William Kellogg

Who was William Kellogg?

William Kellogg was a U.S. Representative from Illinois and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Nebraska Territory. His fifth cousin, William Pitt Kellogg, preceded him as Chief Justice and also served as a U.S. Senator and the Governor of Louisiana.

Born in Kelloggsville, Ohio, Kellogg attended the public schools. He studied law. He was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Canton, Illinois. He served as member of the Illinois House of Representatives in 1849 and 1850. He served as judge of the state circuit court, 1850–1855.

Kellogg was elected as a Republican to the Thirty-fifth, Thirty-sixth, and Thirty-seventh Congresses. Lincoln nominated him to be Minister to Guatemala in 1863 but he refused the appointment. He moved to Peoria, Illinois, in 1864. He was appointed by President Andrew Johnson to the position of chief justice of Nebraska Territory in 1865, and served until 1867. He served as collector of internal revenue for the Peoria (Illinois) district 1867–1869. He moved to Mississippi in 1869, having been appointed to a judgeship under the prevailing provisional government. Upon the readmission of Mississippi to representation he was an unsuccessful candidate to the Forty-first Congress in 1869 and shortly afterward returned to Illinois. He died in Peoria, Illinois, on December 20, 1872. He was interred in Springdale Cemetery.