BIO: Daniel Keller, Cumberland County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Bookwalter

Copyright 2011.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/
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History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania.
Containing History of the Counties, Their Townships, Towns, Villages, 
Schools, Churches, Industries, Etc.; Portraits of Early Settlers and 
Prominent Men; Biographies; History of Pennsylvania; Statistical and 
Miscellaneous Matter, Etc., Etc.  Illustrated.  Chicago: Warner, Beers 
& Co., 1886.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/beers/beers.htm
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                                PART II.

             HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

                               CHAPTER LV.

                              PENN TOWNSHIP.

529  PENN TOWNSHIP.

  RT. REV. DANIEL KELLER, bishop or elder of the German Baptist Church, 
and farmer, P. O. Huntsdale, was born in Lancaster County, Penn., 
September 23, 1813.  His father and grandfather were also born in that 
county, his great-grandfather, a native of Switzerland, having 
established the family in America.  Our subject's mother, Elizabeth 
Hershberger, was also descended from a Swiss grandfather, who came to 
this country, and the two families have branched out far and wide in 
the New World.  Elder Keller's father, John Keller, died July 27, 1875, 
at the age of nearly ninety-one years - all passed in this State.  
Elder Keller married, December 31, 1833, Miss Catherine Kline, of 
Lancaster County, Penn., born November 4, 1813, and they came to 
Centreville, this county, in 1845.  In 1878 they moved to a farm near 
Milltown (now Huntsdale), and in 1882 lo-

530  BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES:

cated where they now reside, at Huntsdale, this county.  Elder Keller 
has followed farming all his life, and has been uniformly successful.  
He has dealt largely in farm property, and was one of the first to 
establish the custom of liming the soil in this valley, by which course 
the value of the land in this county has been greatly increased.  Elder 
Keller now owns a fine farm of 160 acres of fertile and well improved 
land in Penn Township, 320 acres in Russell County, Kas., and a large 
grist-mill on Yellow Breeches Creek, at Huntsdale, this county, also 
five dwelling houses and lots in Huntsdale.  To Elder Keller and wife 
have been born thirteen children, nine of whom are living:  Benjamin, 
in Shamokin, Penn.; Mrs. Catherine Brandt, near Centreville, this 
county; Daniel Jr., in Ellsworth County, Kas.; Mrs. Hedassah Coover, in 
Green Vale, Russell Co., Kas.; Samuel, in Bourbon, Marshall Co., Ind.; 
Jacob, in Plympton, Dickinson Co., Kas., and Mrs. Sarah Myers, at 
Huntsdale, this county.  Nearly all of elder Keller's family are 
members of the German Baptist Church.  He joined the church in 1848, 
was chosen preacher in same in 1850, and ordained bishop in 1861.  He 
is an influential member and a pillar of the church.  In all his 
dealings Elder Keller has been upright and straightforward, generous to 
those in need and liberal toward public enterprises.  He is a worthy 
and highly-respected citizen, and his name will long be honored by 
succeeding generations in Cumberland County.  Following the non-
resisting policy of the church, the Elder takes no part in politics, 
but is disposed to favor the Republican party.  Elder and Mrs. Keller, 
in their course of life, have thus far experienced much joy, and also 
much sorrow.