Pg 579

         HENRY D. KELLER, the photographer of Wapello, its pioneer in this line, and having the only gallery in the city, established himself here in business in 1864, having been employed in the same gallery a year, at the expiration of which he purchased the interest of the proprietor.

Our subject was born in Putnam County, Ind., June 3, 1829, and is a son of Phillip W. and Charity (Rynerson) Keller, who took up their residence in Abingdon, Knox Co., Ill., a few years later, in 1835. Thence in 1845 they pushed on still further westward across the Mississippi to Huron Township, Des Moines Co., Iowa, where our subject developed into manhood and assisted his father in farming a number of years.

In 1851 Mr. Keller returned to his old home in Abingdon, Ill., where he learned photography, and thence came back to Iowa in 1863. He was married Sept. 15, 1865, to Miss Adeline Stillman, a native of Vermont. In the meantime, however, during the progress of the Civil War, he in 1861, having considerable musical talent, became a member of the regiment band, 1st Iowa Cavalry, with which he remained until the fall of 1862, when these institutions were all disbanded. Subsequent to this he took up his residence in Wapello, and is recognized as a peaceable and law-abiding citizen, pursuing the even tenor of his way in his line of business, enjoying a good patronage and the esteem of his community. Socially, he belongs to Taylor Post No. 153, G. A. R., and in politics is a sound Republican.