Katharine Benson Kelley
June 2, 1909 – September 27, 2005
Katharine Benson Kelley was born June 2, 1909, near Vinland, Kansas, about 4 miles north of Baldwin City. She graduated from Baker University in 1932, then attended the University of Kansas. She lived her life in the vicinity of much Santa Fe Trail and early Kansas history.
Katharine taught school for over 40 years beginning at Clearfield, a one-room schoolhouse now on the Historic Register and maintained by the Douglas County Chapter of SFTA. After retiring, she worked at the Baldwin City Public Library sharing her huge knowledge of the Trail and local history. She established the History Corner, a collection of archival and shared historical resources. This corner has now expanded into The Kansas Room with a large collection of valuable materials.
In 1967, she was a founding member of the Baldwin City Santa Fe Trail Historical Society. This group was formed to preserve and share the history of the local area and Trail. This society later became the Douglas County chapter of SFTA. Along with her friend Amelia Betts, she located, repaired, and researched many DAR markers along the Trail throughout Kansas. To share the historical significance of these sites, she and Amelia placed metal informational markers at each of the seven DAR marker sites in Douglas County – at their own expense. Katherine also researched and wrote many booklets and articles about the Trail.
Katherine was a charter member of SFTA founded in 1987. In 1989 she was named an “Official Ambassador of the Trail.” She received the Outstanding Achievement Award in 2005 from the MRO Chapter. Dr. Sandra Maresh Doe remembers Katherine Kelley fondly and wrote “Prairie Poem” about her. The poem ends, “Flower of the Kansas Prairie./I think of her as traveling, ready/To go, her bags packed, ready/To follow the great road/To Santa Fe.”
