KELLER, JOHN

KELLER, SNIDER, BELL, WINGER, ROSE, COMSTOCK

Posted By: Marilyn Norris Holmes
Date: 4/15/2013 at 09:02:21

The 1880 History of Poweshiek County Iowa

Warren Township

Page 807-8

KELLER, JOHN--Farmer and stock-raiser, section 13, P.O. Victor. Was born December 14, 1825, in Switzerland, where he attended school till 1844; then went to France and attended school two years, learning the French language. In 1846, on account of his father's ill health, he returned home where he engaged in farming till 1851, then came to America and settled in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, where he bought a farm and worked the same till 1855. This he sold and came to Iowa and engaged in farming in Johnson county, till 1859, and then came to this county where he worked Wm. Manatt's farm till the spring of 1862; then worked the Wilson farm, where Victor now stands, until the spring of 1865, when he bought and settled where he now lives, and owns eighty acres of well-improved land with a good house, also a large vineyard from which he manufactures at least six hundred gallons of wine each year. Mr. Keller has been twice married; first, September, 1845, in Switzerland, to Miss Catherine Snider, they had one son, John (born in July, 1846; married, and lives in Victor), and one daughter, Elizabeth (born in October, 1847; now wife of C. Bell in Switzerland). Mrs. Keller died in Switzerland in 1850, aged twenty-eight. Mr. Keller married the second time, in May, 1851, in New York City, to Miss Annie Winger, who was born in Switzerland in 1820. They have six children: Christopher (born in 1852; now married, and lives in Crawford county, Iowa), Mary (born in 1854; now the wife of J. Rose in Canada), Fred (born in 1856), Ellen (born in 1858; now the wife of J. Comstock in this township), James (born in 1858), Margaret (born in 1862).