Keffer, Jacob (1845-1927)

KEFFER

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 6/13/2021 at 15:48:51

JACOB KEFFER
(March 4, 1845 - August 28, 1927)

Jacob Keffer - From German ancestry this gentleman is descended. His great-grandfather was born in that far distant land and crossed the Atlantic to the New World, becoming the founder of the family in America. The grandfather, George Keffer, removed from Tennessee to Union county, Indiana, when the father of our subject was a child of eighteen months. There Samuel Keffer was reared to manhood and acquired his education in the primitive log schoolhouse. Having arrived at years of maturity he married Miss Eliza Lennen, a native of Preble county, Ohio, whose parents removed to Union county at an early day in the nineteenth century. In 1825 Samuel Keffer became a resident of Hamilton county, Indiana, where he resided for more than a quarter of a century. In April, 1856, he left his home there and started for Iowa, arriving in Warren county on the 4th of June, 1856. Mr. Keffer, who was born on the 16th of May, 1805, in Knox, Tennessee, died September 2, 1890, and was laid to rest in New Virginia cemetery. Mr. and Mrs. Keffer were the parents of twelve children, six of whom are yet living, namely: Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Huffman, a farmer of Madison county, Iowa; Nancy, widow of Gottleib Kefler; John, a ranchman living in Cook county, Oregon; Harrison, who was named in honor of the hero of Tippecanoe, now resides in Cass county, Iowa; Washington is living also in Cass county. Our subject was a child of ten years when with his parents he came to Iowa. Almost forty years have passed since that time. He remembers crossing the broad waters of the Mississippi, at Muscatine, and traveling across the unimproved prairies to Warren county. At that time Virginia township contained but sixteen voters. The farm on which the family located had not upon it a single improvement and for miles around stretched the unbroken prairie. The nearest neighbor to the north was Amos Barker, while to the south resided Mr Connor, on what is now the Sayre homestead. Churches and schools, manufactories and business houses were mostly things of the future. Our subject conned his lessons in a little log school-house, where everything was carried on in primitive style. He early became familiar with the labors of the fields, which were then performed with machinery quite crude in comparison with the perfected implements of today.
On the 6th of April, 1876, Mr. Keffer was united in marriage with Miss Anna Chandler, daughter of Charles and Minerva (Rodgers) Chandler. She was born in Rockingham county, Virginia, and there her father died, after which, in 1856, her mother brought the family to Iowa, locating in Davis county. In 1876 Mrs. Chandler came to Warren county, and here died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Keffer. Two children (twins) were born of this union, - Mary Jane and a son; the latter died in infancy and was laid to rest on the home farm. In his political views, Mr. Keffer has been a Republican since casting his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln. During the war he manifested his loyalty to the Government by enlisting in the First Iowa Cavalry, at Des Moines, on the 20th of September, 1864, under Captain George W. Walker. He took part in all the engagements of his regiment, and was discharged at Davenport on the 12th of March, 1866. The Keffer family was well represented in the struggle for the preservation of the Union. The eldest brother, Samuel, enlisted in September ,1862, at St Charles, Madison county, as a member of Company F, Thirty-ninth Iowa Infantry, and was discharged in June 1865. George and John were both members of Company F, Fourth Iowa Infantry, enlisting at Winterest, July 12, 1861, and receiving their discharge at Louisville, Kentucky, in June 1865. The Keffer family is noted for loyalty in all the relations of life, and has long been prominently connected with the history of Warren county. Our subject is a member of the German Baptist Brethren Church, and takes a deep and abiding interest in everything pertaining to the welfare of his resident community. Source: A Memorial and Biographical Record of Iowa, Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1896, vol.1, p.416