Portrait and Biographical Album of Fulton County,
Illinois: containing full page portraits and biographical sketches of
prominent and representative citizens of the county: together with
portraits and biographies of all the presidents of the United States,
and governors of the state; Biographical Pub. Co., Chicago, IL; 1890;
page 365-366; Transcribed by Margaret Rose Whitehurst
Atharine Keeling, whose sketch now invites attention, is one of
the oldest men in the State of Illinois, having in the course of his
long life witnessed many changes and an immense amount of progress in
the State, and also having accumulated a considerable fortune.
Longevity for some reasons and in some cases is not a desirable thing,
but it certainly gives a man a vast amount of valuable experience, and
gains him a larger number of successes than can be accomplished in a
shorter span of years.
Mr. Keeling's birth occurred in Elizabethtown, Hardin County,
Ky., on the 12th of May, 1823, being the son of Lewis and Lydia (Howey)
Keeling. When only three years of age our subject moved with his
parents to the State of Illinois, the family leaving the beautiful Blue
Grass country for no other reason that that the idea of slavery was
distasteful to them, and as that custom prevailed everywhere south of
"Mason and Dixon's line," they were forced to seek a northern home.
They first located in Jacksonville, but after two years removed to
Springfield, where the father purchased a grist and saw mill on the
south fork of the Sangamon River; and the earliest recollections of our
subject date back to the "old mill" by the river side, where he spent
many happy days in his childhood. The business proved very successful,
and the father previous to his death was an extensive landowner, owning
several thousand acres of valuable timber and prairie land along the
Sangamon River. He died in 1856, being sixty-one years old; the mother
had died about twenty years before, when only thirty-six years of age.
To them were born nine children, viz.: Eldridge, Atharine; Singleton,
Hayden, Lydia and Louisa are deceased; America; Lewis, deceased; and
William.
Our subject's paternal grandfather, William Keeling, was a
Methodist minister, and his birthplace was in England. He married in
that country Miss Susan Grant, and upon coming to America settled first
in Virginia, but afterward removed to Kentucky. Our subject's maternal
grandfather, Joseph Howey, was born in the State of Virginia, and
married Mrs. Cecelia McKinney. They were all of Scotch-Irish descent,
and settled in Virginia about the time of the Colonial War.
Mr. Keeling's father being interested in the brick business, he
learned that when a boy of fourteen summers, going to a pay school
through three months of the twelve, which was taught by Dr. Springer,
father of Congressman Springer. Our subject was a neighbor of Abraham
Lincoln, and was well acquainted with him.
The subject of our sketch left home at the age of eighteen, when
his father was married the second time, and commenced to work for
himself in the brick business, employing a number of hands and clearing
$1,000 the first year. He continued this field of labor for a period of
fifty-two years, turning out a tremendous amount of brick and tile.
Mr. Keeling was married in 1848, to Miss Mary Jane Wilson,
daughter of Samuel and Maria (Broherd) Wilson. She was born in Hamilton
County, Ohio, and her father was by birth and education a
Scotchman--Edinburgh being his native place. To Mr. and Mrs. Wilson
were born seven children, viz.: Thomas J., Mary Jane, Maria, Ellen,
Margaret, Amanda, and James, who died in youth. Our subject and his
wife have been blessed with six children, viz.: Oscar H., Mary Helen,
Alice A., Annie M., Clara Inez and Jesse L., all of whom are prosperous
and talented.
Mr. Keeling voted for Henry Clay in 1844, and for the Whig
candidates until the organization of the Republican party, at which
time he commenced to support that party. He is a member of the Baptist
Church, having been connected with that denomination for forty years.
Mrs. Keeling also belongs to this church. The subject of our sketch is
a great reader, and possessing a retentive memory is a most interesting
companion, and much esteemed both for his intellectuality and his many
excellent traits of character.
