Nevada Genealogy Trails Humboldt County Hon. Edward D. Kelly Biography

HON. EDWARD DAVIDSON KELLEY, surveyor general and state land register of Nevada, is one of the honored pioneers of the state. He arrived in the fall of 1861, soon after the organization of the territory. He is a native of Livingston county, New York, where he was born July 17, 1834, and comes of Irish, Scotch and English ancestry. His grandfather, Philip Kelley, emigrated from Ireland to western New York, and was one of the pioneer settlers of that wilderness. There he cleared up a farm and spent the remainder of his life, dying aged seventy years. His son, Arthur Kelley, was born and reared there, and married Helen Davidson, a native of New England and of Scotch ancestry, her people coming to New England from that country several generations ago. In 1842 they emigrated to Michigan and thence in 1845 to Iowa, there improved a farm and became very prosperous, and were prominent members of the Presbyterian church. They had three sons and one daughter. John Willis served in the Union army and was killed in August. 1862, near Shiloh; Arthur is an Iowa farmer; Edward D. is the subject of this sketch; Helen became the wife of Frank M. Meachan, reared a family and is still living. The father died at the age of fifty-five years, and the mother died in 1866, aged seventy-seven years.

General Kelley was educated in Iowa and is a graduate of Mt. Carrol Seminary. In 1856, when twenty-two years of age. he* crossed the plains to California, passing through what is now Nevada. He prospected and mined in Shasta county, became the owner of placer claims in which he took out an average of an ounce of gold a day, but in 1861 he removed to Humboldt county, Nevada, and continued his mining operations for nine years, owning several claims and a large interest in the Arizona mine, which he sold to John C. Fall and David H. Temple for his own price. Later this mine became a great producer and one of the noted mines of the state. In 1869 he established the Elko Independent; later he was connected with the ownership of the Silver State, and still later owned and published the Nevada State Journal, all of these being Democratic journals, he having been a Douglas Democrat and a great admirer of the Hon. Stephen A. Douglas. He also has the honor of being a member of the convention called in Nevada in favor of supporting the Union, and he gave that cause his best efforts. He was also an active participant in the organization of the silver party and did all in his power to promote its success. "Although he never sought for office he was induced in 1898 to accept the nomination for his present office, and was elected by a large majority. He was re-elected by about two thousand majority, and is now faithfully filling his second term. Such has been his life work in Nevada, as a miner, stock-raiser, newspaper man and publisher, as well as a successful business man and upright public official, that he commands the deepest respect from all who know him. By many he is lovingly called the "Grand Old Man of Nevada."

In 1876 he was married to Miss Amelia Huston Sheriff, a native of Missouri, and a daughter of Dr. Sheriff, of Calloway county, in that state. They have one daughter, Rebecca, now at home. She is a member of the Episcopal church, while her mother is a member of the Methodist church. The pleasant home of the family is a gathering place for their many friends, and they are very important factors in the social life of Carson City. Mr. Kelley is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and has been for the past twenty-five years, and has been an officer of the grand lodge for a long time. In the Scottish Rite he has attained to the thirty-second degree. He is also a veteran member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.