adventurer scout Soldier hunter
Luther Sage Kelly, known as "Yellowstone Kelly, " traced his ancestry to John Kelly who died at Newbury, Massachusetts, in 1644. His father, Luther Kelly, crossed from New Hampshire into New York state and married Jeannette Eliza Sage of Chittenango. The couple settled in Geneva, New York, United States, and it was there that Luther Sage was born on July 27, 1849.
Kelly entered the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary at Lima, New York, from the Geneva Union School.
In March 1865, claiming to be over eighteen, Kelly enlisted in Company G, 10th Infantry, at Rochester. At the conclusion of the war he was ordered West, having unwittingly joined the regulars, a misunderstanding which shaped his career. Upon receiving his discharge in 1868, he left Fort Ransom, Dakota Territory, and roamed the Yellowstone region as hunter and trapper, learning the trails of Wyoming and Montana.
Later as dispatch bearer he made round trips monthly from Fort Union to Devil's Lake. His knowledge of the Sioux language made him a valuable guide to General George A. Forsyth on his expedition to the upper Missouri and Yellowstone, and the information which he gained on that expedition proved invaluable in the war against the Sioux three years later. He became the chief army scout for General Nelson A. Miles from 1876 to 1878. Two years later, in 1880, he again acted as scout for the regular army, this time in the Ute country in Colorado.
Later he entered the general service of the War Department, serving as clerk at Chicago, Governors Island, and in the Pension Bureau at Washington, D. C. In 1898 he was chosen by Captain Edwin Forbes Glenn, who was heading an exploring expedition to Alaska, to act as guide. Kelly wrote a sub-report recommending a practical railroad route from Portage Bay to Kirk Arm. The following year, 1899, he was in Alaska as guide to the Harriman expedition. Later, as captain of a company of volunteers he went to the Philippines, saw active service, and was made commander of Post Dapit, Mindanao. In 1903 while treasurer of the province of Surigao he led the inhabitants in a defense against attack and siege of the town by escaped convicts and outlaws. For his conduct in this affair he received special praise from President Roosevelt.
Returning to the United States in 1904 Kelly became Indian agent at the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona, retaining this position until 1908. He then undertook to supervise a gold mine near Lida, Nevada, but was unsuccessful in this and other mining ventures. In 1915 he started a fruit ranch at Paradise, California, where he lived his remaining years. In 1926 he published his reminiscences in "Yellowstone Kelly": The Memoirs of Luther S. Kelly, and at the time of his death he had in manuscript a work on Alaska and the Philippines. His great service was that of helping to prepare the West for the advance of civilization.
Luther Sage Kelly established himself as one of the greatest hunters, trappers and Indian scouts in the American W. He served in many military campaigns, his three most important being those against Sitting Bull, the Sioux tribe, and later against the Sioux and Cheyennes along the Tongue River. He was also remembered as the leader of two expeditions to Alaska.
(Yellowstone Kelly: The Memoirs of Luther S Kelly.)
Kelly married Alice May Morrison at Detroit in 1885.
