Edgar Kelley Biography


	This biography appears on pages 646-647 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. I (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	HON. EDGAR KELLEY is a native of the Badger state, having been 
born on the paternal farmstead, in Walworth county, Wisconsin, on the 
23d of November, 1851, and being a son of Stephen and Mary A. (Leddell) 
Kelley, who were numbered among the early settlers of that section. The 
father of the subject was born and reared in Herkimer county, New York, 
and was of Scotch-Irish descent, the family having been established in 
America in the early colonial epoch, when the original progenitors in 
the new world took up their abode in New England. The mother of the 
subject was born in Vermont, of English lineage, the Leddell family 
likewise having been long identified with the annals of American 
history. Stephen Kelley continued to be identified with agricultural 
pursuits in Wisconsin until 1866, when he removed to Freeborn county, 
Minnesota, where he followed the same great basic industry during the 
remainder of his active business career, and his death occurred in that 
county in 1898, at which time he was seventy-five years of age. He 
served with honor as a valiant defender of the integrity of the nation 
during the war of the Rebellion, having been a member of Company I, 
Forty-sixth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. He was a Republican in his 
political proclivities, having identified himself with the "grand old 
party" at the time of its organization. His wife was summoned into 
eternal rest in 1895, at the age of seventy one years, and of their 
three sons and three daughters all are living except Benjamin, who died 
at the age of twenty-six years.  

	Edgar Kelley, the immediate subject of this review, was reared to 
the sturdy discipline of the farm and early became inured to the 
strenuous work involved in the tilling of the soil, while his 
educational advantages were those afforded in the public schools of 
Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa, to which last mentioned state he removed 
when twenty years of age. After leaving school he was engaged in farm 
work in Franklin county, that state, for three years, when he returned 
to Minnesota, and assumed charge of his father's farm, being thus 
engaged for the ensuing four years, within which time he broke much new 
land and made it available for cultivation. The work was arduous, as 
may be understood when we state that he utilized a breaking plow whose 
operation demanded the use of an ox-team of six yokes. Upon leaving the 
homestead, in 1879, Mr. Kelley came to what is now the state of South 
Dakota, and located in Grant county, where he entered a homestead claim 
in Melrose township, the same constituting an integral portion of his 
present fine landed estate of I four hundred and eighty-six acres, 
nearly all of which is available for cultivation, while the farm is one 
of the model places of this section of the state, being improved with 
substantial buildings, with modern facilities, good fences, etc., while 
the owner is progressive in his ideas and carries on his operations 
with discrimination and according to scientific methods, aiming to 
secure the maximum results from the time and labor expended. He raises 
the various cereals best adapted to the soil and climate, and also 
devotes special attention to the growing of high-grade live stock, 
while the dairying feature of his farm enterprise is one of no 
insignificant order, since he furnishes an average of two hundred 
pounds of milk each day to the co-operative creamery in Milbank, one of 
the successful and important industrial enterprises of the county, the 
equipment being the best of all creameries in the state. He was one of 
the organizers and a director of the creamery, in 1895, and has been a 
member of its directorate ever since. The extent of the operations of 
the creamery and its value to the community may be appreciated in a 
measure when we record the fact that in the month of June, 1903, the 
company paid out to the farmers of the county more than thirty-four 
hundred dollars, this being a fair average of the expenditure during 
the more active season of creamery work. Mr. Kelley is also one of the 
stockholders in the Farmers' Co-operative Elevator Company of Milbank, 
who own and control a fine elevator and who have proved the value of 
organization, since the enterprise rendered fifty per cent. of 
dividends in the year 1903.  

	Mr. Kelley is a progressive, liberal, and public-spirited 
citizen, ever ready to lend his aid and influence in the furtherance of 
all worthy enterprises and undertakings for the general good, and while 
he is a staunch advocate of the principles and policies of the 
Republican party and a worker in the party ranks, he has never sought 
or desired official preferment. In 1902, however, in the face of his 
personal protest, he was made the nominee of his party for 
representative of Grant county in the general assembly, being elected 
to the office in November of that year by a gratifying majority, while 
his course as a legislator has amply justified the wisdom of his 
constituents in calling him to this important position. He is 
affiliated with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; the Ancient Order 
of United Workmen, and the Yeomen.  

	On the 26th of July, 1879, in Albert Lea, Minnesota, was 
solemnized the marriage of Mr. Kelley to Miss Eliza Bessenger, who was 
born and reared in Freeborn county, that state, being a daughter of 
Morris and Anna Mary Bessenger, natives of Germany; Her father was a 
marble dealer by vocation, was an early settler of Minnesota, and he 
and his wife reside at Albert Lea, Minnesota. Mr. and Mrs. Kelley have 
two children, Elmer D., a student in a commercial college at Mankato, 
Minnesota; and Elsie M., the wife of Henry Vandervoort.