Alameda County
Biographies
JOSEPH M. KELLEY
A practically inexhaustible fund of well-directed energy has been the keynote of the career of Joseph M. Kelley, senior member of the firm of Kelley & Meehan, owners and proprietors of the Yosemite Laundry at No. 660 Franklin street, Oakland. As a boy he was surrounded by incentives to enterprise, for seventeen years of his life were spent in Chicago, Ill., where he was born November 2, 1868. His parents were Edmund and Catherine (Prindiville) Kelley, natives of New York and Michigan respectively, and the former was one of the very early settlers of the Lake City, although his occupation of sea captain kept him from home for long periods. He was the captain of a seagoing craft for many years, and his nautical experience embraced a knowledge of nearly all the principal ports visited by the merchant marine. He had the bluff nature of men inured to storm and adventure, and who are accustomed to command implicit obedience from their subordinates. His death occurred at the age of fifty-five in the city which his family had called home for so many years, and where his thrift and economy insured them the comforts of existence.
Earlier than the majority of boys, Mr. Kelley left the public schools and began to earn his own living in Chicago, beginning at the bottom and learning the laundry business as then perfected. In 1885 he located in Oakland, Cal., and the following year engaged in a laundry business with fair results. Improving always upon the methods he had learned at home, he soon after started his present business in partnership with J. P. Meehan, and at present has a large share of the desirable trade in the town. From time to time new appliances are added to his machinery and general equipment, and it is doubtful if any city of the size has more complete and modern facilities for quick and satisfactory service. Mr. Kelley has extended his effort along the same line to Sacramento, where he is a large shareholder in the Cascade laundry.
At all times an enthusiastic and helpful Republican, Mr. Kelley has been called upon to discharge various important responsibilities in behalf of his fellow townsmen, and represented them in the legislature of 1899 and 1901 besides being elected supervisor of Alameda county in 1902, representing three districts. He is a prominent member of various fraternal organizations, and a charter member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Order of Eagles. He is eminently social in his tastes, is a popular member of the Nile Club, and a member and director of the California Yacht Club. His wife was formerly Bell Mathews, a native of Sacramento, this state. Shrewd business sagacity, adaptiveness to both the needs and tastes of his friends, and an optimistic and pleasant personality, combine to render this well known and financially strong citizen a necessary adjunct to the well being of his adopted town.
Transcribed
5-15-16 Marilyn
R Pankey.
ญญญญSource: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 1180-1183. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
ฉ 2016 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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