Hans Jacob Keller

  General Notes:

The first 3 children of Han Jacob and Elsbeth are born in Switzerland.

They emigrated from Rothenfluh, Switzerland, entered the port of Philadelphia 16 SEP 1736, Province of Pennsylvania on the ship Princess Augusta with their three sons.


http://www.pa-roots.org/data/read.php?31,482093
Jacob Keller & Family
Posted by: Millie Mowry <http://www.pa-roots.org/data/profile.php?31,169> (IP Logged)
Date: January 15, 2007 10:38PM
Source: Biographical Annals of Lancaster Co., Pa., 1903 by J. H. Beers & Co., page 882-882-3.

JACOB B. KELLER. Among the old and honored families who have made Lancaster county what it is, the name of Keller has considerable prominence. The founder of the family in the United States was Jacob Keller, who was born Nov. 14, 1706, and who came to America from Canton Basel, Switzerland, between 1725 and 1730. He purchased, May 7, 1730, a tract of land which now is included in Ephrata township, from John, Thomas and Richard Penn, sons of William Penn. He was a Seventh Day Baptist in religion. His death occurred March 10, 1794, and his remains were buried in Cloister cemetery. His wife, born Feb. 2, 1708, died May 24, 1787. At his death Jacob Keller left three sons, one of whom, Jacob, retained the homestead; Sebastian located in Elizabethtown; and the third in the State of Virginia.

[Notes on the burial:
The headstone for Jacob is inscribed in German -
Hier ruhet
JACOB KELLER
geb Nov 14, 1706
in der Schweiz
zu Rothenfluh
im Canton Bafel
Starb Merz d 10
1794
- and his wife's headstone -
Hier ruhet
ein Glied der
Gemeinde in Ephrata
ELISABETH KELLERN
Geboren im hof von
Wintersingen
im Canton, Basel
Geboren Feb 2, 1708
Starb May 24, 1787
Alter 79 Jahre, 3 monate
und 22 Tage.

The translation results in
Here rests
Jacob Keller
born [Geb is short for Geboren] Nov 14, 1706
in Switzerland (in der -> in the -> is just the way you say it in German)
in Rothenfluh in Switzerland in the Canton of Basel.
[From Wikipedia -
Rothenfluh is a municipality in the district of Sissach in the canton of Basel-Country in Switzerland.
Rothenfluh is a conglomeration of seven medieval villages: Loglingen, Hendschikon, Söllickken, Werlickhen, Hohlwingen, Gastwingen, and Werdlingen.
In 1196, the site was called Rotenfluo. Most of the other medieval villages lost population, and Loglingen became the present village. In the 12th century, part of the territory of the municipality belonged to the Catholic Bishop of Basel, and part to the Habsburgs.
In the 16th century, the village became part of the Helvetic Confederation in the district of Gelterkinden. In 1803, it became a municipality of the district of Sissach.
Originally, there were two Catholic parishes, St. Stephan and St. Georg. The two parishes were united in the 13th century.]
...
Died March 10, 1794

and his wife's headstone is inscribed ....
Here rests
ein Glied der ........
Gemeinde in Ephra
a member of
the community [church] of Ephrata [Cloisters] ...
ELISABETH KELLERN (the "N" ... German uses a feminine form of Keller)
born near Wintersingen
in Canton, Basel
Born Feb 2, 1708
Died May 24, 1787Age 79 Years, 3 months, and 22 Days.
]

continue with the bio ...
Jacob Keller (2), was born on the old homestead at Springville, Cocalico township, at the head of Trout creek, Feb. 15, 1733, and died Aug. 20, 1804; his wife, Barbara (Landes) Keller, who was born July 3, 1736, died March 18, 1818, and both of them rest in the old homestead cemetery. Of their children, Jacob is mentioned below; Samuel, born May 24, 1763, was a miller at Keller's mill, in Cocalico township, and died Jan. 5, 1848, and John, born Aug. 30, 1766, located near Lititz, and died April 26, 1850.

Jacob Keller (3) was born on the old homestead, Sept. 14, 1761, and died April 12, 1830; his wife, Barbara (Huber) Keller, born in 1764, died in 1794. Her sister, who became his second wife, was born Nov. 13, 1766, and died Dec. 14, 1849. He was the father of five sons and three daughters: (1) John, born Aug. 6, 1784, died July 27, 1875. He married first a Miss Hershberger, and second a Miss Zentmyer, and his children were, Lydia, Salome, John H., Daniel, Jacob H., Leah, Michael, Samuel, Elizabeth, Henry and Mary. (2) Jacob, born Nov. 30, 1786, located at Springville, and died Aug. 14, 1841. He married Elizabeth Shirk, who was born Feb. 23, 1790, and died, Feb. 6, 1872. (3) Samuel, born Aug. 7, 1791, died Feb. 27, 1855. His first wife Magdalena Erb, born June 11, 1794, died Oct. 5, 1825. (4) Mary married John Hershberger, and had six children, Lydia, Jacob, Sally, Henry, Susannah and Leah. (5) Barbara married David Erb, at Hammer Creek, and had nine children, Samuel, Reuben, Ephraim, Israel, David, John, Levi, Elizabeth and Sallie. (6) Frederick, born Jan. 5, 1794, married Catharine Gross, had thirteen children, and died March 17, 1879 (7) Susanna, married Joseph Shirk and had ten children, Christiana, Leah, Maria, Sallie [Salome], Fianna, Annamahala, Lizzie, Jacob, Joseph and Reuben [an 11th child, Susannah, died in 1855]. (8) George is mentioned below.

George Keller, the father of the immediate subject of this biography, was born Oct. 22, 1799, and died Jan. 15, 1849, aged forty-nine years, two months and twenty-six days. He was twice married; his first wife belonged to the Long family of Landis Valley; his second wife was Christina Brubaker, born Nov, 6, 1802, who died April 17, 1842; both are buried in the old cemetery at Springville. Of the children in the family of George Keller, the eldest son George, born in December, 1823, died at the age of sixty-two, leaving a large family; Jacob B.; Leah, born in 1827, married Jacob S. Wissler, moved to Canton, Ohio, and died, the mother of seven children, Ezra S., Jacob S., Isaac, and four daughters; Susanna married David Mohler, and had ten children; Elias B., born in 1832, married Rebecca Hershberger, and had eleven children; Isaac, born in 1835, became a German Baptist minister, married a Miss Rudy, and had eight children; and Annie, born in 1839, married Aaron Weidman, and lives at Reading, Pennsylvania.

Jacob B. Keller, a worthy representative of this old and established family, was born Oct. 31, 1825, and was the second son of George Keller. Reared on the farm, one of a large family, he early became accustomed to the duties of an agricultural life, and pursued it for a number of years. At school he was an apt pupil, and finished the common school course with credit, and then took up the profession of teaching, but in 1860 he engaged in the milling business, six years later removing to Ephrata where he became a contractor and builder, and also dealt extensively in real estate. A man of more than average intelligence, Mr. Keller has taken a great interest in his family ancestry, of which he has reason to be justly proud, for few, like him, can look back over former generations and find the record so universally in favor of sobriety, uprightness and good citizenship.

On Nov. 6, 1846, Mr. Keller was married to Miss Rebecca Stupp, a daughter of John and Sarah (Eckert) Stupp, of Berks county, Pa., and to this union were born four children: Emma, born Aug. 11, 1847, who married William K. Seltzer, a prominent attorney and justice of the peace, in Ephrata township; Alice, born Sept. 7, 1862, married B. F. Bair, a stock-dealer, in Philadelphia; while Frank and James died in infancy.

Ever since the administration of President Lincoln, Mr. Keller has been an active and ardent Republican, and he exerts a wide influence for his party in his locality. For many years he has been a valued and consistent member of the German Baptist Church, where he is one of the most cheerful supporters of all charitable and benevolent enterprises. Although now living a retired life in his comfortable home in the borough of Ephrata, Mr. Keller has not permitted his intellectual faculties to become rusty, as during the year 1898 he compiled and arranged a neat genealogy of the Keller family in America, which he notes was prepared for his personal satisfaction, but which must have required much study and research, and it is of inestimable value to all who are permitted to bear the honorable name.

Millie Mowry
Data Entry Manager
Lancaster Co., PA



From Find-A-Grave Website:
Hans Jacob Keller
Birth: Nov. 14, 1706
Basel-Stadt, Switzerland Death: Mar. 10, 1794
Ephrata, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Hans Jacob Keller and Elizabeth Imhoff Keller arrived in Philadelphia, PA in 1736. The Ephrata Register, a compliation of deaths of primarily Ephrata members (members of the Ephrata Cloister) states that he (Jacob) was 87 years and several months old [at his death]. He was a faithful and anxious co-worker in the house of God until his advanced age. His venerable wife in her advaced age passed through much sorrow and pain, and passed this world in the year 1787, the 24th of May and thereafter he (Jacob) passed his life in silence and much fasting and prayer. In the 7th year (following her death) he passed to an edifying and blessed end; for 6 weeks he took no nourishment." The history and genealogy of the descendants of Hans Jacob Keller can be found in "A Keller History, Descendants of Hans Jacob Keller and Elizabeth Keller of the Cacalico Valley, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania" by Rachel Keller Spease reprinted March 1998.

Hans married Elsbeth Imhoff, daughter of Bastian Imhoff and Margarett Imhoff, on 8 May 1725.¹⁰⁴ (Elsbeth Imhoff was born on 2 Feb 1708 in Wintersingen, Canton of Basel, Switzerland, died on 24 May 1787 in Ephrata, Lancaster Co, PA and was buried in Ephrata Cloister Cemetery, Ephrata, Lancaster Co., PA.)