Hall J. Kelley
American explorer
Died when: 83 years 327 days (1006 months)Star Sign: Pisces
Hall Jackson Kelley (February 24, 1790 – January 20, 1874) was an American settler and writer from New England known for his strong advocacy for settlement by the United States of the Oregon Country in the 1820s and 1830s.
A native of New Hampshire, he was a school teacher in Maine and Massachusetts, and a longtime resident of the latter state after graduating from Harvard College.
In 1834 Kelley led an expedition to Oregon Country.He became ill in the Northwest and was virtually deported by the head of the Hudson's Bay Company district office at Fort Vancouver.
After his return to Massachusetts, he continued to write about the territory to encourage its settlement, also submitting materials to Congress.
In 1868 he published a book about the region, by which time the emigrants on the Oregon Trail had already numbered into the tens of thousands.
Kelley Point Park in Portland, Oregon, is named for him, as he had encouraged settlement at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers.
