There have been two attorneys with the surname Kelly in Foster County but their tenures did not overlap. There have been occasions, however, when the two were confused.

Ernest Everett Kelly, the brother of Mrs. W.H.B. (Laura) Eisenhuth appeared in Carrington in 1897 as a graduate of the Law Department of the Lake Forest University of Chicago. He was also an experienced telegrapher. At the start of the Spanish-American War he enlisted in Company H of Jamestown; his knowledge of telegraphy got him an assignment in the Signal Corps. He saw service in the Philippines where he was given a battlefield commission and decorated for conspicuous bravery. He had waded across shallow Cavite Bay under fire to string wires to restore communications with the Army Headquarters.

After the end of the war Kelly returned to Carrington, passed his bar examinations and hung out his shingle as attorney-at-law with offices in the old Courthouse. He ran against incumbent George W. Soliday for the office of States Attorney in the General Election of 1900 but lost. He left the area shortly thereafter and after a year or so of traveling established himself in a law office in Blackfoot, Idaho. During World War I he held the rank of Major in the Signal Corps and was again decorated for his efforts.

Source: A History of Foster County 1983 Page 220