Jesse P. Kellough
Poets often tell the truth and the old song which contains the refrain, "The farmer feeds them all," states a very fundamental and economic truth. The products raised on the farm are the sources of the world's food supply, and should the farmer cease his work for a year the whole world would starve to death. Every other occupation might be done away with but farming and people could live, but a total cessation of farming for a short time would actually depopulate the world. A man can live without banks all his life, but deprive him of his bread and his career is soon ended. Farming is becoming an honored profession. Our district schools are teaching it as a science, and our colleges are granting degrees for agricultural work. Farmers of any community sustain the people dependent on the workers of any other profession. Without the farmer the banker would close his doors, the manufacturer would shut down his factory and the railroads would suspend operation, Among the progressive farmers of Fayette county, Ohio, who are helping to keep the banker, the manufacturer and the railroads there is no one more worthy of mention than Jesse B. Kellough, the proprietor of the Valley View farm of three hundred and twenty acres in Paint township.
Jesse P. Kellough, the son of John W. and Senith (Poole) Kellough, was born April 16, 1874, in Madison county, Ohio. His father is the son of John W. and Rebecca (Pummell) Kellough, and was bom on the Wabash river near Logansport, Indiana, July 5, 1839. John W. Kellough, Jr., lived in Indiana two years and then removed with his parents to Ohio, where the family first located near Chillicothe. Here he grew to manhood, married and lived for several years. In 1872 John VV. Kellough came to Fayette county, where he is still living. Ten children have been born to John W. and Senith (Poole) Kellough: Mayme, Charles C, Nellie B., Anna W., Sallie C, William S., Claude H., Jesse P., Catherine and Robert W. Three of these children, Sallie C, William S. and Claude H., are deceased. John W. Kellough is still living at Mt. Sterling, Ohio, and his wife died August 29, 1913.
Jesse P. Kellough was educated in three different states, Ohio, Illinois and Iowa. He attended school for a time in Fayette county, Ohio, and spent one year in Piatt county, Illinois, and one year in schools of Cerro Gordo county, Iowa, near Mason City. After completing his education he returned to Fayette county, Ohio, and at the age of twenty-five began renting land in Clark county, near South Charleston, but only remained in that county a year, and then located in Paint township on a small farm of fifteen acres. That he has prospered is shown by the fact that he has added to this small acreage until now he is the owner of three hundred and twenty acres of excellent farming land in Paint township. He has placed extensive improvements upon his farm and Valley View farm is known throughout the county as one of the most attractive farms of this section. It requires skillful management and scientific farming to accumulate land at the price which the farmer has to pay for land today. The money which will buy one acre of land today would buy more than fifty acres one hundred years ago, and it is hardly possible that the farmer derives fifty times as much revenue from the land at the present time.
Mr. Kellough was married March 11, 1897, to Iva W. Woods, the daughter of Ashley and Amanda (Zimmerman) Woods, and to this union one son has been born, who first saw the light of day December 9, 1899.
Mr. Kellough and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, in the welfare of which they are actively interested and to the support of which they are liberal contributors. Fraternally, Mr. Kellough belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, while, politically, he is identified with the Republican party, although he has never been an aspirant for any public office. The career of Mr. Kellough has been such as to win the hearty commendation of his fellow citizens, being a man who has won his success by the use of honorable methods and the exercise of the Golden Rule in all of his dealings. Such men are a credit to the community in which they live, and the fact that Mr. Kellough has stood for the best interests of his community in all lines shows why he is so highly regarded by all with whom he is associated.
From History of Fayette County Ohio - Her People, Industries and Institutions by Frank M. Allen (1914, R. F. Bowen & Company, Inc.)