Robert S. Kelley was born in 1831 in Virginia. During the early 1850s, he was a newspaper publisher in Missouri and Kansas. He then went into the mercantile business in Kansas City until the outbreak of the Civil War. He served as a captain in the Confederate army until 1863, when he resigned his commission and traveled to Alder Gulch, Montana, to pan gold. He followed the gold finds until 1867, when he settled in Deer Lodge, Montana. Although Deer Lodge was his permanent residence, he continued his mining interests in western Montana. In June 1885 he was appointed U.S. Marshall for Montana Territory.
From the guide to the Robert S. Kelley Papers, 1885-1888, (University of Montana--Missoula Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library Archives and Special Collections)
