John H. Kellom of Tustin, was born in Washington County, New York, in 1818, a son of Isaac and Eliza (Healy) Kellom. He graduated at Williams College in 1842 taught school four years in Georgia, studied law two years at Auburn, New York, taught school again until 1856, and then went to Omaha, Nebraska, and engaged in banking. Two years afterward he was elected State Superintendent of schools for a term of two years; he also served as United States Assessor; was clerk of all the courts of Nebraska for four years; was Postmaster at Omaha one year under President Grant, etc. He next organized the high school of Omaha, and was principal of the same for three years.
In 1880 he abandoned public life and came to California to live retired. He owns one of the finest orange orchards in the Santa Ana valley, situated at Tustin, from which he realized a profit of $6,000 in 1889.
He was married at Syracuse, New York, in 1849, to Miss Harriet Newell, of Springfield, Massachusetts, and they have but one child-Clara, now Mrs. William L. Adams, her husband a prominent railroad man of Nebraska.
