Person:Daniel Keller (5)

According to Lillian's family tree, "The dates are from his gravestone in the Swartz Cemetery near Gerogetown (sic), Floyd Co., Ind. About twenty graves there together belong to his family. In the group are his second wife, his daughter Barbara (Keller) Brookhart, his grandson Lewis Alexander Keller, the first wife of his grandson William Keller, and children of several of his grandsons and granddaughters.

"Taken to Lancaster Co., Pa. after Charles Keller was killed in 1756, Daniel Keller learned to be a miller, mill builder, and boat inventor. He is believed to have been with his brother John in Virginia in 1779. In 1782, both were listed as Freemen (single men) in the tax list of Hempfield Twp., Lancaster Co., Pa. (See PA. ARCHIVES, Third Series, Vol. XVII, p. 812.) They were also in the militia list including men of the same area. Daniel Keller was in the 2nd Class and John Keller in the 4th Class in the 8th Co., 4th Battalion (sic) Lancaster County Militia, Capt. James Beard, June 4, 1782. (See PA. ARCHIVES, Fifth Series, Vol. VII, p. 434.)

"On Jan. 27, 1783, Daniel Keller married Margaret Weller of Rapho Twp., according to records at the First Reformed Church in Lancaster. Bedford Co., Pa. Deed Book B, p. 388, shows Daniel Keller leased two lots in Huntingdon (which now is in Huntingdon Co.) from William Smith, Aug. 7, 1786. He received a land warrant from the Gov. of Pa. for 400 acres of land in Huntingdon Twp., Huntingdon Co., Dec. 6, 1792. The survey of his land is dated Nov. 20, 1799. It was accepted at the Pa. Land Office, Dec. 31, 1804. Deed Book "E", No. 1, p. 41, of Huntongdon Co., Pa., shows Daniel Keller sold a grist mill and a saw mill on the Little Juniata to George Eavy, Oct. 1, 1795. This deed does not mention any land or the boundaries of the ground on which the mills were located. No deed record can be found to show the disposition of the 424 acres and it cannot be traced back from present owners to learn when Daniel Keller sold this land. Margaret (Weller) Keller did not sign the 1795 deed so her death is believed to have been before October 1, 1795.

"On May 25, 1795, U.S. Letters Patent signed by George Washington and Edmund Randolph, were given Daniel Keller for his invention of 'new and useful improvement for propelling boats' (Patent X0000096) - paddle wheel machinery to be used with any kind of power. He built his own boat and had the paddle wheel turned by horses or oxen walking in a circle on deck. The boat was built on the Ohio River and went down to New Orleans on the Mississippi, the first paddle wheel boat on either river. The boat was taken over by French authorities at New Orleans to run in a break in a levee. Daniel Keller and seven hands walked back to Louisville, Ky. Relatives wanted him to sue for the loss of his boat but he did not. This trip was probably made in 1797.

"On Nov. 25, 1799, Daniel Keller received another U.S. Patent, this one for his invention of a boat constructed to descend rapid and obstructed streams with heavy burdens (Patent number X0000260). This patent said he was of Lancaster Co., Pa. Papers Daniel Keller left to his family included his copy of an agreement whereby John Cryder of Huntingdon, Pa., bought from John Harnly of Lancaster Co., Pa., on Jan. 25, 1800, the rights he had received from Daniel Keller by an agreement dated Dec. 2, 1799, to make boats of this design. There is also a handbill dated Jan. 30, 1800 and printed by J.R. Parrington, Huntingdon, Pa., which advertised to the public that John Cryder 'as assignee of Daniel Keller' had for sale at $11 a boat, the right to make such boats.

"About 1798-1800, either in Pa. or Va., Daniel Keller m. 2nd, Margaret (Eckstine) Shipman, a widow with a daughter Sarah Shipman. Also about 1799, Daniel Keller went to Hampshire Co., Va. to live and was in tax lists there in 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803, 1804, 1805...Franklin [where daughter Rosannah was born], now in Mineral Co., West Va., is on the North Branch of the Potomac so it is likely Daniel Keller was building mills and boats in this area.

"On August 4, 1804, 'Daniel Keller of Hampshire County Virginia' sold the rights to make the boats constructed to descend rapid and obstructed streams to Christian Huber, Hempfield Twp., Lancaster Co., Pa. Daniel Keller was in Lancaster to sign this paper. On the same day John Cryder of Huntingdon Co., Pa., and John Hernly of Lancaster Co., Pa., disposed of their interest in this patent to Christian Huber. Daniel Keller was a witness to the signature of John Hernly.

"After his brother John Keller died in Hampshire Co., Va. on April 22, 1805, Daniel Keller made purchases at the sale of his personal property. On April 28, 1806, Daniel Keller was in a tax list in Jefferson Co., Ky. Sometime between these dates he and his family, includ-two (sic) of his three children by his first wife, moved west and may have been accompanied by his sister Mary (Keller) Bowman and two of her children and Joseph Rees(e), a son of his sister Esther. Daniel Keller was in the tax lists of Jefferson Co., Ky. as late as July 20, 1808. A family account of his activities written about 1900 says he devised improvements for a salt evaporator in Kentucky and took only salt as payment. He also moved the brick Tarascon Hill at Shippingport, Ky., when the river bank was cut back too close to it and others said the job could not be done.

"On Feb. 27, 1807, Daniel Keller and his wife Margaret of Jefferson Co., Ky., sold to Peter Bloom of Clark Co., Indiana Territory, part of Lot 24 in Clarksville, Clark Co., which remained to Daniel Keller after he 'had sold a portion to Henry Tait decesed (sic) the following part which will appear by an Endorsement on the Back of a Deed executed by William Sullivan & Ione his wife to Said Keller & Tait Dated the 25th day of September 1779.' This deed record in Clark Co., Ind. Deed Book No. 4, p. 43, contains some obvious errors. It was Henry Fait (Fite) who owned the other part of Lot 24, and the date he and Daniel Keller bought it must have been 1797 or 1799. Clarksville was not laid out in 1779 and neither man could have been there at that date. Henry Fait bought other property from the Sullivans in 1798, he died in 1801, and his widow married Peter Bloom sometime before 1806.

"When Daniel Keller left Jefferson Co., Ky. about 1809, he evidently went to Clark Co., Indiana. 'History of Ohio Falls Cities and Their Counties,' Vol. II, says on page 268 in telling about a mill on the land of Isaac Bowman near Edwardsville, Georgetown Twp., then Clark (now Floyd) County, Indiana: 'It was a treadwheel mill, and was put up by Daniel Keller, who was a millwright and came here among the earliest settlers.' Daniel Keller is also mentioned in a list of those in the township before 1812.

"In October 1819, Daniel Keller's papers show he gave power of attorney to his nephew David Brookhart of Jefferson Co., Ky., to 'ask, demand and receive from Christian Huber' of Lancaster Co., Pa., Daniel Keller's patent for the boats invented 'for the purpose of navigating the River Susquehanna' and to ask, demand and sue for money due Daniel Keller because many people had built boats for which he had not been paid. Daniel Keller was then in Clark Co., Indiana, and was there in the Census of 1820. His older children were married by this time. The 16-26 female in his home must have been his daughter Rosannah and the 45-and-up female must have been his second wife, Margaret (Eckstine) Shipman Keller...

"When his [Daniel Keller, Jr.] first wife died in 1822, his father and step-mother moved to his home to keep house for him and his children. They remained in the household when Daniel Keller (Jr.) m. 2nd, Zeruiah Starr, a daughter of a niece of Daniel Keller (Sr.). Junior and Senior do not seem to have been used in the records of these two men but will be used in this outline at times. A family account of seventy years ago identifies them by calling the father the Inventor, and Daniel Keller (Jr.) the Potter.

"The Census of 1830 of the Daniel Keller household in Floyd Co., Ind. included a 70-80 male, who was Daniel Keller (Sr.) and a 60-70 female who was his 2nd wife. The will of Daniel Keller (Jr.), who died in 1836, provided for his father and step-mother. They lived the remainder of their lives with Zeruiah (Starr) Keller and her family. Daniel Keller made one more attempt to collect money due him on his patents. This is shown by his copy of a power of attorney dated Feb. 12, 1838, given John Stoner of Lancaster Co., Pa., by Daniel Keller and his wife of Floyd Co., Indiana, to recover money due Daniel Keller from the 'individuals or Government' receiving benefit from his models of 'boats working by machinery and also of arks for passing over the rapids of the Susquehanna in the state of Pennsylvania' during the years each patent gave him the rights to his invention - fourteen years in each case.

"John Stoner was probably a relative and his name has furnished the best clue to the identity of Daniel Keller's mother. Incomplete information on the Neff (Neave, Neiff) families in Manor Twp., Lancaster Co., Pa., shows one family included three or four daughters, one of whom married a Keller and one a Stoner (Steiner). Another of the daughters married Abraham Flory and one of their sons married Jacob Bruckhart's sister. Daniel Neff, a son in the same Neff family, had bought land next to the Bruckharts in Hellam Twp., York County. More work is necessary to prove the identities of the daughters who married a Stoner and a Keller and that the latter was Charles Keller. Magdalena and Elizabeth Neff are names for the sisters given by one account, but which married a Keller is not specified. Another account saying one married a Keller and one a Stoner does not give any first names for the sisters.

"Daniel Keller (Sr.) died Nov. 5, 1838, and was buried near the Keller home in the Swartz Meeting House Cemetery. His original patent of 1795 has been in the family of his grandson William Keller and the papers concerning the 1799 patent have been in the family of his grandson Isaac Rees Keller."

From Janet Ariciu, monkey@@getgoin.net on the internet: "Daniel, born 6 May 1753, m. 27 Jan 1783 (1) Margaret Weller, bapt. 15 March 1751 in Trinity Lutheran Church, Lancaster Co., da of John (Reformed) and Barbara(Lutheran) Weller of Rapho Twp., Lancaster County. He married 2nd, Margaret (Eckstine)Shipman."