Biographical Sketches

JAMES E. KELLY

JAMES E. KELLY, who is a brother of Dan M. Kelly, former attorney general of Montana and now a prominent lawyer at Butte, one of the counsel of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, was for several years associated with his brother in business at Boulder, where he still resides.  James E. Kelly has served eight years as county attorney of Jefferson County.

He was born in Black Hawk County, Iowa, near Waterloo, November 6, 1878.  He was educated in the rural schools of that county, graduated in 1902 from Tilford Collegiate Academy at Vinton, Ohio, and took his law course in the University of Iowa at Iowa City.  He received his L.L. B. degree in 1906, and in the fall of that year came to Montana and opened his law office at Whitehall.  After one year he removed to Boulder and became associated with his brother Dan.  They were law partners until Dan Kelly was elected attorney general in 1912.  Mr. James E. Kelly has enjoyed a large general civil and criminal practice at Boulder in addition to his duties as county attorney.  He was appointed to this office January 1, 1912, to succeed Judge Showers, and has been regularly elected every two years, beginning in the fall of 1912.  Mr. Kelly is also a member of the partnership of Kelly Brothers, owners of a large ranch near Whitehall.

He is a democrat in politics, a member of the Catholic Church, is a third degree Knight of Columbus, being affiliated with Marquette Council No. 842, is a member of Butte Lodge No. 240 of the Elks, and Basin Aerie of the Fraternal Order of Eagles at Basin, Montana.

Mr. Kelly owns a modern home in Boulder.  He married there June 7, 1916, Miss Corinne De Celles, daughter of Edward and Caroline (Baril) De Celles.  Her parents live at Boulder, and her father was a pioneer meat merchant there, but is now retired from business.  Mrs. Kelly is a graduate of the Jefferson County High School.  They have two children: James Leo, born July 30, 1917; and Mary Ruth, born December 4, 1918.

Source: Excerpts from the book, Montana: It's Story and Biography, volume II, edited by Tom Stout, published in 1921; located on the website, Hathitrust Digital Library (http://www.hathitrust.org), accessed 4 June 2022.

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