It’s easy to confuse C. E. Kelsey with other men of the era who had the same name, and there are a number of cases where this has occurred. Some sources wrongly state that “our” CEK graduated from Amherst College. Letters written by “our” C. E. Kelsey are erroneously filed under the name Clarence Earle Kelsey in the C. Hart Merriam papers and Philip Stedman Sparkman papers at the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. Here’s a rundown of men named C. E. Kelsey who were contemporary with the subject of this website, C. E. (Charles Edwin) Kelsey, 1861-1936.
Charles E. Kelsey, US Land Receiver in Little Rock, Arkansas: As noted in the news clipping above, this Charles E. Kelsey was a “grocery merchant” in Emporia, Kansas at some point in the 1870s and was appointed as US land receiver in Little Rock in 1880. A news item in the Daily Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock) on September 11, 1884, reports that this CEK is leaving for a month’s vacation that will include a visit to his old home in New York. “Our” CEK never lived in Kansas, Arkansas, or New York. Moreover, he would have been just 19 years old in 1880, which is a young age for the presidential nomination and Senate confirmation required for the position of US land receiver.
Clarence Earle Kelsey, 1882-1989: Clarence Earle Kelsey is a dangerous double because he lived in the Bay Area and Southern California at roughly the same times that “our” CEK did. According to his memoir, Down Memory Lane (Santa Paula, Calif.: Kelsey, 1961?), Clarence Earle Kelsey graduated from the University of California with a degree in engineering in 1905, dabbled with airplane engines in the San Francisco Bay Area, took up farming in Ventura County, and served as president of the Conservation Association of Southern California in the 1920s.
Charles Edward Kelsey, 1862-1931: The birth and death dates of Charles Edward Kelsey are similar to those of “our” CEK. According to Who Was Who in America, volume 1, 1897–1942 (Chicago: A. N. Marquis Co., 1943), Charles Edward Kelsey graduated from Amherst College in 1884 and was a publisher connected with The Youth’s Companion. “Our” CEK’s advanced education consisted of graduation from the Janesville Academy of Telegraphy and a law degree from the University of Wisconsin at Madison; he never lived in Massachusetts.