John Kelvey Richards
John Kelvey Richards, Solicitor General of the United States, son of Samuel and Sarah Ann (Kelvey) Richards, was born at Ironton, Lawrence County, Ohio, March 15, 1856. His father, Samuel Richards, was born near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. February 6, 1814, and died at Ironton, Ohio, June 30, 1891. He was of Welsh-Quaker descent, being a great-great-grandson of Rowland Richards, who was born February 9, 1660, settled in Fredyffrin Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, about 1686, and died in 1720. In 1824, Samuel Richards came overland with his parents to Mt. Pleasant, Jefferson County, Ohio, and in the forties moved to Lawrence County, where he lived the rest of his life. He was one of the founders of Ironton, being for nearly thirty years the Secretary and General Manager of the Ohio Iron and Coal Company and the Iron Railroad Company and the two corporations which laid out and built up that town. Sarah Ann Kelvey was born in West Union. Adams County, Ohio, October 9, 1827. She married Samuel Richards at Burlington, Ohio, September 15, 1852, and died at Ironton, Ohio, September 1, 1863. She was the granddaughter of Thomas Kelvey, who was born October 1, 1763, married (July 18, 1785) Ann Seeker, said to be a niece of Thomas Seeker, Archbishop of Canterbury, and came to America about 1801. Thomas Kelvey was of Scottish origin, the name being originally McKelvey. Thomas Kelvey was a man of education and means. Coming down the Ohio, he stopped awhile with Blennerhasset, then proceeded to Maysville. Afterwards he moved to Highland County, Ohio, then to West Union, Adams County, where his wife died (March 7, 1831,) and was buried, and finally to Burlington, where he died (April 18, 1838,) at the home of his son, John. He was a watch and clock maker. Mr. John Means, of Ashland, Kentucky, has one of Thomas Kelvey 's clocks. Some interesting heirlooms are in existence. Among others a miniature painted of him. probably in France, when a young man, in the costume of that day. with powdered hair, lace, ruffles, etc. Also a parchment certificate of his membership in a French Lodge of Masons, "La Lodge de L Epperance," issued May 2, 1791. In this certificate he is described as being twenty-seven years of age and a native of Canterbury, Kent County, England. Thomas Kelvey had four children. John Seeker, born January 21, 1796; Johanna, born November 22, 1798; Thomas, born August 1, 1801, and Henry, born October 3, 1805. Johanna Kelvey married John Sparks, December 21, 1820, and died September 15, 1823, at West Union. Thomas Kelvey died June 11. 1831, unmarried, and was buried at Burlington. Henry Kelvey was married, and died May 8, 1834, leaving a son, who is still residing at Granville, Ohio. John Seeker Kelvey married Kerenhappuch Hussey, in Highland County, September 7, 1825, came to West Union, where he lived for several years and where his daughter Sarah was born and then with many Adams County people, moved to Lawrence County. He was a man of superior attainments for those days, was for years the Recorder of the county and died at Burlington, July 27, 1851. His wife, who was born July 28, 1809, survived him many years, finally passing away at Columbus, January 2, 1896. She lies by his side in the Burlington graveyard. Grandmother Kelvey was in many ways a remarkable woman. She was married at sixteen, raised a large family, endured many trials, and died at eighty-six, with mental faculties unimpaired and with scarcely a gray hair in her head. She was a direct descendent of Christopher Hussey (1598-1685), one of the early settlers of New England, who with Tristram Coffin and Thomas Macey, were among the original owners of Nantucket Island. Kerrenhappuch was also a descendant of the Rev. Stephen Bachiler (1561-1600 Whittier's "The wreck of Rivermouth"). who left England for Holland, and after a short residence there, came to America in the year 1632. He went first to Lynn, Massachusetts, where his daughter, Theodate, who married Christopher Hussey, preceded him. From Lynn, he went to Ipswich, thence to Newbury, where he lived until 1638, when he settled at Hampton, where he was installed first pastor of the Congregational Church there. For an interesting account of this Puritan divine, the reader is referred to the life of John G. Whittier, by Prichard. He mentions the "Bachiler eyes" as being dark, deep-set and lustrous, with a tendency to repeat themselves from generation to generations. Daniel Webster and John G. Whittier, who were both descendants of Bachiler, had these eyes.
The leading events in Solicitor General Richards' life may be thus summarized: Graduated at Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania, 1875; graduated at Harvard College, 1877; studied law and admitted to the bar, October, 1870; Prosecuting Attorney of Lawrence County, 1880 to 1882; City Solicitor of Ironton, 1885 to 1889: Master Commissioner in the Cincinnati and Easter Railway case, 1885; State Senator from the Eighth Ohio District (Lawrence, Gallia. Meigs and Vinton Counties) from 1890 to 1892; Attorney General of Ohio during McKinley's administration, 1892 to 1896; member of the Commission to Codify the Insurance Laws of Ohio, 1895 to 1896; of the Second General Assembly of Ohio, 1896; Special Counsel of the State Board of Appraisers and Assessors of Ohio, 1896 to 1898; General Counsel of the State Board of Medical Registrations and Examination of Ohio, 1896 to 1898; Solicitor General of the United States from July 1, 1897, to the present time. Mr. Richards was married June 12, 1890, to Anna Williard Steece, of Ironton, Ohio. Two children have blessed this union. John Kelvey, Jr.. born at Ironton, April 20, 1891, and Anna Cbristine. born at Columbus, September 29, 1894.
"Jack'" Richards is an ardent Republican and has taken an active part in politics since leaving college. He has been a member of Ward, City, District and State Committees engaged in the active organization and conduct of campaigns. He has been a delegate to City, County, District, State and National Conventions. He has spoken for the Republican party on the stump throughout Ohio and in other States. On becoming State Senator, he made a study of taxation in Ohio with special reference to constitutional limitations. The accepted opinion was then that, under the Constitution of Ohio, as it stood, nothing but property could be taxed for general revenue. Accordingly when several unsuccessful attempts, at great expense, had been made to amend the Constitution and enlarge the taxing power, he took the position that no amendment was required, that rights, privileges, franchises and occupations could be taxed under the Constitution as it stood. These views have since been embodied in our tax laws, which have added largely to the revenues of the State and have been sustained by the highest courts. Among these are the laws levying taxes upon foreign corporations, upon telegraph, telephone and express companies, upon railroad, street railway, electric light, gas, water, pipe line and similar corporations, upon sleeping car companies, upon freight line and equipment companies, in fact practically upon all corporations, foreign and domestic, of a quasi public nature, enjoying peculiar franchises. In addition to drafting and sustaining these laws, Mr. Richards drafted the present election law of Ohio, a modification of the Australian ballot system and sustained it in the court. He drew the present law relating to the practice of medicine in Ohio, and as the counsel of the State Medical Board maintained its validity in the courts. He sustained the constitutionality of the Compulsory Education law of Ohio in the Supreme Court, and subsequently redrafted the law, putting it in its present form. As Solicitor General, he is the representative of the Government before the Supreme Court of the United States and has argued the more important cases which have been submitted to that court during the present administration. In doing this, he has had to meet the leaders of the bar from every section of the country, but has been no less fortunate in the results than he was as Attorney General of Ohio. Notable among the cases now are the Joint Traffic Association case (171 U. S., 505) argued for the railroad by Mr. Carter, the leader of the New York bar, Mr. Phelps, Ex-Minister to England, and Ex-Senator Edmunds, of Vermont; the case of Nichol v. Anns (173 U. S., 509), involving the validity of the Federal Tax on sales at exchange and board of trade in which Ex-Secretary Carlisle and Mr. Robbins, of Chicago, presented the opposition to the law and the Addyston pipe case in December, 1809, in which the Sherman anti-trust law was first applied to an industrial combination.
From History of Adams County, Ohio from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers - West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900