John Jay McKelvey, First Editor of the Harvard Law Review

John Jay McKelvey was born in 1863 to John McKelvey and his wife the former Jane Huntington. The elder John McKelvey and his wife were pioneer residents of Sandusky. McKelvey and Huntington Streets in Sandusky were named after his ancestors. John Jay McKelvey graduated with high honors from Sandusky High School in 1880, from Oberlin College in 1884, and he earned his law degree from Harvard University in 1887; he was one of the co-founders of the Harvard Law Review, serving as its first editor.

In an article which appeared in the Sandusky Star Journal of April 23, 1937, J.J. McKelvey answered those who thought the Harvard Law Review to be “dry, uninteresting, and unleavened with humor.” He said to the critics, “Who would be likely to resort to a legal periodical for its humor? Certainly not a lawyer or judge…the Law Review is the vehicle of thought between legal scholars and the practitioners and judges.”

McKelvey wrote several books on the law, including the Handbook of the Law of Evidence (West Publishing Co., 1907).

As an attorney, his work was in corporate law. He was counsel for the National Wholesale Lumber Dealers Association and the Columbus and Sandusky Short Line, which later merged into the Columbus, Sandusky and Hocking Railroad.

John Jay McKelvey died on October 14, 1947. Here is a portion of an article reporting on his death, from the November 3, 1947 issue of the Sandusky Register Star News:

In April 2022, Mr. McKelvey was honored for his preservation efforts in the Spuyten Duyvil section of The Bronx.