1826

Oliver H. Kelley born on Jan. 7, the fifth child of a Boston tailor. His great-grandfather Thomas had come to America with the British troops during the French and Indian wars and was lost at sea in 1767.

1832
to
1847

Kelley attends Chauncey Hall school and majors in writing.

1847

Kelley leaves home on May 3 and travels to Chicago. He works briefly as a reporter with the Chicago Tribune. Next, he works in a drug store.

1848

Kelley receives training to become a telegrapher in Peoria, Ill. In August, he takes a job in the telegraph office in Bloomington (now Muscatine), Iowa, and, in turn, trains other aspiring telegraphers.

1849

He marries 18-year-old Lucy Earll on April 29. In June, they travel to the new territory of Minnesota with a letter of introduction to Gov. Alexander Ramsey. Kelley is the first person initiated into the Masonic Lodge in Minnesota. The newcomers help organize the official first Fourth of July celebration in St. Paul.

1850

Kelley rushes to stake a claim after one branch of the legislature passes a bill making Itasca capital of the territory. Itasca was near present-day Elk River. In July, Kelley is made a colonel by Ramsey when the militia is called out to fight the Winnebago. No battles are fought. Kelley settles in with Lucy's relative Sciota Earll and an Ohioan named James B. Carroll.

1851

Kelley trades with the Winnebago and is named justice of the peace and notary public for Benton County. He is also appointed aide-de-camp to Commander-in-Chief Ramsey. In February, his wife gives birth; in April, she dies; Kelley's mother, Nancy Hancock comes to care for the baby. In September, the baby girl dies. Kelley writes a letter to a territorial newspaper about potato planting, the superiority of New England frame barns, and the upcoming local elections.

1852

Kelley helps found the Benton County Agricultural Society, the first such county society in Minnesota, and Kelley is named the corresponding secretary. He marries a local school teacher, Temperance Baldwin Lane, who also came here from Boston. They have four daughters over the next decade: Julia, Fanny, Garaphelia and Grace. None ever marries.

1853

1855
to
1856

1855

Kelley's farm was described by a traveling correspondent. Kelley also becomes a sales agent for the Wm. Plant Co. of St. Louis, and he actively proselytizes for the new machinery he sells. One of his daughters claims later that "Mr. Kelley owned and worked the first reaping machine, built the first frame barn and sowed the first acre of timothy grass north of St. Anthony Falls. The Winnebagoes are moved to a reservation on the Blue Earth River. Kelley plants and begins developing the town of Northwood immediately after the land is opened to settlement.

1856
to
1858

Both Kelley and his brother Charles begin developing Northwood with money they received from mortgages on their land in 1855. Kelley becomes postmaster, notary public and justice of the peace. A hotel, general store and school are built, as well as a factory for manufacturing Excelsior Metal Polish-a product made from Mississippi River silt. The financial panic in 1857 forces Kelley to relinquish his interest in Northwood, and the town quickly dies.

1857

Kelley's mother dies in Boston.

1860

Kelley begins switching toward market gardening of fruits and vegetables grown for urban areas.

1861

1862

Kelley writes a letter of complaint to Governor Ramsey. When soldiers respond to settlers' calls for help during the Dakota War, some pass Kelley's farm en route and seize his horses and wagon for transportation. Kelley complains that he is worried because one is a "fine blooded mare" which he was boarding.

1863

His brother William H. Kelley participates in organizing the St. Paul Library Association and is elected recording secretary.

1864

Kelley advertises his status as an agent for Col. D. A. Robertson's Nursery and Seed Store in St. Paul. He also notes that he has strawberry plants by the million to sell. He publishes a "Gardener Wanted" ad; qualifications include a thorough knowledge of fruits and vegetables and their culture. Other significant events.
He also receives his last letter from his father who dies shortly after writing it.

1864

In January, Kelley is elected to the executive committee of the Anoka County Agricultural Society. Along with friend Jared Benson, he is elected delegate to the State Agricultural Society.

1865

1866

In January, he is given the job of touring the Southern states to report to the Department of Agriculture on the status of Southern agriculture after the Civil War. He is also involved in the founding of the Minnesota Fruit Growers' Association, later renamed the Minnesota Horticultural Society. He is elected to the Society's first executive committee.

1867

He is appointed clerk in the Post Office Department in Washington, D. C. In December, he and six other men form the Order of the Patrons of Husbandry, the Grange.

1868
to
1870

1870

In December, Kelley moves his family to Washington to devote full-time to organizing the Grange. The family leaves the farm on Dec. 28. They leave Minneapolis on Jan. 2, 1871.

1871
to
1874

The Grange catches on and spreads rapidly throughout the nation. Special wagons are sent to Kelley's headquarters to pick up the daily volume of mail. In 1873, Kelley's old mortgage on the farm is foreclosed, and he loses it for one year, regaining it through help from his Hall relatives and financial manipulation which help save him $6,000. The Grange succeeds in promoting legislation to regulate railroad rates and unfair weights and measures.

1875

1873
to
1876

Kelley begins losing interest in the Grange as he loses some control to other administrators. By 1875, the Grange begins to decline in popularity. The move to Louisville sours him, and he begins to build his new house in Minnesota, hoping to move his secretarial office back to the old homestead. He also buys 29 more adjoining acres. Grange membership begins to wane after reaching a peak of 858,050 in 1875. Cooperative ventures begin to fail.

1878

Kelley becomes deeply involved in real estate speculation in northwestern Florida. He moves his office and Grange records there, but soon resigns his position. He has little contact with the Grange for the next 16 years.
He founds a new city-Rio Carabelle. Fla., and begins to promote it as the biggest port between Tampa and Mobile. A sandbar at the mouth of the river ruins his dreams. He serves as mayor, and his daughters and niece serve as postmistress, hosteler and school teacher.

1890
to
1900

He appears at Grange meetings all over the country. In 1899, he returns to Minnesota to be toasted by the St. Paul Masons as the oldest surviving initiate in the state. He also visits the homestead for the last time.

1901

Kelley family sells the Minnesota farm and moves back to Washington, D. C.

1905

Kelley granted $100 monthly pension by the National Grange.

1911

Temperance Lane Kelley dies.

1913

Shortly after his 87th birthday party, Kelley dies.