Oliver S. Kelly

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Oliver S. Kelly (1880)

Oliver Smith Kelly (* 1824 in Springfield , Ohio ; † April 9, 1904 p. 296 ) was a prospector, investor, pioneer in the construction of agricultural machinery, threshing machines, steam engines, road rollers (steam-powered tractors), manufacturer of piano string frames (among others for Steinway), gold miner and collectively a major industrialist in the US state of Ohio in the 19th century. P. 1

Life

Childhood and youth

Father John Kelly was of Irish descent and owned a farm in Clark County . He died early (35 years old) in December 1824 when son Oliver was just nine months old. His mother continued to live on the farm, but married a second time four years later. Oliver S., who had stayed with his mother, found himself forced to take his life into his own hands at the age of 14. Fortunately, he was with the family of WF McIntire (called "Uncle Billy"), whom he helped on the farm. In the spring of 1842 he began a three-year apprenticeship in Springfield with the carpenter Joseph McIntire, a brother of his foster father.

Contractors and California

After working as a journeyman for over a year, he founded Anderson & Kelly with JA Anderson as a partner and made it a leading construction company in Clark County within six years.

In the spring of 1852 he dissolved the partnership, left his wife and child behind and went to California. The accomplished carpenter and carpenter made a fortune of several thousand dollars as a contractor for the apartments of the miners of the California gold rush . Other sources simplify and say Kelly made his fortune digging for gold. S1 & 3

After almost four years, he had raised enough start-up capital and returned to Springfield in 1856. He invested a small part of his capital and briefly took part in a grocery wholesale company.

Whiteley & Fassler & Kelly and the Champion machine

In Springfield, William N. Whiteley and Jerome Fassler founded the Whiteley & Fassler company in 1855 , which manufactured a successful horse-powered mower and harvesting machine with their “Champion” . They urgently needed capital in order to adapt their production capacities to the high demand. With Oliver S. Kelly, three extraordinary people with special abilities came together: William N. Whiteley had created the conditions with the invention and the prototype, Jerome Fassler had the necessary subtle abilities to further develop and produce the machine, and Kelly came at exactly the right time, closed the financing hole and, in addition to the money, also brought in his own skills in industrial mechanics.

The problems and obstacles with which the young company had to struggle on its way required great physical and psychological efforts. Kelly often worked with his partners from four in the morning until well into the night. In addition to his manual skills, Kelly had a thorough and clear vision of the company's goals. His department specialized in woodworking, which rivaled other branches of the company in terms of quality. He also oversaw the workshops, and later the entire mechanical department of the company, as well as the shipping and delivery area.

For details about the company's development and the distribution of roles, see Champion Interest .

OS Kelly Company and Kelly Street Scooters

In 1881 Oliver S. Kelly left the “Champion Interest” group of companies because of differences of opinion with the risk-taker William N. Whiteley about further development and sold him his company shares. He was now in his late fifties and his two sons were of an age to take on entrepreneurial responsibility themselves. For Kelly the reason to direct his energies in an appropriate direction. Subsequently, he devoted himself to the field of steam engine drives and vehicles with his own companies.

Kelly took over the old production facility of the Whiteley, Fassler & Kelly Company, which was no longer needed after the construction of the East Street Shops in Whiteley, and converted it into "Kelly's Arcade and Hotel", later called "Arcade Hotel".

In 1882 he invested part of his fortune in the purchase of the "Rhinehart and Ballard Threshing Machine Works" . With himself as president and his son Oliver W. as director, he reorganized what is now called the "Springfield Engine and Thresher Company". Profits rose and businesses continued to expand. In 1889 or 1890 the company name changed again, this time to "OS Kelly Company". S3

In addition to threshing machines, he also manufactured his successful “Kelly Road Roller” there .

At the end of the 1880s, when Oliver's company was flourishing, he was intensively involved with developments in steam engine construction in England. Its designers and machine builders began to replace the Springfield drives with a new type of Kelly drive, which borrowed some details from British models, so u. a. the arrangement of the valve above the cylinder, both enclosed in a large steam envelope, the mounting of the drive shafts and the arrangement of the control station. S3

The company also tried to promote another British invention, the cable plowing. The (steam) drives - most effectively two opposite - stood outside the field and alternately pulled the plow across the field using cable winches. However, cable plowing could not establish itself on the large cultivation areas in the USA. It is said that this was the only time in his career that Oliver S. Kelly misjudged a trend. S3

Piano string frame

Kelly also successfully produced cast iron piano string frames for Steinway & Sons at his OS Kelly Company in Springfield . In its prime, 75 percent of all piano plates used in the United States and Canada came from Springfield. P. 328

At the end of the 1990s Steinway bought up some of its suppliers to ensure quality, including the "OS Kelly Company" in November 1999.

The Reed Gold Mine

When Kelly made his first fortune building houses in his early days in California, he had undoubtedly also explored the possibilities of gold mining and processing. As a rich industrialist, he came back to it in the 1890s and tried to use his technical skills and possibilities for it.

The well-known California gold rush was the second in the United States. The first was in North Carolina and was triggered in 1799 by the discovery of a nugget of gold at Meadow Creek in Cabarrus County . The 12-year-old Conrad John Reed had discovered the "big, heavy chunk". His father John Reed (birth name Johannes Reith), a Hessian soldier who was supposed to fight the American uprising for the English , but had deserted and become a wealthy farmer, only discovered three years later that it was gold. He and three partners began to mine successfully for gold and founded the "Reed Gold Mine" . Other farmers got into the lucrative source of secondary income with their slaves and the first gold rush got under way. From panning for gold in frying pans, they switched to technical washing systems and then began underground mining. Mercury was used to loosen and bind the gold in an amalgam , which was later separated again by heating. In the 1820s, capital-intensive industrial gold mining and processing with drilling shafts and large stone crushing plants and grinding stones from Chile was in full swing. Reed was in business with his mining company until 1834, but fell out in a long-running legal battle with his partners and died in 1843.

The Reed Mine, which was no longer fully exploited, changed hands several times and in 1848 national attention turned to the more valuable gold discoveries in California and the Rocky Mountains. The long gold mining hegemony ended for North Carolina, but the search for gold continued. The profit margins remained low and plans for a high-tech conversion failed because of capital requirements. In January 1895, Oliver S. Kelly , O. Warren Kelly and Dr. Justin D. Lisle of Springfield, Ohio opened the mine, and Lisle opened it after some repairs. Large gold discoveries in the following year prompted the owners to invest heavily in crushing and grinding mills and steam pumps, so that the mine was able to operate successfully until 1901. The Alaska gold rush ( Klondike 1897-98, Atlin 1899 and Nome 1900) ended the activities. The property remained in the hands of the Kellys and was officially transferred to the OS Kelly Company in 1921 and to Armin L. Kelly in 1850 . In 1971 the state of North Carolina took over and established a national cultural site in memory of the first American gold rush.

Public offices and other functions

Oliver S. Kelly served the City of Springfield as a councilor and trustee for the city's first waterworks and a longtime director of Ferncliff Cemetery. In 1887 he was elected mayor. During his tenure (1887-1889) he directed the construction of the "City Building and Market" opposite his "Arcade and Hotel" and donated a 16 m fountain that was located between the two buildings on Market Street, which was then named in 1890 Fountain Avenue received.

He maintained good relations with his former business partner Amos Whiteley, the brother William N. Whiteleys, and with him became a prominent shareholder and director in the "Second National Bank" until their business was transferred to the successor company "Citizens National Bank" .

Descendants

Oliver Smith Kelly had two sons who also had entrepreneurial success in the USA:

  • Oliver W. Kelly (* 1851; †?)
    Founded the Rubber Tire Wheel Company in 1894 with brother Edwin and the inventor Arthur W. Grant , the forerunner of the Kelly-Springfield Tire Company
  • Edwin S. Kelly (April 17, 1859 - May 15, 1934)
    was the general manager of the Springfield Coal & Ice Company in 1888. In
    1894, he teamed up with brother Oliver W. and the inventor Arthur W. Grant and founded the Rubber Tire Wheel Company , the forerunner of the Kelly-Springfield Tire Company
    , Edwin built the Kelly-Springfield Truck Company in 1910, but only stayed there for two years. In the OS Kelly Company , however, he was active until 1921. Edwin has served as chairman of the board of directors or similar senior positions in more than half a dozen companies including Home Lighting, Heating and Power Company, and Kelly-Springfield Printing Company . For a long time he was also a newspaper publisher.

Personal evaluation and honors

Kelly was credited with a high degree of human qualification in addition to sagacity, reason, and economic dexterity. His philanthropy and charity are said to have been a major contributor to the material growth and prosperity of the company and the City of Springfield.

When Kelly died, the local newspaper wrote:
"Those who knew him need not be told of his virtues;
the unfortunate ones who did not know him will never understand how human he was among people."

Tribe list

  1. James Kelly (* 1752 in Scotland; † 30 August 1837) Irish immigrant, who first settled in Virginia
    ⚭Catherine Stewart (* 1764 in Scotland)
    1. John Kelly (born March 3, 1789 in Monongalia County, West Virginia, † September 27, 1825) participant in the War of 1812
      ⚭ April 20, 1818 Peggy McBeth
      1. Oliver Smith Kelly (born December 23, 1824 in Springfield (Ohio); † 1904) ⚭ December 23, 1847 Ruth (Peck) Kelly (born December 24, 1822 in Springfield (Ohio))
        entrepreneur, inventor, benefactor, mayor
        1. Oliver W. Kelly (* 1851; †?), Entrepreneur in the USA
        2. Edwin S. Kelly (1859–1934), entrepreneur in the United States

literature

  • | Richard T. Kelly1900 | Richard T. Kelly: History of James and Catherine Kelly and their descendants , Ed .: Oliver S. Kelly, print: The Springfield Publishing Company, Springfield 1900 full text in the online archive
  • | GandallRyan1913 | Emilius O. Gandall, Daniel J. Ryan: History of Ohio; the rise and progress of an American state , Volume Five, The Century History Company (New York 1913) full text in the Internet archive, English

Web links

Commons : Oliver S. Kelly  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Notes, details, individual documents

  1. ↑ a b see literature Emilius O. Gandall, Daniel J. Ryan: History of Ohio; the rise and progress of an American state
  2. ↑ according to Graeme R. Quick, Australian Tractors, Indigenous Tractors and Self-Propelled Machines in rural Australia , ISBN 9781877058394 , Rosenberg Publishing, Australia, p. 28
  3. ↑ a b c d e see web link Robert T. Rhode: A portrait of Olliver S. Kelly . From Panning Gold to Melting Steel; Biography of Oliver S. Kelly on Farm Collector
  4. ↑ a b see literature Richard T. Kelly: History of James and Catherine Kelly and their descendants
  5. ↑ a b c see web link Rootsweb Ancestry for Clark County: Biography of Olliver S. Kelly
  6. ↑ a b c see web link steel engraving portrait and short biography at ART 330 Antique Prints Plus
  7. ↑ a b c see web link inscription on the plaque next to Oliver S. Kelly's monument
  8. ↑ Reference to the Kelly-Steinway business relationship in the English article w: en: Steinway & Sons
  9. ↑ http://www.steinwaymusical.com/content/about_us.htm Corporate development of Steinway Musical Instruments, Inc.
  10. ↑ see article in the English language Wikipedia w: en: John Reed (miner)
  11. ↑ see article in the English language Wikipedia w: en: Reed Gold Mine
  12. ↑ see web link US National Park Service: Reed Gold Mine
  13. ↑ see web link Nancy Recchie: National Register of Historic Places Inventory
  14. ↑ Amos Whiteley: History of the Whiteleys in America , 1907 and 1922 Available online at archive.org
  15. ↑ see literature Anthony Hallett, Diane Hallett: Entrepreneur magazine encyclopedia of entrepreneurs
personal data
SURNAME Kelly, Oliver S.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kelly, Oliver Smith
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American entrepreneur and technical pioneer
DATE OF BIRTH 1824
PLACE OF BIRTH Springfield , Ohio
DATE OF DEATH April 9, 1904