BIO: Anthony KELKER, Dauphin County, PA

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Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of Dauphin County, 
Containing Sketches of Representative Citizens, and Many of the 
Early Scotch-Irish and German Settlers.  Chambersburg, Pa.: 
J. M. Runk & Company, 1896, page 176.
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  KELKER, ANTHONY, son of Henry Kelker and Regula Braetscher, was a 
native of Herrleberg, near Zurich, Switzerland, born on December 30, 
1733. At the age of ten years, in 1743, his parents emigrated to 
America and located in Lebanon township, Lancaster county, now Lebanon 
county, Pa., four miles north of the town of Lebanon. Anthony was 
brought up on his father's farm, receiving the meager advantages of the 
schools of that period. He was commissioned August 28, 1775, lieutenant 
in the Second battalion of Lancaster county associators, and was in 
active service during the campaign of 1776. In 1777 he was an officer 
in the militia Brandywine and Germantown.  He was appointed January 19, 
1778, wagon-master of Colonel Greenawalt's battalion, and the same year 
was sent on a secret expedition to Virginia and Maryland.  Until the 
close of the war Captain Kelker was an active participant.  He was 
deputy sheriff of Lancaster county in 1781-82, and upon the formation 
of the county of Dauphin was commissioned the first sheriff in 1785, 
and subsequently elected, serving until 1788.  He was a member of the 
Pennsylvania House of Representatives 1793-94.  He was a very active 
member and vestryman of the German Reformed church, and treasurer of 
the same during the erection of the old (First) Reformed church in 
1794.  Mr. Kelker died at Lebanon March 10, 1812. He married Mary 
Magdalena, daughter of George Meister, a Moravian.  She died at 
Lebanon, December 30, 1818.  Mr. Kelker was a man of strict integrity, 
an unflinching patriot, and highly esteemed by his fellow-citizens.