Kelliher Township and its city, at the end of a branch railway built for lumbering, were named for A. O. Kelliher, a former agent here for lumber companies. The city was incorporated as a village on October 3, 1903, the year its post office was established; in 1892 Ulysses (Jess) and John Freestone filed stone and timber claims, and it is Jess's claim that became the site of Kelliher; in 1897 the claim was sold to a Weyerhaeuser man, who in turn sold the land to the Crookston Lumber Company, a large landholder in the Bullhead Lake area. The city was platted by A. O. Kelliher for George S. Eddy of the Crookston Lumber Company. It had a station of the Minnesota and International Railway.