Alfred Kelley

Alfred Kelley (November 7, 1789—December 2, 1859) was a banker, canal builder, lawyer, railroad executive, and state legislator in the state of Ohio in the United States. He is considered by historians to be one of the most prominent commercial, financial, and political Ohioans of the first half of the 19th century.

Kelley is known as the "Father of the Ohio and Erie Canal" for his successful legislative attempt to establish the Ohio and Erie Canal. He was one of the canal's first two "acting commissioners", and oversaw its construction and completion. He was the president of Columbus and Xenia Railroad (completed in 1850) and the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad (completed in 1851), and pushed for a state charter for the Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Railroad (later known as the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad). For this, he is known as the architect of Ohio's rail system.

As a member of the Canal Commission Fund, he helped save Ohio from bankruptcy in 1841 and 1842. As a state legislator, he led the investigation into and secured the resignation of two Ohio State Treasurers for financial malfeasance, successfully proposed legislation abolishing imprisonment for debt, created the State Bank of Ohio, reformed the state's tax system, and successfully proposed legislation to create the first state oversight of public education.

Kelley was notably the first lawyer and prosecuting attorney in Cleveland. He became the youngest member of the Ohio General Assembly at the age of 25, and returned to the legislature numerous times, until he became the oldest serving in the assembly.

Alfred Kelley was born in Middlefield, Connecticut, on November 7, 1789, to Daniel and Jemima (née Stow) Kelley. He was the second of six children (all boys). The Kelleys were of English descent, having lived in Connecticut since at least 1690. The Stows were an important English land-owning family which emigrated to Massachusetts in 1630 and then Connecticut in 1650.

Alfred's uncle, Silas Stow, was the land agent for Nicholas Low, who owned the township that later became Lowville, New York. At the urging of Silas Stow, the Kelleys moved to Lowville in the winter of 1798–1799. Daniel built and operated a gristmill, and Jemima dispensed medication and medical treatment to the settlers in the area. Having attended public school in Middlefield and Lowville, Alfred enrolled at Fairfield Academy in Fairfield, New York, in 1804. Daniel Kelley was appointed a judge of the New York Court of Common Pleas in 1805, and held various other public offices in Lowville and Oneida County. The Kelleys became moderately wealthy. In 1807, Alfred began the study of law under Jonas Pratt, a judge of the New York Supreme Court.

Daniel Kelley was increasingly unhappy with the Stow family's liberal religious views, which were beginning to influence his sons. Another of Alfred's uncles, Joshua Stow, was one of the original investors in the Connecticut Land Company. By royal charter, the Connecticut Colony laid claim to most of the lands west of the colony between the 41st and 42nd parallels of north latitude. In 1786, Connecticut ceded all its land claims to the government of the United States in exchange for cancellation of its American Revolutionary War debts. Connecticut retained only those lands known as the Connecticut Western Reserve, an area bounded by Lake Erie on the north, Pennsylvania on the east, and the 41st parallel of north latitude on the south. The Western Reserve extended for exactly 120 miles (190 km) to the west, and came to an abrupt halt. On August 3, 1795, the state of Connecticut sold the Western Reserve to the Connecticut Land Company for $1.2 million ($22,200,000 in 2024 dollars). Joshua Stow was a member of the party led by Moses Cleaveland which surveyed the Western Reserve in 1796. Encouraged by his uncle's descriptions of the lush lands of the Western Reserve, Alfred's eldest brother, Datus, traveled to the nascent settlement of Cleveland in early 1810. Although he returned almost immediately, Alfred emigrated to Cleveland in May 1810. He made the journey on horseback, accompanied by Joshua Stow and a medical student, Jared Potter Kirtland.

Alfred Kelley was admitted to the bar on November 7, 1810. He was the first lawyer to practice in Cleveland. The local court immediately appointed him prosecuting attorney for Cuyahoga County—a position he held until 1822. In one of his most notable cases, he prosecuted a slave-hunter for kidnapping in 1820. He won the case.