Person:John Keller (22)

John Bollinger Keller

(Editor's note: The story of Perkins County is a story of its people. One of the outstanding families of the county was the J.B.Keller family whose several members have contributed individually and collectively to the growth and development of this community.

The story of the Keller family is herewith told by one of its members who wrote the following article for her family, but who has generously consented to share the story with us here.)

Story of the John B. Keller Family, written by Mrs. Arthur W. Bell (Bertie Jane KELLER), Kearney, Nebr.

My story of the John Keller family does not date quite as far back as teh pioneer days, yet were among teh early settlers of Perkins County.

Prior to our coming to Grant, the town was located just beyond the northwest edge of its present location. The old town well was where John Steinke dairy barn is now. The town of Grant was moved to its present site about the time the railroad was built, in about 1886-1887. The town was moved so that it would be near the railroad.

Our parents with their six younger children moved from Butler County, Nebraska, in 1894. The three older children stayed in Octavia with relatives.

Father had come to Perkins County a year or so before and bought some land one mile north of Grant. (This is now the Harry Moller farm.)

We brought with us a team of horses, a mule, a roan pony and seven or eight red polled cows, machinery and household goods. It was shipped to Grant by train.

The year 1894 was a very dry one. There was no grain nor feed crops raised, so our cattle were winter fed on the open prairies of buffalo grass.

Father bought 46 head of hogs and paid $3.30 per hundredweight for them. He fed them ground wheat which he bought for $.30 per bushel.

June 9, 1895, looked a little more prosperous to father, as he wrote a letter to his brother saying crops looked good. They had rain and were planting corn all week. He also stated that mother had planted 750 cabbage plants and some sweet potatoes, and people were very much encouraged. However, by December, 1895, father again wrote to his brother that people hadn't raised enough for a living and everyone was talking about the hard times. Cattle was the only thing that brought in any money. We had 150 head of cattle by then, and milked 18 cows for our living. Calves were valued at $10 per head. Father bought and sold cattle.

Mother had a pretty good garden that year. She always raised her own plants such as tomatoe, cabbage, sweet potatoes and celery, in a hot bet, and planted them out at the regular spring planting time. Father had made a reservoir for mother so she could irrigate in dry weather. He used a team of horses to scrape dirt up in ridges and made the ridges oval shaped. He would drive the team back and forth to pack the sides and bottom so ti would hold water. This reservoir was filled with the overflow of a big water supply tank. The water was pumped by the windmill.

Mother brought dandelion seed from Butler County and planted it. We took much good care of those plants so we could have dandelion greens. Today this plant grows wild in many lawns.

Mother always raised most of the vegetables we used in the winter. We would store from 40-50 bushels of potatoes in the cave for winter use. Some years we raised potaotes, and other years we bought them. Vegetables such as cabbage and turnips were placed in deep pits and covered with hay. Some of the cabbage was made into sauerkraut.

Our main meals usually consisted of potatoes, meat and gravy, three times a day.

We always butchered hogs and beeves each year. The Large Bros., George Gossard, and father and his boys, would do their butchering together, and would butcher as many as six to eight hogs and three beeves at one time. We cut and cured the meat and rendered the lard, made sausage, liverwerst and dried beef.

As far back as I can remember we always milked our cows. When there were no separators the milk was strained through cloth into large crocks which we kept in the cave. Every day or two the cream was skimmed from the milk with a large dipper. Then it was put into the large barrel-type churn and churned into butter. The butter was put into a large wooden bowl and the buttermilk was worked out with a paddle. It was then salted and made into about one pound rolls and wrapped in butter paper. Later the folks bought an oblong butter mold which was quite a time saver.

We used butter very sparingly at home so that all the extra butter could be taken to town and traded for food and dry goods.

Mother made cheese from the skimmed milk which she let sour to the clabber stage. She would have clabber milk by the tubs full and processed it into cheese by the rennet tablet method. She molded the cheese into six to ten pound cakes and covered it with cheese cloth until it was ripened and ready to eat. The cheese was also taken to the store and traded for other groceries or family needs.

About twice a week fatehr would drive a team of horses hitched to the spring wagon 19 miles to Ogallala with butter and cheese. He could get $.05 a pound more for the butter than at Grant, and he could buy flour cheaper there. Mother always made good butter and cheese and always got a little premium for it. In those days the storekeeper always put a little sack of candy in with the groceries for good measure.

In the late 1890's a creamery was built in Grant. On the opening day there was a big celebration. Entire families in and around Grant gathered in town for a basket dinner. Some of the prominent men made speeches adn all sorts of fun was enjoyed and races run.

My brother, James Keller, usually won the foot races. In later years, he still won in the fat man's race.

Each day the farmers around Grant hauled their fresh milk to town in tall ten gallon cans to the creamery, where the cream was separated from the milk. They would drive their teams and wagons close to the one side of the building and empty the fresh milk into a tank or vat where it ran through the big separator. Then they would drive around to the other side of the building and fill the empty cans with skimmed milk which came out through a big hose. This milk was fed to pigs and calves.

Later father bought a DeLaval hand separator. He went to Iowa and bought more cows to milk. I don't remember how many he bought, but that summer we milked 40 cows. As soon as we had milked 10 gallons of milk, father would start to separate, and kept on until all the milking and separating was done. Then the cream was cooled and sold.

Mother also baked bread for the town folks. She baked as many as 50 to 75 loaves of bread a day and delivered it in the evening. The bread was hauled to town with a team and spring wagon. Mother sold the bread for $.05 a loaf. Each loaf was a little taller and not quite as long as the $.24 loaf of today. The hotel folks needed 12 to 18 loaves of bread each Tuesday and Saturday. Each sack of flour made about 75 loaves of bread and we paid about $.60 - $.75 for a 50 lb. sack of flour, depending on the quality.

Nothing was ever allowed to go to waste. The flour sacks were made into underclothing for the family. Mother used the string from the flour sacks to make a fancy chain stitch lace around the bottom of the girls' Sunday petticoats.

We always picked up cow chips for fuel, and would gather the dry chips from the prairies by the wagon load and pack them in an old shed for winter use. This was practically all the fuel we ever used in our cook stove, and it made lots of heat.

There were also many heartaches in these days. Our neighbor lost a boy with diptheria. This was a very fatal disease. Therefore, the little funeral procession was not allowed to go through town for fear of spreading the disease. As the procession came from the north to the southeast corner of our land, it turned and went west a mile and then south to where the cemetery now is, to bury their child.

I remember we children went behind the house so as not to come in contact with the germs as the procession passed by.

In September, 1901, our house burned down with everything in it. We then bought the Fahrball house and barn in town and moved them out to the farm. Later, a cattle barn was struck by lightning and burned.

In March, 1908, the big prairie fire which started about eight miles northwest of town, burned the cattle range and 72 head of our cattle, along with another cattle barn. Others lost buildings and stock, too. This was the big fire in which Harold Hill and Roy Miles were quite badly burned. some of the women in town became almost panicky and gathered up their valuables and left their homes and sought safety in the wheat fields south of the railroad track. This fire burned a strip of land two to five miles wide north of the railroad, and from five to six miles to two miles east of Grant. The blackened prairie of this region was strewn with dead animals that had perished in the flames.

Every two years a new baby came into the family until father passed away in January, 1909. He was the father of 19 children. Fourteen of them were living at his passing. He was 57 years old a the time of his death.

Mother continured to live in the home until she married again and moved to Princeton, Nebr., in 1911. She passed away in 1944.

The Keller family always participated in the affairs of their community. Michael owned and managed a general store in Grant for many years, and later helped organize the Farmers Bank. Later this bank became the Farmers National Bank of Grant, of which he was president until he sold his share and moved to Ogallala, where he became president of the First National Bank. He remained president of that bank until his death in 1953.

Fletcher owned and operated a butcher shop in Grant and later served as County Sheriff for two years.

Myles was County Treasurer for two terms and later was appointed to fill the vacany of County Sheriff. He was elected to retain the office for the next term. He was shot while performing his duty, by a riotous character, at Elsie, Nebr., in October 1924, and died a few days later.

James was a carpenter and helped build homes in Grant. He also did work on the high school building. He operated a cafe for several years.

Grant operated the Conoco Bulk Station for 33 year and the Conoco Service Station 21 years. he ahs taken an active interest in all community affairs, and was a member of the Rotary Club, Chamber of Commerce, President of the Grant Volunteer Fire Department and helped with the organization of the Perkins County Community Hospital, serving on its board five years as vice president. He also served as chairman of the latter.

John worked at the Tribune-Sentinel office for 15 years. He was also a volunteer fireman and a substitute mail carrier.

Glenn is a farmer and rancher near Grant.

Three of the Keller daughters taught in the rural schools of Perkins County and the others have been respectable citizens of Grant and Perkins County and received their grade school education in the Grant schools.

Grant, James, Glenn and Ida still live in Grant and the vicinity.

1.   The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. International Genealogical Index (R) (2). (Copyright (c) 1980, 2002, data as of March 6, 2007).
2.   The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Ancestral File (R) (2). (Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998).
3.   The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. International Genealogical Index (R). (Copyright (c) 1980, 2002, data as of April 1, 2007).
4.   Mrs. Arthur W. Bell, Kearney, Nebr. Tribune Sentinel, Grant, Nebraska, Thursday, September 14, 1961.