Colusa Biographical Sketches.
CHAPTER XII.
W.H. KELLEY.
Noteworthy among the active business men of the county and that class of politicians who take a deep interest in party and public affairs for the sake of promoting its basal principles and not in a selfish scheming for office, is W.H. Kelley. He was born in Ralls County, Missouri, December 8, 1851, and is the oldest son of Hon. John M. Kelley, of Yolo County. His father haaving decided to leave Missouri and found another home, the family commenced the long and at times perilous journey across the plains in 1859 with California as the objective point. On the journey, young Kelley, though but eight years old, made his first acquaintance with real work, being engaged in driving his father's cattle all the way from the Missouri River to the Pacific. The Kelley family, shortly after arriving in the State, settled in Yolo County, where "Buck," as he is familiarly called, attended the public school for a while, afterwards completing his education at the Jesuit College, Santa Clara. Attaining his majority about this time, he came to Colusa County, engaging in various occupations, such as farming, conducting a livery stable, journalism and the real estate and insurance business. In May, 1885, in conjunction with K.E. Kelley, he purchased the Willows Journal and during the co-partnership of these two bright, active, and aggressive gentlemen, the Journal came to the front and was much appreciated and quoted by its exchanges. Mr. Kelley again resumed the editorship of the Journal on September 1, 1890, which paper, besides issuing a weekly paper of eight pages, is one of the newsiest dailies in the Sacramento Valley. He takes great interest in politics, being one of the most indefatigable workers in the Democratic ranks and an acknowledged leader therein. He served as secretary of the Democratic County Central Committee from 1888 to 1890. "Buck" lays no claim of belonging to that rather numerous and unhappy class of local statesmen who seek to control communities for all the glory and pelf there is in it. An honorable, public-spirited man, when his locality or party are to be benefited, he does the work of any two men and pays for the pleasure of doing it out of his own means. This is all the glory or recompense he seeks.
COLUSA COUNTY
ITS
HISTORY TRACED FROM A STATE OF NATURE
THROUGH THE EARLY PERIOD OF SET-
TLEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT,
TO THE PRESENT DAY
WITH A
DESCRIPTION OF ITS RESOURCES, STATISTICAL
TABLES, ETC.
ALSO
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF PIONEERS AND
PROMINENT RESIDENTS
by Justus H. Rogers
Orland, California
1891
Page 343-465
Transcribed by: Linda Diane Jackson 7/8/2009
Colusa County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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