Barbour County, West Virginia Biography of Jesse E. KEYSER This biography was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 310-311 Barbour JESSE E. KEYSER. Belington is one of the fast growing commercial centers, particularly well situated to enjoy the advantages arising from the developments in a vast ter- ritory on both sides of the Alleghanies. The first whole- sale business established here is now the Kane & Keyser Hardware Company, of which Jesse E. Keyser is presi- dent. He has been a business factor in the locality since 1901. At that time the corporation was started with a capitalization of $100,000. The capital was raised to a quarter of a million in 1921, but the official personnel remains practically the same. The normal territory served by this house is all of Eastern West Virginia, a portion of Virginia and the western part of Maryland. A staff of five salesmen cover this region. The company handles an extensive line of general hardware, and a large volume of the business is in builders, mine and railroad supplies. Besides the head- quarters at Belington, the company maintains offices at 107 Chambers Street, New York, in the Union Arcade Building at Pittsburgh, and in the Continental & Com- mercial National Bank Building in Chicago. Mr. Keyser is a member of the National Hardware Jobbers Association. Jesse E. Keyser has been a West Virginia business man for nearly thirty years. He is a native of Ohio and was born near Bellaire in Belmont County July 31, 1863. The remote ancestor of the Keyser family settled in Philadelphia in 1688, coming from Amsterdam, Hol- land, where he had been a silk manufacturer. The old Keyser home is still standing on Grermantown Avenue in Philadelphia. The early generations of the Keysers were of the Quaker faith, consequently opposed to war and did not participate in the Revolution, but later generations have departed somewhat from the anti-military customs and the family was represented on both sides in the Civil war. The grandfather of the Belington business man was Jesse Keyser, who lost his life while raising a log house in Belmont County, Ohio. Isaac Keyser, father of Jesse E., was born in Belmont County, and his life was devoted to farming. He lived in Noble County, Ohio, from 1864 until his death in 1898, at the age of eighty- five. He was a democrat and a member of the Presbyterian Church. He married Monica Porterfield, who died just two weeks before him, at the age of seventy-eight. Her father, John Porterfield, arrived in New York City from the North of Ireland in 1800 and settled in Belmont County, Ohio. He married a member of the Robb family, pioneers. In the Porterfield family there were sixteen children. Isaac Keyser and wife had six children, and of these Jesse is the only survivor. Jesse E. Keyser was reared and educated in Noble County, Ohio, attending the public schools and the Normal School at Sharon, Ohio. While in an office at Dover, Ohio, he learned telegraphy, and he earned his first money as a telegraph operator in the service of the Cleveland, Lorain and Wheeling Eailroad, later the B. & O. system with which he was connected for three years. Later he was with the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad, and was with that company eight years, chiefly in station work. His last work for the railroad was at Hayward, Wisconsin. >From there Mr. Keyser came to West Virginia in 1894, and, locating at West Union in Doddridge County, engaged in the hardware and oil well supply business as a member of the firm E. J. Kane and J. E. Keyser. Out of this relationship has since developed the Kane & Keyser Hard- ware Company, and in. 1901 they moved their business to Belington, where it has grown and prospered to the condi- tion above noted. Mr. Keyser and Mr. Kane came together from Ohio and reached West Union at the time Coxey's Army was march- ing on to Washington. Mr. Keyser left the railroad serv- ice just before the big A. R. U. strike under Debs. These young men were about the same age, had little capital, but a great deal of enterprise and confidence in them- selves, and in spite of the business depression prevailing during most of the decade of the '90s, they more than realized their expectations, and out of their efforts has been developed the big wholesale house at Belington. Mr. Keyser is also vice president of the First National Bank of Belington, of which he was one of the founders. He was a member of the City Council during the era of paving and sewerage construction. He has interested him- self in party politics only as a voter of the democratic faith, is a deacon in the Belington Presbyterian Church and a member of the Allegheny and Cheat Mountain Clubs and the Business Men's Club of Belington. At West Union, June 27, 1900, Mr. Keyser married Miss Dagmar Neely, daughter of Alfred and Mary (Morris) Neely. She is a native of Doddridge County, where her father was a well known country physician. She finished her education in the Fairmont State Normal School and was a teacher until her marriage. Mrs. Keyser is a sister of Matthew M. Neely, former Congressman from the First West Virginia District. Her sister, Delmond, is the wife of C. H. Jones, secretary-treasurer of the Kane & Keyser Hardware Company of Belington. Mrs. Keyser is a mem- ber of the Daughters of the American Revolution, due to the service of her great-great-grandfather as a soldier in the war for independence. During the World war Mr. Keyser was active in home work, was a member of the Council of Defense, was vice chairman of the local Red Cross, and was chairman of the Y. M. C. A. drive and a worker in other local campaigns. Mr. and Mrs. Keyser have two children. The son, Robb Neely, is a student in the Davis and Elkins College at Elkins. The daughter, Mary Monica, is a high school girl at Belington.