Charles Kelly (historian)

Charles Kelly (February 3, 1889 – April 19, 1971) was an American historian of the American west whose work focused on activities in the western salt desert of Utah and Nevada during the pioneer period (Bagley, p. vii). Kelly also served as the first superintendent of Capitol Reef National Monument (now Capitol Reef National Park) in Southern Utah. Kelly was named an Honorary Life Member of the Utah State Historical Society in 1960. In 1969 he received an Award of Merit from the American Association of State and Local History.

Kelly was considered a careful rather than a brilliant writer, and his works have been more critically addressed and reevaluated in recent years. He loved western history, especially as it touched Utah, Having seen all that country again I am satisfied to live in Utah, as I believe there is more of interest to see around here than any other place in the world. . . . (Journal of Charles Kelly, Charles Kelly Papers, 1918-1971, Utah State Historical Society, entry dated 24 July 1929)

Born in Cedar Springs, Michigan on February 3, 1889, the son of itinerant Baptist preacher Alfred Kelly and Flora Lepard, Kelly grew up in many areas of the United States. By 1910 Kelly had left his wandering family and enrolled at Valparaiso University, an independent Lutheran university in Indiana for three years, but did not complete a course due to lack of funds. Kelly served in the United States army during World War I. As he had learned as a child to set the type used to print religious tracts, he worked as a printer in several cities, and then settled in Salt Lake City, Utah. He played the violin and cornet and initially sought a musical career. But Kelly eventually returned to the printing business and became a partner in the Western Printing Company until 1940. Shortly after his arrival in Salt Lake, he married Harriett Greener. They had no children.

Kelly attributed his personal efforts as a painter, and his friendship with the western artist Charles M. Russell, as a source of his interest in western history. Kelly wrote of an 1929 experience:

In 1940, Kelly sold his interest in the printing business and took an unpaid position as sole caretaker of Capitol Reef. The timber and adobe house near Fruita, Utah, which came with the position, provided Kelly and his wife a home while he researched and wrote. Kelly produced many articles for journals and periodicals, conducted research for projects by other historians, and engaged in a voluminous correspondence with others working in western history, including Dale Morgan and J. Roderic Korns.

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