John Keim Biography


	This biography appears on page 1783 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	JOHN KEIM, one of the representative business men of Eureka, 
McPherson county, was born at a point about one hundred miles west of 
the city of Odessa, Russia, on the 20th of November, 1864, and his 
father, Jacob Keim, was likewise born in the same district, where he 
passed his entire life, being a farmer by vocation. He came of staunch 
old German stock, his father having removed from Wurtemberg, Germany, to 
Russia and settled in a locality in which were found many of his 
countrymen. 

	The subject of this review secured his early education in the 
excellent schools of his native land and continued to there maintain his 
home, until 1889, when, at the age of twenty-five years, he came to 
America and forthwith took up his abode in McPherson county, South 
Dakota, where he has ever since maintained his home and where he has 
gained success and popularity, being one of the progressive and able 
young business men of the town of Eureka. For the first six months after 
his arrival in the state he was employed in farm work, and he then took 
up a tract of land and engaged in farming and stock growing on his own 
responsibility, continuing to be successfully identified with these 
lines of enterprise until 1900, while he still owns the farm, which is 
located two miles north of Eureka, and which now comprises six quarter 
sections of land, arable and productive and devoted principally to the 
raising of wheat, corn and live stock, while he has made excellent im-
provements of a permanent nature.

	In 1901 Mr. Keim entered into partnership with Salomon Isaak, and 
they have been ever since associated in the ownership and operation of 
an excellently equipped and conducted grain elevator in Eureka, while 
they also have two other elevators in this section of the state and are 
the owners of a feed store in Eureka, and are engaged in the handling of 
all kinds of farming machinery and implements in the same town. The 
subject's brother, Jacob, is also an interested principal in each of 
these enterprises and the same are conducted under the firm name of 
Isaak & Keim Brothers. The members of the firm are men of sterling 
integrity and indomitable perseverance and energy, and they have 
naturally commended themselves to the confidence and good will of all 
with whom they have come in contact in either a business or social way, 
being numbered among the valued citizens of the village and county. In 
politics Mr. Keim gives his support to the Republican party, while he is 
most loyal to the land of his adoption and appreciative of the 
advantages here afforded.

	In November, 1885, Mr. Keim was united in marriage to Miss Christiana 
Schanzenbach, who likewise was born and reared in Russia, and they have 
four children: Freda, Rosa, Gustave and Theodore.