OCR Document

Genealogy - Keepers Family of Carlisle Pennsylvania

John Keepers of Carlisle, PA, is the progenitor of this group. He was one of the founders of

Connellsville, PA, which was formed in 1806. It is possible that John was a veteran of the

Revolutionary War, serving in the New Jersey militia, and later, 1793, a Lieutenant in

a company of militia in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. The early days for this John,

and all of the colonial Keepers relation, are quite murky and need further research.

John was married twice; his first wife, Susannah Kutz, received an inheritance from her father

that is mentioned in John's will. It is not known exactly when he moved from Carlisle to

Connellsville, but we know that a son, Joseph, was born to John and his second wife, Sarah

Fish, in Connellsville in1795.

We have tentatively identified a son, Stephen, born in1787 at Carlisle to John and Susannah.

Stephen was a veteran of the War of 1812. He was a Private in Capt. Joseph Halbert's Co., 2nd

Regiment, PA Volunteers. A brother, Samuel, son of John and Sarah, was a musician in the

Youghiogheny Blues during the 1820's; the Blues were a militia company of men from Connellsville,

PA. " ... The company wore blue uniforms, as its name implies, and carried flintlock muskets with

immense bayonets. The Blues always celebrated their anniversary by a parade on the 17th of

August. ... A still greater day, in the history of the Blues, was Thursday, May 26, 1825. It was

the day of Lafayette's visit to Uniontown, when making his second tour of America."

John's grandson, William H. Keepers, born in 1820 in Emmitsburg, Maryland, was a veteran of

two wars. He was a musician in Company I, 1st Ohio, during the Mexican-American War, and

he was a Private in Company F, 61st Ohio Infantry during the Civil War. William H. Keepers died

in 1898 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Another grandson, Joseph Keepers, was a Captain in Company G,

17th Pennsylvania Cavalry. Joseph died in 1902 in New Jersey.