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.BIOGRAPHIES
 Source:
A Biographical Record of Fairfield County,
Ohio
Illustrated - Published: New York and Chicago:
The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company.
1902
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JOHN B. KELLER was for many
years successfully engaged in the grocery business in
Lancaster, but has now retired from mercantile interests and
gives his attention only to the supervision of the farms and
to his invested interests. He is a native of Hesse
Darmstadt, Germany, where his birth occurred on the 14th of
April, 1839. His father, John Keller, was a
native of the same locality and there acquired a good common
school education and was married. About 1854 he
emigrated with his family to the United States, taking
passage on a sailing vessel, which, after a voyage of five
weeks, dropped anchor in the harbor of New York. From
the eastern metropolis Mr. Keller made his way at
once to Lancaster, Ohio, where he remained until his death.
His wife had passed away in her native land during the
infancy of her son, John B.
John B. Keller was eighteen years of age when he
came to the United States. While in the old country he
had learned the miller's trade, which he continued to follow
for some years. At Lancaster, Ohio, he entered the
service of Mr. Seifred, for whom he worked for
eighteen months, after which he accepted a clerkship in the
grocery store at Logan, Ohio, but at the outbreak of the
Civil war he returned to Lancaster and joined a company,
which was here being raised for a service of three months.
It became Company D, of the Seventeenth Ohio Volunteer
Infantry, and was commanded by Colonel Connell.
The regiment was ordered to West Virginia, to guard points
in that state. On the expiration of three months
Mr. Keller re-enlisted in the same company for three
years. This command was ordered to Kentucky and took
part in the battle of Mill Spring and later in the
engagements at Murfreesboro, Perryville and Chickamauga.
At the last named place he was severely wounded by a gunshot
through the left elbow. It disabled him for further
duty and he was then taken to the hospital at Chickamauga
and sometime afterward was sent to Nashville, Tennessee, and
then to Louisville, Kentucky, and subsequently to
Cincinnati, Ohio, where he remained in Camp Dennison until
honorably discharged on the 28th of May, 1863.
At the close of his military services Mr. Keller
returned to Logan, Ohio, where he established a grocery
store, which he conducted on his own account. In
April, 1865, however, he returned to Lancaster and here
engaged in the grocery trade, building up a large and
profitable business, which he conducted until 1889, when he
retired from mercantile life, and his son, Chris,
took charge of the business, and is now proprietor of two of
the most modern and up-to-date grocery stores in the city.
He is also president of the Lancaster board of trade.
Mr. Keller's business career was without exciting
incidents or speculation, and along legitimate lines of
trade he gained a handsome competence. He now devotes
his time to farming. His lands are well tilled under
his supervision, employing hired help, and upon the farms
are a large number of hogs and cattle. Mr. Keller
owns valuable city properties and having thus made judicious
investments in real estate is now accounted one of the
prosperous citizens of the community.
In 1865 our subject was united in marriage to Miss
Elizabeth Hartman, also a native of Hesse-Darmstadt,
Germany, and a daughter of Henry and Eva (Lotz) Hartman.
In their family are eight children two sons and six
daughter, namely: Christian, Christine, Elizabeth, John,
Margaret, Rose, Ida and Clara. In his political
views Mr. Keller is a Democrat, with firm faith in
the principles of the party, and upon that ticket he was
elected to the city council, in which he served for five
years. He and his family are members of the German
Lutheran church and are people of the highest
respectability, enjoying the warm regard of all who knew
them. Mr. Keller owes his advancement in life
to his own efforts, his sterling worth, his integrity above
question, his indefatigable industry and strong resolution -
these have been his salient characteristics and have won him
an enviable position among the substantial residents of his
adopted county.
Source:
A Biographical Record of Fairfield and Perry Counties, Ohio
- Published: New York and Chicago: The S. J. Clarke
Publishing Company - 1902 - Page272) |
George W. Kiger |
GEORGE W. KIGER.
George W. Kiger is the owner of a valuable farm of
four hundred and fifty acres in Amanda township and is
accounted one of the highly respected citizens of Fairfield
county. He was born in Virginia on the 27th of
October, 1818, and with his parents came to Ohio when six
years of age, so that almost his entire life has been passed
in this state. He is a son of Henry and Polly (Waltuc)
Kiger. His paternal grandfather, George
Kiger, was one of the heroes of the Revolutionary war
who, when the colonies no longer able to patiently endure
the oppression of the mother country attempted to throw aff
all allegiance to the British crown, joined the colonial
forces and fought for national liberty. After the
independence of the Union was won he came to Ohio and
resided in Fairfield county until he had attained the very
advanced age of one hundred and ten years, when he was
called to his final rest.
The father of our subject was a native of Virginia and
in middle life came to Ohio, locating at once in Amanda
township. Fairfield county, where he entered more than
four hundred acres of land which was wild and unimproved,
but he at once began to improve it and put it under
cultivation and succeeded in making a comfortable home for
his family. He engaged in farming in Amanda township
until his death and was a very industrious and progressive
man, whose well directed labors won him prosperity. He
accumulated much property and was therefore accounted one of
the substantial as well as one of the most highly esteemed
citizens of his community. He, too, manifested his
loyalty to his native land in times of war, becoming a
soldier in the war of 1812. The family is certainly
noted for longevity, for Henry Kiger had
passed the one hundred and third milestone on life's journey
at the time of his death, and his wife was in her one
hundred and seventh year at the time she was called to the
home beyond. She was a native of Germany, and to her
husband she proved a very able help mate and assistant.
Both held membership in the Methodist church, and Mr.
Kiger was a Democrat in his political views. In their
family were six children, of whom George W. was the
youngest. The only other surviving member of the
family is Lewis, who is a retired farmer of Amanda
township.
George W. Kiger, of this review, obtained his
early education in the district schools near his home and
remained under the parental roof until he was thirty years
of age, when he started out upon; an independent business
career. He purchased a farm near Lancaster, on the
edge of Amanda township, and there carried on agricultural
pursuits for a number of years. At length he sold his
property and purchased his present farm, then comprising one
hundred and thirty-eight acres, but since that time he has
added to the property until within the boundaries of his
farm are now comprised more than four hundred and fifty
acres. He has lived at his present home for the past
nineteen years and nearly all of the improvements upon the
place are the work of his hands and stand as monuments to
his industry, and therefore everything about the place is
kept in splendid condition. The buildings and fences
are well repaired and the fields are highly cultivated.
At the time he left the old homestead Mr. Kiger
was married to Miss Anville Shawen, a, native of
Fairfield county and a daughter of Josiah Shawen.
one of the early settlers of this county. He was a
carpenter by trade and became a prosperous man. Mrs.
Kiger died about forty years ago at the Turkey Run
farm, where they were then living. She was the mother
of three children, two of whom survive her, Irvin
having died at the age of nine years. Henry is
a resident farmer of Amanda township, where he operates one
hundred acres of land. He married Elizabeth
Dunn. Rufus, the second son. resides in Van
Wert county, Ohio, where he is engaged in the cultivation of
two hundred acres of land. He married Ephema
Elder, and they have five children, namely: Merty,
Carrie, George, Laura and Omer.
For his second wife Mr. Kiger chose Carilla
Gallagher, a native of this county, and they became
the parents of three sons and one daughter, all of whom are
yet living. John resides at Villagrove,
Colorado, where he is engaged in practicing medicine.
He married Emma Neinhardt and they have one
son, George M. George W., the second of the
family, resides in Oregon, where he is engaged in the broker
age business. He married May Della
Sturgeon. Charles was a farmer of Amanda
township and wedded Letta Barr, by whom he had
three children, Ethel, Fay and Dessil,
but Fay is now deceased. Alice is the
wife of William Kiger, a practicing dentist of
Columbus, Ohio, and they have one child, Dorothy
Ruth.
Mr. Kiger, whose name begins this review,
gives his political support to the Republican party and is a
member of the Methodist church. He has witnessed
nearly the entire development and progress of this portion
of the state, having been a resident of Fairfield county
since 1824. There were no railroads or pikes when he
came and nearly the entire county was covered by a dense
growth of forest. He has witnessed its transformation
from a wild region to one of the richest farming portions of
this great state and has helped to make the county what it
is to-day. He has been very successful in his business
affairs and is very generous with his children, giving each
a good start in life. His life has at all times been
worthy of commendation and of emulation and no one more
justly deserves the regard of his fellow man than does
George W. Kiger.
Source:
A Biographical Record of Fairfield and Perry Counties, Ohio
- Published: New York and Chicago: The S. J. Clarke
Publishing Company - 1902 - Page 186 |
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DAVID E. KISSINGER
Source:
A Biographical Record of Fairfield and Perry Counties, Ohio
- Published: New York and Chicago: The S. J. Clarke
Publishing Company - 1902 - Page 183 |
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JOHN KOCHER
Source:
A Biographical Record of Fairfield and Perry Counties, Ohio
- Published: New York and Chicago: The S. J. Clarke
Publishing Company - 1902 - Page 227 |
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