My husband Stephen’s family came from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland to Ohio in the first half of the 19th Century. They settled in Clarke, Miami, and Knox counties. They farmed the land, preached the gospel, and educated their children.
The first of the Kellers to come west was Jacob, son of Henry, who walked from Pennsylvania to Ohio in 1800, three years before statehood. He returned from this sojourn in 1806. While he was there, his father, Henry, came by horseback to Ohio looking for land.
By 1808 the family loaded up and traveled by wagon for a four-week trip to Ohio, settling in Fairfield County. Over time many family members also moved, including his son Benjamin. Henry bought 1000 acres of land through the years, later selling some of it to his children.
When my husband’s family came to Knox County, it was a rugged, wooded wilderness populated with many game animals, dangerous bears, and wolves. Native Americans hunted and lived in this region. While clashes occurred between the settlers and native people, many interacted more peacefully. The forest gave way to farms as the settlers cleared the land, and native people were eventually forcibly removed to Oklahoma territory by the United States government.
Benjamin’s son Henry was born in 1829 in Pike Township, Knox County, possibly near the location of his land. Henry was a minister overseeing the Owl Creek Church of the Brethren for twenty-five years. Two maps dated 1871 and 1896 show a school located on the corners of Henry’s land. It appears that the maps represent two different schools from two different dates. Note the location of Keller properties in the upper left-hand corner of each map.
1871 Pike Township, Knox County, Ohio, Atlas of Knox County, Ohio
1896 Pike Township, Knox County, Ohio, Knox County Atlas
Henry’s son Daniel was born in Pike Township in 1851. Family stories have long been shared naming Daniel as a teacher. He seems to be the first teacher of the Keller family though one might argue that the ministers in the family were teachers of a kind. Most family members were German Baptist Brethren or Mennonites. In 1880 Daniel Keller appeared with his first wife Elnora and their first child Walter in the home of his father Henry on the Pike Township, Knox County, Ohio, US Federal Census. Seeing that the census taker recorded Daniel as a school teacher was exciting.
1880 United States Census for Daniel Keller, Pike, Knox Ohio
My husband keeps a photo of his great-grandfather Daniel and his second wife, Ardella, in our home on a lovely curly maple table his father made. Sitting alongside is Daniel’s school handbell, a true family heirloom.
Collection of Stephen Studebaker
Another family heirloom is the 1910 student souvenir book given to Daniel’s daughter Lola by her teacher G. S. Strausbaugh. This wonderful little book had a photograph of the teacher on the cover, inspirational drawings and poems, and Lola’s final report card for the year.
Collection of Stephen Studebaker
Lola, three of her siblings, and other relatives and neighbors were included in the pupil list. Lola was about fifteen or sixteen when this book was given to her. Perhaps the children attended one of the schools illustrated on the maps.
Collection of Stephen Studebaker
Early class photo with G.S. Strausbaugh and Keller children, collection of Stephen Studebaker
Three of Daniel’s six children were educators at some point. His oldest son Walter was listed as a teacher on the 1910 census. His sister Chloe had a long career as an educator. Walter’s half-sister, Lola, is described by her granddaughter Nancy as having been a teacher for a short time before her marriage in 1915. No record of this exists.
Early photo of Lola, Walter, Mabel, and Ada, collection of Stephen Studebaker
Chloe started as a public school teacher, recorded in the 1910 census. She continued in education, probably up to the time of her retirement. Chloe completed three years of college and served as a principal in Lorain, a city in northern Ohio, on Lake Erie. The first record of her in this position is in the 1920 census. Chloe lived and worked here when a terrible tornado hit Lorain in 1924. 78 lives were lost, 500 homes were destroyed, and 7000 were homeless.
Years of successive city directories show her as a principal at Brownell Elementary School, the final record in 1937. She declared herself retired on the 1940 census in Pinellas County, Florida.
Aerial view looking north, 1908-1918, Lorain, Ohio. Wikimedia Commons
Ultimately Daniel Keller’s granddaughter Ruth met Eldon, a young man who attended Manchester College, their church school in Indiana. When her beau graduated from college, he found a job teaching vocational agriculture at Dixon Township High School in Preble County, Ohio. We think he took this job because it was close to Ruth, who was studying at the Indiana Institute of Art. When Ruth graduated, she stayed at her alma mater as an instructor. In later years, Eldon was a Sunday school teacher and deacon in the New Carlisle Church of the Brethren.
Eldon Studebaker and Ruth Workman Studebaker, collection of Stephen Studebaker
Three of Ruth and Eldon’s four children became involved in education. Nancy taught German and was a high school librarian for many years. Dan served on his hometown school board for twenty-four years. Stephen was a teacher for 35 years. Twenty-three of those years were spent teaching on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona. Steve’s daughter, Stephanie, has worked in education in many capacities. Ted found another path, working with people as a counselor.
