Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 2.djvu/358

342 Senator Kelly was born in Center County, Pennsylvania, February 16, 1819. At the age of twenty he graduated at Princeton, was admitted to the bar in the State of Pennsylvania in 1842, came to California in 1849, and in 1851 located in the Territory of Oregon. He was a colonel of volunteers in the Indian war against the Yakima Indians in 1855; a member of the legislative council from 1853 to 1857; a member of the constitutional convention, and was a member of the state senate from 1860 to 1864. He was appointed United States district attorney for the district of Oregon by President Buchanan in 1860, but declined to accept the appointment. Upon his retirement from the senate and in 1878 he was appointed by Governor Thayer chief justice of the supreme court under the act of the legislative assembly, approved October 17, 1878, which authorized the appointment of three judges of the supreme court as a separate judicial body, and who should perform appellate duty only. His opinions while a member of the supreme bench are found reported in seventh and eighth Oregon Reports. His term expired July 4, 1880, since which time for several years he devoted himself to the practice of his profession at Portland, Oregon, and later removed to Washington, D. C., where he now resides. He faithfully discharged the obligations of public office in whatever capacity his services were required, and his record is one of which the state is justly proud.

John H. Mitchell was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, June 22, 1835; admitted to the bar in Pennsylvania; later removed to California and practiced law in that state, and in 1860 came to Portland, Oregon. He was elected city attorney of the City of Portland in 1861, and in 1862 was elected to the state senate and served as president of the senate at the regular session of 1864 and the special session in December, 1865; a