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Joseph William Kepler
b.18 Jun 1842 Milton, Northumberland, Pennsylvania, USA
d.7 Jun 1926 Wilmette, Cook, Illinois, USA
Family tree▼ (edit)
m. 4 Mar 1830
Facts and Events
[edit] Personal History[edit] Joseph William "Uncle Bill" Kepler (1842-1926)JW Kepler was a successful Cincinnati, Evanston, and Chicago businessman. One of his business interests was an "Ice Storage Warehouse" located at 205 East Grand Ave. in Chicago. It was close to Lake Michigan so ice could be "harvested" from the lake in the winter and placed in storage for use in "ice boxes", since electric refrigeration technology was not introduced until the 1920's. His grand-nephew Joseph "Joe" Kepler Murdock (1898-1985) remembers playing in the mountains of sawdust there that was used for insulation before the ice was hauled off by horse and buggy to customers. This warehouse was passed down to his grand-nephews Joseph Kepler and Eugene Wright Murdock (1892 - 1973) where they started the Murdock Brothers Printing Company where they worked their whole careers. He was married to Bessie Betterton Kepler (1850-1896) for many years until she died at age 46 without having had any children. Three years later he was finally persuaded by his younger brother who was a printer in New York City, Oscar Forrest Kepler (1831-1899), to pursue Martha King. Martha was a never-married, same-age, woman from a well-off family in Pittsburgh, although family legend says that her two brothers, for whom she was their trust-executrix, were against the arrangement. He married Martha King (1843-1926) in 1899 when they were both about 56 years old. Martha and JW Kepler were married for 27 years until JW Kepler died two months before Martha in 1926. They lived in their home at 1022 Greenwood Blvd, Evanston, Illinois. They became quite fond of a pair of JWK's grand-nephews, Joseph and Eugene Murdock, and intended to leave a portion of their estate to them. Joseph Murdock liked JW Kepler so much during his youth in Chicago that he changed his name from Joseph "Muhlke" Murdock (after his father's law partner) to Joseph "Kepler" Murdock, after his beloved "Uncle Bill". Martha's father, Robert Hays King (abt. 1813 - 1895), was quite wealthy and she was named the executrix of his estate by his will. She was one of only three of his children to survive him at death, along with his only two sons William Duff King and Alexander Milford King. Based on her father's obituary, will, and JW Kepler's family legend, RH King was extremely successful and left an intricate will for which he appointed his daughter, Martha, to be it's executrix. Based on the will, his two surviving sons, WD and AM King, apparently had financial problems and debts and Martha was assigned to place their one third portions in trust and to pay them interest while protecting the principle from their debtors. They each had two sons that were called out by name in the will who also received specific payments to be made by Martha. After Martha's death, as the last surviving child of RH King, her heirs were to receive her portion who were known to be nephews of her husband, Joseph and Eugene Murdock. However, family legend says that surviving grandsons of RH King claimed her estate and succeeded. They also claimed a warehouse building at 205 East Grand Ave. in Chicago that JW Kepler bought before he married Martha, but Joseph and Eugene's mother, Helen Jeanette Wright (1864 - 1951), succeeded in keeping it in the family and it was passed down to her sons where they created Murdock Brothers Printing based on printing knowledge from JW Kepler's brother, Oscar Forrest Kepler, a printer in New York, who introduced Martha to JW Kepler. [edit] Historical ContextTwo notable dates in history add perspective to the interesting story of RH King's wealth and his will. JW Kepler's family legend presumed that RH King's wealth was somehow connected to the Mellon family, but research was not found to confirm that. However, Mellon Bank was founded in 1869, a financial boom-time in Pittsburgh, so as well-connected as RH King was in that period, achieving great wealth seems reasonable. On the flip side, however, Martha died in 1926, during the roaring 20's and just 3 years before the crash of 1929, so one can imagine Martha's then-wealth, but also the prospects for such wealth a short time later. [edit] Civil War ServiceJW Kepler served in the Civil War for 9 months in winter 1862 (age 19). Joseph Murdock, his grand-nephew, remembered that his Uncle Bill refused to tell him about the violence but related that he "remembered sleeping on the frozen ground night after night after night" and that he was the youngest of his rank in the whole army. The 131st Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment Company "A" that was organized at Camp Curtin near Harrisburg.
Mustered-in August 18, 1862 (age 19), was promoted from 2nd to 1st Lt., April 1, 1863, and mustered-out with the Company, May 23, 1863. Battles:
Casualties: The regiment lost a total of 83 men during service; 2 officers and 36 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded, 1 officer and 44 enlisted men died of disease. Joseph Kepler Murdock (1898 - 1985), his grand-nephew, remembered that his "Uncle Bill" had bad memory problems in his old age (d. age 84), which sounded like Alzheimer's disease as it is now known, which runs in the Kepler/Murdock family. [edit] Sources
WikiTree.com Page [1] Image Gallery
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