#1937 James Kerr Kelly ( Margaret Allison • Archibald Allison◊ • Mary Kennedy◊ • John Kennedy◊ • Alexander Kennedy◊ )

James was born 16 Feb 1819 in Centre Co., Pennsylvania. He died 15 Sep 1903 in Washington, District Of Columbia.

The following is quoted from the Oregonian, dated September 16, 1903. The punctuation and spelling are roughly as I found them in [Pierson/Smith], though I have corrected obvious typos.

Ex-Senator and Chief Justice of Oregon Dead

"Coming West as a Forty-Niner, He Won Distinction in Politics, in the Yakima Indian War, and on the Bench."

James Kerr Kelly, ex-United States Senator from Oregon, died at his residence here today aged 84 years. He was a native of Pennsylvania. Judge Kelly was a 49er, having gone to California on the discovery of gold in that state. In the Spring of 1851 he removed to Oregon, where he was a member of the Legislature and served in other important offices. In 1860 he was elected to the United States Senate where he served one term and on his retirement was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in Oregon, which position he held until 1882, when he resumed the practice of law in Portland.

He served as Lieutenant Colonel in the campaign against the Yakima Indians which began hostilities in the Fall of 1855. Since 1890 he had resided in Washington. A widow, son and daughter survive him. James Kerr Kelly was born in Centre County, Pennsylvania, February 16, 1819. He is of Scotch-Irish descent; his great grand-father having emigrated from the north of Ireland about 1728, and settled in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. His grand-father, Col. John Kelly, was a Major and Colonel of Pennsylvania Militia in the Revolution and Indian Wars, and was a member of the Convention which met in Philadelphia on July 15, 1776 to frame a constitution for a state government for the province of Pennsylvania. James K. Kelly graduated from Princeton College in 1839 and soon after commenced the study of law in the law school attached to Dickerson College, at Carlisle, under Prof. Hon. John Reed. After admission to the bar he practiced law in Lewiston, Mifflin County, Pennsylvania and was Deputy Prosecuting Attorney for the County of Mifflin.

Early in March, 1849, in company with a number of other young men from Lewiston and the neighboring counties, he left for California going to Pittsburgh by stage coach, thence by steam boat down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans; from there to Vera Cruz in Mexico, by ship. From Vera Cruz the party traveled across Mexico by way of the cities of Inerataro, Guadalajara and Tepic to San Blas, on the Pacific Coast. From there they took passage on a Mexican Schooner for San Francisco which they reached about the 6th of July, 1849. He worked in the mines a few months, then practiced law in San Francisco until May 5, 1851, when he left in the steamer Columbia for Oregon and arrived at Pacific City, a hamlet on Baker's Bay since gone out of existence. In the Fall of 1851 he went to Oregon City and Commenced the practice of law, in partnership with Hon. A. L. Lovejoy. The Legislative Assembly of 1852-1853 elected James K. Kelly of Clackamas County, Reuben P. Boise of Polk County, and Daniel R. Begitow of Thurston County, Code Commissioners to Prepare and compile the first code of Oregon, which was adopted but with little alteration by the Legislative Assembly in December 1853.

At the general election in June 1853, Mr. Kelly was elected a member of the Legislative Council (upper house), from 1853 to 1857, and was twice chose as President of that body. Mr. Kelly raised a company of "Mounted Volunteers" in Clackamas County for the Oregon Indian War of 1855, was elected Captain of the company, and later Lieutenant-Colonel of the regiment under Colonel James W. Nesmith.

At the election held in June, 1857, he was elected a member of the constitutional convention from Clackamas County and was appointed chairman of the committee to prepare the articles of the Constitution relating to the executive and administrative departments (the governor and the Secretary of State). H served in the Oregon State Senate from 1860 to 1864, representing the counties of Clackamas and Wasco. Soon after the election to the State Senate he was appointed United States District Attorney for Oregon by Attorney-General Jeremiah S. Black, but declined the appointment, as he preferred to remain a senator.

In 1864 he was nominated for member of Congress by the Democratic party and as his party was then in a hopeless minority was defeated by Hon. J. H. D. Henderson, Union Republican.

He was again the nominee of the Democratic party in 1866 for Governor of Oregon and was defeated by Hon. George L. Woods, the Republican nominee by a small majority. In October 1870 he was elected United States Senator from Oregon for the term commencing March 4, 1871, and ending March 3, 1877. In 1877 he resumed the practice of law at Portland.

As Judges of the newly organized Supreme Court under the Act of 1878, Governor Thayer appointed James Kerr Kelly, Reuben P. Boise and Paine Paige Prim to hold their offices from 1878 to 1880. Upon the assembling of the Judges to hold a term of the reorganized court, Mr. Kelly became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Oregon.

After his term of office expired in 1880 he resumed the practice law in Portland and soon it became a lucrative one, until 1890, when he retired from the general practice of law and removed to Washington, D. C., where he has since resided.

∞ James married «Unknown».

Children of this relationship:

Verna Allison Pierson & Marlowe G. Smith, The Allisons of Center County, Pennsylvania, History of the Family and Descendants of Archibald Allison and Mary Kennedy of Kirmaiden, Scotland and Monaghan, Ireland, (unpublished). Ref. as [Pierson/Smith]

Line Generation: 6

Relationship: First Cousins Four Times Removed through Archibald Allison◊