A. D. Kelley is one of the well known representatives of commercial enterprise in Cheyenne, being president of the Kelley Mercantile Company. Under that name he is successfully engaged in the wholesale and retail grocery business.
    He was born in Indiana on the 2d of February, 1858, and is a son of Francis M. and Jane (Burge ) Kelley, the former a native of Ohio, while the latter was born in Kentucky. A. D. Kelley pursued his education in the public schools of Indiana and of Nebraska, the family having removed to the latter state when he was but seven years of age and before there was a railroad west of the Mississippi river. He feels, however, that his most valuable lessons have been gained in the school of experience. He has tried to benefit by each new experience that has come to him and by reading and study he has greatly broadened his knowledge. For a year he engaged in teaching school, after which he made his way to the Black Hills during the gold excitement in that section of the country. He was there engaged in prospecting and freighting for two years. On the 16th of February, 1878, he came to Cheyenne and was employed in a grocery store for four years, during which period he carefully saved his earnings, ambitious to some day engage in business on his own account. He then felt that his capital justified him in taking the step and he at once established the wholesale and retail grocery house which he has since conducted, his business steadily growing as the years have gone by and as this section of the country has become more and more thickly settled. He is today active in control of his interests as the president of the Kelley Mercantile Company and in this undertaking has met with very substantial and gratifying success. He is also manager of the National Brokerage Company, is president of the Plymouth Rock Oil Company and vice president of the Chevenne Building & Loan Association, and has been a member of its board since its organization or for over seventeen years. The last named organization has done much for the improvement and upbuilding of Cheyenne and Mr. Kelley may well be proud of his connection with it. Through this means many have been able to gain homes which otherwise they would probably not have secured and the stability and substantial growth of Cheyenne has been greatly augmented in this way.
    On the 11th of February, 1878, Mr. Kelley was united in marriage to Miss Margaret Moran and to them have been born the following children: Frank A., who died at the age of twenty-seven years; Ed. J., who is manager of the retail Kelley Mercantile Company; Grace G.; Mrs. Flora M. Ott, wife of Julius F. Ott, manager of the wholesale house of the Kelley Mercantile Company; and Mrs. Hazel J. Hutchison, wife of James Hutchison.
    Mr. Kelley votes with the republican party and has been quite prominent in its ranks, serving as city treasurer of Cheyenne, as sheriff of Laramie county in 1891 and 1892 and as a member of the territorial legislature in 1884, before the admission of Wyoming into the Union. In 1893 he was chosen to represent his district in the state legislature for a two years' term, and was reelected in 1895 and served to 1897. He was speaker of the house during the last session in which connection he rendered rulings that were strictly fair and impartial. He was identified with much constructive legislation and he has always stood for progress and improvement in public affairs, taking an active interest in all that pertains to the welfare of city, state, and nation. Evidence thereof is the fact that he is chairman of the Liberty Loan Committee, having done important and resultant work in this connection. Fraternally he is a Mason of high rank, having attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite. He is also connected with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and the Knights of Pythias. He has membership in the Industrial Club and for eight years was president of the old Commercial Club. He is a broad-minded man of big ideas, unfaltering in enterprise, determined in purpose and actuated at all times by marked devotion to the general good.