Genealogy
- Keepers Family of Wisconsin
Born in Beaver County, PA, in 1819, Lewis Mifflin Keepers was the founder of the Keepers Family branch of Wisconsin. He married Theodotia McMillen on March 25,1841. Eleven children were born to this family. He moved from Guernsey County, Ohio, to Richland County, Wisconsin, in 1852. He was killed at the age of forty-five in the War Between the States during the battle for Atlanta and is buried in the Union Army Cemetery at Marietta, Georgia. Two of his sons, James and Hayes were also in the Union Army at the time. Hayes was actually with his father when he was fatally wounded in the fighting.
Most of Lewis' children settled in Eastern Nebraska (Boone, Fillmore and Holt counties), and some of the married daughters moved on to California. James spent very little time in Nebraska, returning to Wisconsin to farm and eventually become a Campbellite minister of the gospel, serving a church in Bloom City, WI. Hayes also returned to Wisconsin to farm for a longer period, and also followed his brother into the ministry somewhat later. Hayes' occupation as minister of the gospel does not appear until the 1910 census record. The brand of Christianity preached by Hayes is unknown to us at this time, but the Campbellites interpreted the Bible literally. We have James M. Keepers' ledger in which he recorded marriages that he performed, including that of his own son, Lewis Mifflin Keepers to Altha A. Kelley on January 22, 1882 in Crawford Co., WI. John J. Keepers, a grandson of James M. Keepers, wrote about the effect James' religion had on James' children: "Not much of this dogma rubbed off on his sons. They were a pretty wild bunch. Aunt Mary inherited most of the religion."
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