VERBATIM COPY
OF JENNIE KEEPERS WHEELER’S 1925 LETTER
Mr. W. F.
Keepers January
22, 1925
Philadelphia
Dear Sir and Cousin,
For I am quite certain that you and I
are cousins in the third generation from Grandfather William Keepers of Chester
County, Pennsylvania, where, as in my genealogical record, he owned a good
farm. He lived and died in that county. He married Ann Hayes of Penn. and had
the following children --John, Joseph H., Elizabeth, Kate and Jane. (After his
death his wife married again and had a daughter, Ann.)
Joseph H. was my grandfather. The H was
for Hayes and still comes down from the following generations.
Joseph H. was born in Chester County,
Penn. and settled in Beaver County.
About 1835 they moved to Guernsey County, Ohio. There he was a pioneer
and became a substantial farmer. As a member of the Baptist church he was a
straightforward, honorable man of highest Christian character.
His children were Phoebe O., William,
Sarah J., Israel J., Joseph, Mary E., Hannah M., Philena and Henrietta. He died
in Guernsey County, Ohio, December 6,1842. His wife died in Illinois, April
28,1873. Members of their immediate family are all gone to their reward. Uncle
Joseph Keepers was the last one and he died in January 1917 at Cambridge, Ohio. Phoebe A. married James Paxton in Ohio and
came to Illinois about 1850. She had a large family, 5 of whom are now living
-- Hattie Warnock, Libby Davis, Will Paxton, Ellen Kleinfelter and George
Paxton.
Sarah J. married Ephraim Huffman, a
cousin of my mothers. They moved to Indiana in the early fifties, and the last
I knew of them there were only two or three living.
Israel Jordan was my father. I will
tell more about my family. Joseph married my mother's sister. They both died
eight years ago this January.
Mary E. married Joseph Smith. She died
many years ago leaving two children, Becky and Elmer.
Hannah married Robert Warnock. They
both died in Kansas, having three children living, and one daughter had died
leaving children, I think.
William married and came to Illinois in
1850, soon after dying with cholera. He left two children, Martha and Joseph.
Martha married Fletcher Misener. Both are dead.
Phelinda married Jacob Smith, brother
of Joseph. She died in Ohio, leaving
Flora and Elmer.
Henrietta died when she was a young
woman.
My father, Israel Jordan, married Mary
Kimble August 22,1850, in Ohio. She was the daughter of Adam and Ann Maria
Huffman Kimble. The Huffmans were pioneer settlers in Ohio coming from
Washington County, Pennsylvania. Jordan Keepers (my father) had only a common
school education. He held many offices of trust both in Ohio and Illinois. He
and his brother, Joseph, bought the old Keepers homestead of 225 acres on which
was a sawmill which he ran for many winters. They sold this in the last year of
the Civil War and we came west in the spring of 1866.
My father enlisted in Company I, One
Hundred and Seventy Sixth Regiment Ohio Volunteer-Infantry and served three
years until the close of the war. He was honorably discharged in June 1865.
His two sisters, Phoebe and Hannah, had
moved to Illinois so my father came out right after the war and bought a farm
of 125 acres in Grundy County and moved his family out in April 1866.
There were six children in our family,
William, Mary, Joseph, Carrie, Myrtle and Olive. My brother, William married
Zema Misener. To them five children were born. The three older ones and their
parents have gone on and the twin sons, Floyd and Lloyd are the only ones left
of their family.
The next on the list is myself. I
married George S. Wheeler in 1871. We have two children, Effie Pearle Williams
who has three children and Vernon Wheeler, father of five sons and a girl.
My brother Hayes married Inez Dix and
has three sons, Louis, Howard and Clifford and a daughter Irma. The family now
lives at Helmet, California. Hayes Keepers has now passed away since this
letter was written.
Sister Carrie married William Taylor
and lives at Marionville, Missouri. She has a son, Wayne, and a daughter,
Mable (Mrs. Clarence Spahn).
Sister Myrtle married E. W. Walker and
lives at Dwight, Illinois. She has three sons, Floyd, Myr and Ollie. Floyd is
married and has two sons and a daughter. Ollie is married and has three sons
and a daughter.
Sister Olive married J. L. Clover and
lives at Santa Rosa, California. She has two daughters living.
My parents retired from the farm in
1881 moving to their home in Gardner, Illinois. They and their children were
members of the Baptist Church. My father was a Deacon in the church until his
health failed when my brother, Will, was elected to fill that position. He held
it until his death in 1897. My father passed away to his reward Oct. 3, 1892,
age 65 years and seven months. My mother passed away January 10, 1917, just
previous to three of her grandsons entering service in the World War; Floyd and
Lloyd and Myr Walker.
My father's Uncle John Keepers and Aunt
Ann (Keepers) Rubincamp also lived and died in Guernsey County, Ohio. I do not
know if they came at the same time my Grandfather did from Penn. or not. When I
knew them, the husband of my fathers Aunt Ann was dead and there were three
children, Susan, Hannah and David. The girls never married and David was an old
man before he married as I remember. They lived on a farm near Winchester, near
our home, and we visited them when I was small.
Uncle John and Aunt Mary lived near
Winchester also. They had seven children, Mifflin, Washington, Mills, Hayes,
Mary J., Katherine and Betsy. The only one that I remember was Katherine. She
married Reason Huffman, mother's cousin. They had a family of six girls. The
others of great Uncle John's children moved west before I was old enough to
remember them and I know only of the Mifflin Keepers family. I have
corresponded with a grandson of his who is a Congregational minister and was
located at Carter, So. Dakota, when he last wrote to me. Mifflin Keepers was
killed at Marietta, Georgia, during a battle and his son, Hayes, saw him fall.
He was also knocked down by a piece of shell. They were under Billy Sherman and
belonged to the 12th Wisconsin. Mifflin’s children were James, Hayes, Diver,
George Washington, J. S. Elizabeth, Prudence, Jonnie, Elmira and Hattie. George
Washington was the father of John B. Keepers with whom I have corresponded.
John B. has nine children, seven boys and two girls. They live in
Nebraska. I do not know the location.
Mifflin's youngest son, Joseph, 1ives in Missouri and others of the family in
Wisconsin. If you care to trace the Mifflin Keepers family further, I will try
to find the grandson's location. Perhaps he still lives at Carter, South
Dakota.
My Uncle Joseph' s family are all gone
except one daughter, Minnie Darrow, of Ganville, Ohio and one grandson, George
Keepers of Gallup, New Mexico.
Sincerely,
Jennie Keepers Wheeler
Note 1.
W. F1oyd Keepers writes on August 19,1931:
"Early in January 1925
I received from a W. F. Keepers in Philadelphia, a letter trying to trace a
relationship. This was the reply sent him by Aunt Jennie Wheeler."
Note 2.
Mrs. Wheeler passed away December 18,1930.