In 1849, Mr. Kelly was appointed by the legislature one of the Commissioners of the city of Cleveland to subscribe on behalf of the city to the capital stock of the Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railroad Company. He accepted the trust, and for a number of successive years thereafter, until the stock of the city in that road was disposed of, was chosen a Director of the Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railroad Company, to represent the interests of this city in the capital stock of that company.
In September, 1866, he was appointed by President Johnson District Attorney of the United States for the Northern District of Ohio, and held the office until the next March, not having been confirmed by the Radical senate for the reason that he had been a member of the Philadelphia Convention of the previous summer.
On the organization of the City Bank of Cleveland under the law of 1845, Mr. Kelly became a stockholder therein and was a director, and its attorney, during its existence, and has continued in the same connection with the National City Bank which succeeded the former. He also for a number of years has been a director and attorney of the Cuyahoga Steam Furnace Company.
Mr. Kelly was one of the organizers of St. Paul's Episcopal church, and has always remained a liberal supporter of the same.
He was married in the year 1839 to Jane, the daughter of Gen. Hezekiah Howe, of New Haven, Conn.
In 1850, Mr. Kelly purchased a tract of about thirty acres, being a part of what was then known as the "Giddings farm," fronting on Euclid avenue, a short distance East of Willson avenue. Here he soon after erected a tasteful dwelling, where he has since resided, and where in the leisure snatched from professional avocations he has gratified his taste for horticultural and agricultural pursuits.
In person Mr. Kelly is tall and spare, and dignified in demeanor, and although he has reached three score, he is still active and in good health. His character for integrity is unblemished and in his long professional career has never been known to uphold or defend a dishonorable cause. His rule has been to decline advocating causes which, in his judgment, have neither merits nor justice. In social intercourse he is affable and genial, and in public, private and professional life, has always commanded the respect, esteem and confidence of his fellow men. Firm in his convictions of duty, and resolute in doing it, yet so respectful and courteous to opponents is he that he may be said to be a man without an enemy.
The great rise in real estate and his professional earnings have rendered Mr. Kelly, if not what in these days would be called wealthy, comparatively rich, and surrounded, as he is, by an affectionate family and kind friends and possessed of all the enjoyments which culture and a successful life brings, we trust he may long continue amongst us.
Thomas Bolton.
It has been said of history, that it should never venture to deal except with periods comparatively remote. And this was doubtless true when literature was venal, or in any way subservient to royal or to party power.