that 
afforded by the career of Dr. Richmond Kelly, who for forty-two years has 
continuously followed his profession in Portland, rendering to the community 
that service which only the experienced physician is capable of giving. The 
honored name which he bears is one familiar to every student of the city’s 
history and a complete record of the family was prepared by Fred Lockley, who 
wrote the following article, published in the Oregon Journal under the dates 
of June 17, 18 and 19, 1926.
     “‘I was born in Portland,’ said Dr. Kelly when interviewed him 
recently, ‘on my father’s donation land claim on September 15, 1855, and my 
brother “Pum” now lives on the old home place. Portland wasn’t much of a place 
at the time of the Indian war in 1855-56. It was thought the Indians might 
swoop down on the outlying settlements, kill the settlers and burn their 
houses. We had a large home. Judge Marquam and his family and also the 
Parnells, who lived east of us, moved into our house and stayed with us during 
the Indian scare. In those days there were no settlers in East Portland and 
Gideon Tibbetts was the only resident between my father’s home and the river, 
on the bank of which J. B. Stephens had a donation claim. My brother Plympton 
enlisted and was sent to the Cascades. Too bad you didn’t happen to attend the 
celebration of the eightieth anniversary of my brother Penumbra. You certainly 
could have obtained a lot of pioneer history from those who attended. Every 
year, as you probably know, the Kelly clan meets in June to renew old 
friendships and talk over old days.
     “‘Many years ago I visited Clifty creek, in Pulaski county, Kentucky, 
where my grandfather, Samuel Kelly, and his wife, Nancy (Canada) Kelly, lived. 
Their house, built of hewn logs, was still there and still in use. My 
grandfather was born February 7, 1776, in Botetourt county, Virginia, and was 
the third son of Thomas Kelly, whose birth occurred near Philadelphia about 
1750. The ancestral home was Castle Kelly, situated at Ballinasloe, in County 
Roscommon, Ireland. When a young man Thomas Kelly ran away from home to avoid 
being pressed into the English army.  He settled in Virginia and with his 
wife, Peggy (Biles) Kelly, and their family, migrated to Kentucky about 1800, 
settling in Pulaski county. A few years later he died at the home of his son 
Samuel on Clifty creek and his wife passed away in 1814.
     “‘Grandfather was a natural mechanic. He utilized the power of the creek 
in making flour and also manufactured saltpetre, Epsom salts, turpentine, 
linseed oil and gunpowder. On September 3, 1807, he married Nancy Canada, who 
was born April 7, 1786.  She was a niece of General Canada and a woman of 
decided individuality. She left home when she was twelve years old because her 
father indulged too freely in strong drink. In those days it was the habit to 
serve liquor at barn-raisings, log-rollings, corn-huskings and other such 
occasions when the settlers met socially. Fights were not infrequent. So 
opposed was my grandmother to the taste of liquor that after her marriage, out 
of deference to her, when she attended a meeting, liquor was not served. She 
was a Presbyterian but not long after her marriage she attended services held 
by a Methodist circuit rider and soon thereafter she joined the Methodist 
church. Four of her sons became ministers and two of her daughters married 
ministers. The Kelly home was headquarters for the religious life of the 
community and every minister was welcome to come and stay as long as he wanted 
to. In those days physicians were scarce. My grandmother was considered one of 
the most capable midwives in Pulaski county. She was often called to go on 
dark and stormy nights ten or fifteen miles to attend an expectant mother. The 
charge in those days was one dollar for services of this nature. As there was 
little or no money in the country, the fee was usually paid in work at fifty 
cents a day, or the father of the newly-born charge would split two hundred 
rails in payment of the fee. My grandfather died October 13, 1834, and 
grandmother lived until January 26, 1841.
     ‘“Their children were Clinton, Albert, Temperance, Gilby, Cyrene, Sena, 
Gilmore, Samuel, Rachel, Tabitha and Thomas. Albert who was born April 2, 
1814, in Kentucky, united with the Methodist church when he was thirteen years 
old, and in 1834 joined the Kentucky conference. He married Nyra Bingham, of 
Ohio. In 1838 he was assigned to the Burlington circuit. He had no money with 
which to buy a carriage, so he made one himself, and it was so high that the 
neighbors called it “the giraffe.”  Before he had traveled far he was out of 
money, and it was with great difficulty that he was able to secure credit at 
the various tollgates through which he passed. He was transferred to the 
Oregon conference and arrived in Portland with his family in 1849. He settled 
at Hillsdale, just west of Portland. Later he was assigned to the Washington 
Territory conference and established his home in the vicinity of Yakima.
     “‘My father, Clinton Kelly, for whom the Clinton Kelly school in Portland 
was named, was born June 15, 1808 on Clifty creek, and he and his brothers, 
Gilby, Albert and Samuel, all became ministers, My Aunt Sena married Josiah 
Godbey, also a minister. When father was a little chap the children usually 
went barefoot, except on occasions of ceremony, such as weddings or funerals, 
while the boys carried shoes with them and put them on just before going into 
church. A boy was not supposed to have shoes until he was old enough to run 
down a groundhog and tan its hide. Practically everything used in those days 
was raised on the farm, as money was not available with which to buy store 
things.  Once a year a traveling shoemaker came to the house and made shoes, 
being paid for his labor in produce. The flax raised was pulled and put in a 
damp place to rot. When well rotted it was hackled, or combed, the long 
threads being used for fine linen cloth, while the short fibre was 
manufactured into tow linen, from which shirts for the boys were made. Almost 
every farmer had a few sheep. The sheep were sheared and the wool was washed, 
spun and woven for clothing.  At that time there was practically no white 
bread. Corn bread, bacon and maple sugar were the staples. Once in a while 
wheat was ground for bread, but on account of the smut and weevil the flour 
was usually clammy and grey. The soil in that part of Kentucky was shallow, 
the rocks coming so close to the surface that what was not grown on the same 
patch more than two or three years in succession. Honey formed a welcome 
addition to the diet, and wild game was always to be had. In addition to 
making the clothing for the family, the mother of the household usually 
fashioned their hats as well, wheat straw being used for the outside and flax 
for the inside lining.
     “‘My father became an exhorter when he was eighteen. Meetings were held 
in his mother’s house, and as a result of the revival that followed it was 
decided to build a church. Father owned a yoke of white steers. He cut logs, 
drew them to a clearing that he had made and constructed a schoolhouse, which 
was the first in that neighborhood. He hauled stone and made a huge fireplace 
at each end of the schoolhouse. He circulated n paper and started a 
subscription school. With the aid of his brothers he felled the trees, hewed 
them and built a church, which they named Mount Zion. In this church my father 
and his brothers preached. When I visited father’s birthplace in 1882, the 
church and schoolhouse were still in use.
     “‘When nineteen years of age father married Mary Baston and to obtain the 
license fee, for which he had to pay a dollar, he made and sold in Somerset a 
barrel of cider, crushing the apples by hand. While he taught and conducted 
services in the church each Sunday, he studied the Bible and all religious 
books he could get hold of. He and his brother Albert attended the annual 
Kentucky conference in 1834 and my father was assigned to the Elizabethtown 
circuit. He traveled up and down the knobs and vales of Kentucky, visiting 
remote sections on horseback and the trip consumed a month.  My father always 
carried a testament his pocket and read, on his way to his appointment or 
while waiting at the mill for his grist. He talked well upon all subjects but 
the Bible was his text-book, the love of God his theme.  He had studied to 
such purpose that where others stumbled he quoted correctly no matter what the 
passage; his expositions were rich and clear, for they were spirit-illumined. 
As his family increased he worked the harder, his shoemaker’s kit dividing the 
time with his books on long and lonesome horseback journeys. 
     “‘Not long after the birth of her fifth child Mary (Baston) Kelly failed 
to regain her health, so father placed her on a bed in the wagon and in 
company with their sons, Plympton, Hampton, Archon, Calmet and Bengal, made 
the trip to the home of his parents on Clifty creek. Two months later the 
mother of these children died and was buried in Mount Zion cemetery.  Father’s 
mother took care of his five little boys until his marriage to Jane Burns, who 
died three years later, leaving a little girl, Mary Jane. My uncle, Samuel 
Kelly, then came to Middleton and took the five children home to Grandmother 
Kelly.
     “‘On March 11, 1840, my father married Moriah Maldon Crain, the ceremony 
being performed by the Rev. George Taylor, to whom he gave as a fee a large 
splint basket which he had made, and the bride’s present from her father was a 
negress, while at the same time Mr. Crain gave to his son-in-law a negro as a 
servant. My father had just as strong convictions against slavery as his 
mother had against liquor so he and his wife returned the man and woman, 
saying their conscience would not permit them to own slaves.   My mother was 
born November 11, 1814 in Pulaski county, Kentucky, and was the seventh child 
of John and Sarah (Rousseau) Crain.  Her grandfather, Samuel Crain, of 
Culpeper county, Virginia, served in the American navy during the 
Revolutionary war and in 1797 settled in Kentucky. In the maternal line my 
mother was descended from Hillaire Rousseau, a Huguenot, who left France after 
the revocation of the edict of Nantes by Louis XIV on October 22, 1685, and 
established his home in Virginia. David Rousseau, my mother’s great-
grandfather, married Mary Harrison a niece of Benjamin Harrison, who was one 
of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
     “‘When my father married my mother,’ said Dr. Kelly, ‘she had twelve 
dozen pairs of socks, the yarn for which she had spun and which she had knit. 
She exchanged these at the store for broadcloth, from which she made a Sunday 
suit for father. At that time father’s cash receipts from his ministerial work 
averaged less than fifty cents a month. In fact, it took a whole year’s salary 
to purchase a set of Clarke’s Commentaries He was a man of plain and simple 
tastes but a hard worker, never idle for a moment.
     “‘The slavery issue began to creep into the discussions at the 
conferences, a discussion that finally resulted in dividing the Methodist 
Episcopal church, the Southern conferences forming the Methodist Episcopal 
church, South.  My father was a strong abolitionist and felt that he could be 
more useful where the political strife over the slavery question did not 
overshadow everything else, so, after a long discussion, he decided to go to 
Oregon.  During the summer of 1847 he and his brothers, Albert and Thomas, 
built wagons, in which they placed their belongings, and that fall started for 
Independence, Missouri. They took with them an ample supply of corn meal, 
bacon, maple syrup and other products of the farm and made the first lap of 
their journey as far as Independence. On May 1, 1848, my father and his 
brothers began their six months trip to the Willamette valley in company with 
the Richardsons, Catlins, Welches and Emericks. Their first camping place was 
at Lone Elm.  A terrific hail storm that night stampeded the cattle and those 
belonging to my Uncle Albert took the back track. After a fruitless search of 
two days he told the other members of the train to go on and he would wait 
over until the next year
     “‘With ox teams and covered wagons they made the toilsome journey over 
burning sands and ragged mountain ranges. At The Dalles they met the Oregon 
volunteers, who were going up to Whitman station to avenge the deaths of Dr. 
and Mrs. Whitman and the others killed in that terrible massacre. My father 
took charge of the work of bringing the goods down the Columbia river on a 
raft, while the others drove the cattle down the valley by the Indian trail. 
The family wintered at Oregon City, the capital of the provisional government 
of Oregon. The Methodist church had already established a mission at this 
point and the place was partially fortified against Indians.  The boys soon 
found work, assisting in getting out timber for the breakwater for the Island 
mills. They also made barrel staves for George Abernethy, taking their pay in 
potatoes.
     “‘In the spring of 1849 father bought six hundred and forty acres of land 
on the east side of the Willamette, across from Portland, paying fifty dollars 
for the right to this donation claim.  He planted potatoes and sold his crop 
for five dollars a bushel owing to the demand for all sorts of supplies in the 
California mines. During their stay in Oregon City a little girl, Victoria 
Ann, was born to my mother and two of the boys, Calmet and Bengal, died. While 
the family were living in Oregon City, General Joe Lane came up the river in 
his canoe to become the first territorial governor of Oregon and the oath of 
office was administered to him by Justice of the Peace Walling, whose son, A. 
J. Walling, was later one of the well known printers of Portland.
     “‘My father preached at Portland, Milwaukie, Mount Tabor, Foster and 
Oregon City. He preached his first sermon in Portland early in 1849 in a log 
schoolhouse near the corner of Second and Washington streets, his congregation 
consisting of less than thirty people. Father hauled the timbers and helped 
build the first church in Portland. He died June 19, 1875, and my mother 
passed away January 30, 1863.
     “‘Father’s oldest son, Plympton, married Elizabeth A. Clarke, a niece of 
Mrs. Calvin S. Kingsley, whose husband was sent as a missionary to Palestine. 
Hampton, father’s second son, farmed in Wasco county, Oregon, and in 1899 was 
called to his final rest. Archon, the next son, had a farm near Pleasant Home 
and his demise occurred in 1890. Calmet and Bengal died at Oregon City during 
the winter of 1848. The daughter Mary Jane became the wife of James Akin, of 
Benton county, Oregon.  John, my mother’s first son, died in infancy. The 
second, Penumbra, is living on the homestead. He served as sheriff of 
Multnomah county for several terms. He also served in the Oregon legislature 
for four terms and was United States marshal for Oregon for some years. Sarah 
Margaret, the next of the family, became the wife of J. W. Kern, of Portland. 
Laura was married to E. Turner, of Stockton, California, and in company with 
her I visited my father’s old Kentucky home in 1882.  Emily was united in 
marriage to the Rev. John Shaver, of Portland, and now makes her home in 
Metzger, Oregon. Frederika became the wife of the Rev. Martin Judy and resides 
in California. I was the seventh in order of birth and Raymond, the youngest 
of the family, is deceased. All of the children have passed away except my 
brother Penumbra and my sisters, Mrs. John Shaver and Mrs. Martin Judy.
     “‘I was born September 15, 1855, and was reared on the homestead in 
Multnomah county. Among our neighbors sixty years or more ago were Seldon 
Murray, for whom Murraymead was named; W. F. Allen and family; and Judge 
Marquam, who in the early ‘50s had a place east of us. My boyhood was spent in 
a pioneer environment and the first ferry I remember was operated by 
a “sweep.” The first school building in the neighborhood was in Murraymead and 
the next was located near Brooklyn. I attended the Clinton Kelly school, 
erected about 1861, and my sister Sarah was instructor. She was also the first 
teacher of the school opened on East Seventeenth street and the one 
established at the corner of Twenty-sixth and Powell streets.  My father gave 
two acres of ground and helped to build the schoolhouse in district No. 2. 
While it was called a schoolhouse, it was really a community house, for they 
held singing school there as well as spelling matches, and the building was 
also used by the debating society and for other public meetings. Among those I 
remember well in my school days were Professor Kettredge; Mrs. McLaren, whose 
brother-in-law runs Wilhoit Springs; Professor Young Enoch Turner, who later 
married my sister, and Foster Bennett. The last named, who was related to 
President T. M. Gatch of Willamette University, persuaded me to attend that 
institution of learning.
     “‘In 1873 I entered the university and completed my course in 1878, 
receiving the A. B. degree. Among the students at the university during that 
period were Ladrue Royal, who later became principal of the Oregon City 
schools; Miss Emily Shattuck, Libby Brown, Lydia E. Chamberlain-Crockett, 
Sallie E. Chamberlain Moores, Robert Eakin, Teresa Holderness-Byrd, Mary Jory-
Reynolds, William H. Meisse, Jane Miller-Dawney, J. J. Imbrie, W. J. Miller, 
Alfred Nichols, Velleda Smith-Omart, Miles T. Starr, Frank P. Mays, Frank M. 
Johnson, Thomas C. Jory, Ella Stannus, Sarah E. Cole, Ann E. McKinney, Elva R. 
Brown-Breyman, Alice Case-Borthwick, John N. Duncan, Stanley O. Royal, M. G. 
Royal, later a minister and a professor at Willamette; Wilbur S. Starr, Lizzie 
C. Jory-Hall, Georgia Carpenter-Brodie, H. Z. Foster, Wiley B. Allen, who 
became well known in Portland as a publisher and as a salesman of musical 
instruments; A. N. Moore, a prominent Salem historian; Miles T. Starr, Frank 
P. Mays, Frank M. Johnston, Thomas C. Jory, who became a member of the faculty 
of Willamette University; B. F. Irvine, who for many years has been one of the 
editors of the Oregon Journal; Hattie Collier-McCormack, Nettie Cook-Lee, 
Sarelia A. Griffith-Grubbe, Quincy A. Grubbe, Ida Hutton-Vaughn, Emma Jones, 
Frank McCully, Annie Lawrence-Haskin, Ada E. May-Steiwer, Nellie F. Meacham-
Trupe, Althea Moores, who later became instructor in modem languages at 
Willamette University; Bertha Moores, who also became a teacher in that 
university; George A. Peebles, who served as superintendent of schools of 
Marion county; Nora Ross and Richard J. Nichols. Among my classmates of 1878 
were Charles A. Johns, now a federal judge at Manila; George P. Hughes, for 
many years a leading merchant of Salem; George B. Gray, also a prominent 
figure in mercantile circles of that city; D. P. Stouffer; Eugene P. Willis, 
who has long been a trusted employe in the office of the sheriff of Multnomah 
county; Walter A. Graves; Robert A. Miller, who achieved distinction as a 
water color painter and as an attorney; L. O. Nelson, Mary E. Strong-Kinney, 
Cora L. Dickinson-Moores, Emma Hovendon-Jones, Henrietta McKinney-Downing, 
Lizzie McNary, Adeline Scriber and Emily Parmenter-Cornell.
     “‘After leaving Willamette University,’ said Dr. Kelly, ‘I read medicine 
with Drs. C. H. Hall and John Reynolds. I then matriculated in the Miami 
Medical College and was graduated with the class of 1884. From 1883 until 1885 
I was connected with the City Hospital of Cincinnati, of which I was made 
senior interne in 1884, and in the fall of 1885 came to Portland, where I have 
since followed my profession.’” Soon after his return to the Rose city Dr. 
Kelly became professor of obstetrics at Willamette University and held that 
chair until 1896, when the institution was moved to Salem. He was also made 
dean of the Willamette Medical College and during its existence was a member 
of the staff of the Portland Hospital. Time has ripened his ability and his 
practice is extensive, making heavy demands upon his energies.
     Dr. Kelly was married January 27, 1885, in Hamilton, Ohio, to Miss Addie 
S. Morgan and four children were born of their union, namely: Joyce R., who is 
Pacific coast representative in group insurance of the Metropolitan Life 
Insurance Company and makes his headquarters in San Francisco, California; 
Laura, who fills a responsible position with the Western Bond & Mortgage 
Company of Portland; Esther, wife of John C. Watson, who is connected with the 
Irwin-Hodson Company; and Wilbur Clinton, who married Miss Lucia Watson and is 
a resident of East Portland.
     Dr. Kelly is affiliated with Grace Methodist church and gives his 
political allegiance to the republican party. Along fraternal lines he is 
identified with the United Artisans and his professional connections are with 
the Multnomah County and Oregon State Medical Societies and the American 
Medical Association. Studious, energetic and efficient, Dr. Kelly has 
progressed far in his chosen profession, and as one of Portland’s pioneer 
physicians he is widely and favorably known. He has watched with deep interest 
the growth and development of the city and has a comprehensive knowledge of 
matters pertaining to its history.


Additional Comments:
History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. II, 
Pages 404-408



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