William E. Connelley.
William Elsey Connelley was a writer of historical works on the American West and a pioneer of Kansas.
Connelley was born in Johnson County, Kentucky, on March 15, 1855. His father, Constantine Conley, Jr., served in the Union Army, and his property was destroyed during the Civil War, necessitating that the young man make his way in the world. With the help he could get, he qualified to teach in the common schools and taught his first school at age 17. He continued this work for 10 years in Kentucky before moving to Kansas, settling in Bonner Springs in April 1881. He taught for one year before securing the position of Deputy County Clerk.
In 1883, he was elected County Clerk of Wyandotte County, and in 1885, he was re-elected. In 1888, he moved to Springfield, Missouri, where he worked in the wholesale lumber business for four years. He then returned to Wyandotte County, where he worked in banking until the 1893 panic caused him to lose his property. Next, he moved to Beatrice, Nebraska, in 1897, where he worked in the business of abstracting land titles and lending money to easterners.
In 1897, he was offered a position in the book department of the publishing house of Crane & Co. in Topeka, Kansas, which he accepted and held until 1902, when he went to Washington with the Honorable E.F. Ware, Commissioner of Pensions, and took a responsible position in the civil service. He resigned in 1903 to enter the oil business in Chanute, Kansas, where he was successful.
In 1904-05, he led the fight in Kansas against the Standard Oil Company, securing the enactment of laws that saved Kansas residents $1 million annually.
Doniphan’s Expedition by William E. Connelley.
Connelley was always an enthusiastic student of history, and his library was one of the largest in the West. He was an authority on American History and wrote several books including The Provisional Government of Nebraska Territory, John Brown, James H. Lane, Wyandot Folk-Lore, An Appeal to the Record, Kansas Territorial Governors, Memoirs of John James Ingalls, Doniphan’s Expedition in the Mexican War, Quantrill and the Border Wars, Ingalls of Kansas and The Founding of Harman’s Station. With Frank A. Root, he wrote the Overland Stage to California. He also served as the president of the Kansas State Historical Society.
Connelley died in July 1930.
©Kathy Alexander/Legends of Kansas, updated December 2025.
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