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This gentleman and his estimable wife are numbered among the earliest settlers of Nora Township. They are people of more than ordinary intelligence, and have contributed their full share to the moral welfare of the people, in giving encouragement to the better elements in which the prosperity and reputation of a community so largely depends. A native of Juniata County, Pa., Mr. Kepner was born July 21, 1817, and has thus summed up his more than three-score years and ten. He spent his childhood and youth upon the farm in his native county, receiving a common-school education and being trained in those habits of industry and principles of honor which laid the foundation of a successful and creditable career in life.
Leaving the Keystone State in 1836, when a youth of nineteen years, Elder Kepner made his way to Darke Co., Ohio, where he sojourned three years, employed as a farm-laborer. At the expiration of this time he returned to the old homestead in Pennsylvania, where he remained until the spring of 1841, and in the month of May was married to Miss Sarah E. Bushey. This lady, a native of his own county, was born April 22, 1821. After marriage the young people settled upon a farm not far from the home of their childhood, and Benjamin H. worked on land belonging to his father until the fall of 1848. Resolving now to seek the Western country, Mr. Kepner emigrated to this county with his wife and two children, leaving Pennsylvania on the 26th of September with a team, and arriving at their destination Nov. 4 following. They lived that winter with his brother-in-law, and the spring following Mr. Kepner purchased eighty acres of land on section 17, in Nora Township, where he settled and has since lived. He added to his first purchase and finally became owner of a half section. He now has 149 acres. This has been brought to a good state of cultivation and embellished with modern farm buildings. For a number of years Mr. Kepner operated a threshing machine in connection with his farming. His thrift and industry have met with their legitimate reward, and he has secured an ample competence for his declining years. In due time there came to the fireside of Mr. and Mrs. Kepner children to the number of fourteen, nine of whom are still living: Andrew L. is a resident of Henry County, Mo.; Erastus P. is farming in Nora Township; Aaron E. is occupied at farming in California; Josiah B. is engaged as a clerk in a grocery store in Brown County, Kan.; Deborah J. is the wife of George W. Myers, of Sabetha, Kan.; S. Ella is the wife of David McFadden, of Chicago, Ill.; Catherine A. resides in California with her brother; Ida M. married Samuel Baker, a well-to-do farmer of Nora Township; Emma L. is the wife of Grant Mahone, of Mt. Morris, Ill. The deceased children were named respectively; Anna M., Lemuel, William Lemuel, Frank, and May. Politically, Mr. Kepner votes the straight Democratic ticket, and in religious matters is, with his estimable wife, a member of the German Baptist Brethren Church. In this he has filled the office of Deacon and was made an Elder. Both he and Mrs. K. have taken an active part in the promotion of religion and education, believing that only by these means are there made worthy and reliable citizens. The father of our subject was Judge Benjamin Kepner of the County Court, who in the discharge of his duties made his home in Juniata County, Pa., for a number of years. The mother, Mrs. Ann (Bolinger) Kepner, was, like her husband, a native of Pennsylvania. The latter spent his last days in Juniata County. The mother removed later to Miami County, Ohio, and died there near the home of her son. Mrs. Kepner is the daughter of John and Hannah (Myers) Bushey; the former a native of Adams County, Pa., and the latter of Juniata County, in the same State, where both spent their last years. The family consisted of eight children, two of whom are living.
Contributed by Carol Parrish - Portrait and Biographical Album of Jo Daviess and Carroll Counties, Illinois (1889), p. 316
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