Jacob B. Keller

  General Notes:

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.