E.
WESLEY KEELER
E.
WESLEY KEELER, of
Doylestown, attorney and counselor at law, was born in Buckingham
township, Bucks county, February 13, 1853, son of Eli K. and Anna F. (REEDER)
KEELER. His grandfather,
John KEELER, was born in Tinicum township, Bucks county, and was a
son of Baltzer KEELER, an early settler in that township, who lies
buried in the old graveyard near Lower Tinicum church.
John KEELER married Ann HEANEY, a granddaughter of
Peter DE ROCHE, a Frenchman, supposed to have come to America with
the French troops during the Revolution, and settled in Tinicum.
John KEELER died a comparatively young man, but his widow,
“Nancy” KEELER, lived to be over one hundred years old.
Eli K. KEELER was born in Tinicum township in 1820, and died
in Plumstead township, March 10, 1897.
He married in 1850 Anna F., daughter of Jesse and Elizabeth FELL
REEDER, of Buckingham (see REEDER family in this work), and
settled first on the STAVELY farm in Solebury township, where was
born his eldest child, a daughter, who died in infancy.
Two years later he removed to Buckingham township near the
Doylestown township line, where Emmor TOMLINSON lately lived, where
the subject of this sketch was born. On
April 1, 1857, he removed to a farm in Plumstead, northeast of Danboro,
where the remaining years of his life were spent.
His wife, Anna F., died December 29, 1901.
Their children were: Louisa, died in infancy; E. Wesley, the
subject of this sketch; Anna Mary, living in Plumstead, unmarried; Sarah
Jane, widow of Edmund M. PRICE, of Lahaska, now living in
Philadelphia; Caroline, unmarried; Lizzie R., wife of Joseph H. MEYERS,
of Plumstead; Charles E., a druggist of Philadelphia; Edward H., died in
Buckingham in 1895; Emma, wife of Daniel S. KLIPPLE, of Plumstead;
and Joseph C., a physician in Philadelphia. E. Wesley KEEELER was reared on the Plumstead farm and attended Valley Park public school, and later took a course at the Doylestown Seminary, and attended West Chester Normal School for one term. He taught school in Bucks county for five years, during the last two of which he was studying the rudiments of law, and entered the office of George and Henry Lear, at Doylestown, as a student, March 11, 1874, and was admitted to the bar of his native county March 13, 1876. Being a careful and diligent student and an indefatigable worker, he acquired a reputation as a safe counselor, and has built up a lucrative practice, being considered one of the ablest lawyers at the home bar. He has been admitted to practice in the Supreme and Superior courts of the commonwealth, and in the United States District court for the Eastern district of Pennsylvania. Mr. KEELER is a Republican in politics, and has always taken a prominent part in the councils of his party. He was for several years chairman of the county committee, and was again chosen for that position in 1903, and is still filling it with eminent ability. He was county solicitor for six years, 1885-1891, and was a notary public for many years. The only elective office he has filled was that of register of wills for the year 1895, by appointment to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Chas. H. WEAVER, the elected register. He has been a delegate to many district and state conventions and was the representative of Bucks county in the national convention of 1892. Mr. KEELER was married to Laura W. JONES, on October 6, 1881. They have no children. Test
taken from page 476-477 of: Davis,
William W. H., A.M., History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania [New
York-Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1905] Volume III Transcribed
November 2003 by Joan Lollis as part of the Bucks Co., Pa., Early
Family Project, www.rootsweb.com/~pabucks/bucksindex.html Published April 2004 on the Bucks County, Pa., USGenWeb pages at www.rootsweb.com/~pabucks/ |