Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/540

504 the taxation of the American colonies. He finally became very poor, passed some time in prison for debt, and died in the Old Bailey, London. Sir William was the author of various essays, several of which were published in one volume (London, 1740). He projected writing a series of colonial histories, but only one appeared, that of Virginia, which was published by the Society for the en- couragement of learning (1738).

KEITT, Laurence Massillon (kit), congress- man, b. in Orangeburg district, S. C, 4 Oct., 1824 ; d. in Richmond. Va., 4 June. 1864. Pie was grad- uated at the College of South Carolina in 1843, and was admitted to the bar in 1845. He was in the legislature in 1848, was chosen to congress in 1852 as a state-rights Democrat, and served until his withdrawal in December, 1860, to become a delegate to the secession convention of South Caro- lina. He was a member of the provisional Con- federate congress in Montgomery, Ala., in 1861, and was conspicuous in forming the provisional and permanent Confederate constitution. In 1862 he joined the Confederate army as colonel of the 20th South Carolina volunteers, and was mortally wounded, at the head of his regiment, at the battle of Cold Harbor, dying in Richmond the next day.

KELLAR, Ezra, clergyman, b. in Middleton valley, Md., 12 June, 1812 ; d. in Springfield, Ohio, 29 Dec, 1848. He was graduated at Pennsylvania college, Gettysburg, in 1835, licensed to preach two years afterward in the Lutheran ministry, and be- came an itinerant missionary in the western states. He was subsequently in charge of churches in Tarrytown and Hagerstown, Md., and in 1844 es- tablished Wittenberg college, Springfield, Ohio, serving as its president till his death. Jefferson college gave him the degree of D. D. in 1848. Michal Diehl wrote his life (Springfield, Ohio, 1859).

KELLER, Christian Arnold, Swiss explorer, b. in Friburg in 1711 ; d. in Basle, 11 Oct., 1790. He received his early education in Switzerland, but finished it in Paris, and was employed in 1734 in the physical cabinet of the Paris Academie des sciences. In 1735 he accompanied Charles Marie de la Condamine to South America. In 1740 he followed La Condamine again during his explora- tion of the Amazon, but parting with him in Columbia, he travelled extensively in South Amer- ica, and returning in the spring of 1749, after an absence of fourteen years. In 1751 he was given the chair of physics and chemistry in the University of Basle, which he occupied till his death. Keller's works include " Discours du voyage des astro- nomes La Condamine, Bouguer et Godin, pour mesurer un arc du meridien a l'equateur, suivi d'un traite et description des plantes et des animaux qui habitent les Cordillieres du Perou " (2 vols., Geneva, 1771) ; " La pression atmospherique dans les Cordillieres des Andes et du Perou" (Paris, 1756); "Observations astronomiques faites dans les Cordillieres du Perou " (1758) ; " Reise auf dem Amazonenflusse " (1773); "Neue Ameri- kanische Beitrage " (1776) ; " Reisen im Innern von Sud-Amerika" (Basle, 1781); "Land und Leute von Peru " (2 vols., 1784) ; and " Grand atlas de l'Amcrique du Sud " (6 vols., 1788).

KELLER, Joseph Edward, clergyman, b. in Kandel, Bavaria, in 1827 ; d. in Rome, Italy, 4 Feb., 1886. He was brought by his parents to St. Louis when a child, and studied in the university of that city. He joined the Jesuit order in 1844, was or- dained priest, and afterward was professor succes- sively in the Jesuit colleges of Cincinnati, Flores- sant, Bardstown, and St. Louis. He was elected to represent his order at the convention that was held in Rome in 1868, and in 1869-'77 he was provin- cial of the Maryland province. He was made president of St. Louis university in 1877, and after- ward of Woodstock seminary. Md. He went to Rome in 1883 as delegate of the society, and was retained there as assistant to the Jesuit general for all the English-speaking peoples of the world. He was an ardent advocate of higher education, and founded in the University of St. Louis the Eost-graduate and scientific courses of studies. He eld high rank as a linguist, and was the author of various publications, but never affixed his name to any, except " The Life and Acts of Leo XIII." (New York, 1885).

KELLETT, Sir Henry, British naval officer, b. in England in 1807; d. in China, 1 March, 1875. He entered the British navy when he was four- teen years old, participated in the coast survey of America in 1835-'40, under Admiral Frederick W. Beechey and Sir Edward Belcher, and continued this work from 1845 till 1848, when he was ordered to Bering straits to take part in the search for Sir John Franklin. He discovered Herald (now Wrangell) Land in 1849, was with Belcher in the arctic expedition of 1852 as commander of the " Resolute," and found Sir Robert J. McClure with the crew of the " Investigator." He was appoint- ed commodore in 1854, admiral superintendent of Malta in 1864, and in 1869 became commander of the naval station in China.

KELLEY, Alfred, lawyer, b. in Middletown, Conn., 7 Nov., 1787; d. in Columbus, Ohio, 2 Dec, 1859. He studied law, and in 1810 removed to Cleveland, Ohio, where he practised his profession. He was one of the first to advocate the internal improvement of the state by means of canals, and was afterward appointed a commissioner to carry that policy into effect. By his exertions in 1836-43, and chiefly on his personal responsibility, he raised a large sum of money for the discharge of the pub- lic debt, and thus saved the state from bankruptcy. He was also active in railroad matters, and was re- peatedly a member of the Ohio legislature, in which he originated important measures.

KELLEY, Benjamin Franklin, soldier, b. in New Hampton, N. H., 10 April, 1807 ; d. in Oakland, Md., 17 July. 1891. He removed in 1826 to Wheeling, engaged in merchandise till 1851, when he became freight-agent on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. In May, 1861, he raised the first Virginia regiment for the National army, and was commissioned its colonel. He was engaged at Philippi, near Grafton, W. Va., and severely wounded, was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, 17 May, 1861, captured Romney on 26 Oct., and was again victorious at Blue's Gap. He was then given the command of the Department of Harper's Ferry and Cumberland, but was relieved at his own request, in consequence of his wounds, in January, 1862. In the following summer he resumed command of the railroad district under Gen. John O. Fremont, and in July, 1863, he was assigned to the Department of West Virginia. He was engaged in the pursuit of Lee after his passage of the Potomac, and in November, 1863, destroyed the camp of the Confederates under Gen. John D. Imboden, near Morefield, Va. In August, 1864, he repulsed the Confederate forces at Cumberland, Md., New Creek, and Morefield. Va., and on 13 March, 1865, he was brevetted major-general of volunteers. At the close of the civil war he was appointed collector of internal revenue for the 1st district of West Virginia, in 1876 became superintendent of Hot Springs reservation, Ark., and after 1883 he was an examiner of pensions.