NELSON KECK, a
pioneer settler of Farmer’s Creek and a
prominent farmer of Montague County, Texas,
is a native of the “Hoosier State.”
Mr. Keck was born
in Davis County, Indiana, December 16, 1842;
son of Philip and Orpha (Cooch) Keck, the
former a native of Tennessee, the latter of
Indiana.
Philip Keck was a
son of a Tennessee farmer. When a youth of
eighteen, he went north to Indiana, where he
subsequently married and settled on a farm,
and where he carried on agricultural
pursuits for many years. During the days of
“general muster” he was captain of a
company. Later in life he rented his farm
and engaged in merchandising at Teck Church,
and was thus occupied up to the time of his
death. Politically he was first a Whig and
afterward a Republican. While he filled
several local positions, such as township
trustee, etc., he never aspired to public or
official life. He was a consistent member of
the Christian church, as also was his wife;
and both were highly esteemed by all who
knew them. Some years after his death, she
became the wife of A. Storms, a farmer. She
died in 1895. The children of her first
marriage are: Alford of Kansas, John
and Christian of Oklahoma, Nelson
Wilson of Oklahoma, and Amanda, Mary A., and
Lurinda. By her second marriage there are
two children: Alice and Laura.
Nelson Keck was
reared to honest toil on the farm and had
only limited educational advantages. In
August 1862, he enlisted in Company C,
Ninety-first Indiana Volunteer Infantry,
under Colonel John Marion, and was assigned
to the Army of the Cumberland for three
years, or during the war, and he remained in
the service until the war was over. While he
was a participant in many hotly contested
fights and endured many hardships incident
to army life, he was never wounded or
captured. At the time of General Lee’s
surrender, Mr. Keck was at Raleigh, North
Carolina, and July 3, 1865, he received an
honorable discharge at Indianapolis, after
which he returned home.
In
1867 he made a prospecting trip to some of
the western country and to northern Texas,
and so well pleased was he witht the latter
place that he following year he returned and
has since made it his home. He settled on
school land, in true pioneer style began the
making of a farm, and here he has since
lived and labored, today being in the
enjoyment of a competency as the result of
his years of toil. When the land was placed
on the market in 1886, he bought four
hundred and forty acres, chiefly timber
land. For some time after his settlement
here, the Indians were hostile, making
frequent raids through the country, stealing
stock, but they never molested his property.
As the Indians stole the horses, the early
settlers were compelled to do their farming
with ox teams, and some of their mills were
run by oxen. Mr. Keck had his milling done
at Marysville, twenty-five miles away, and
Sherman and Denison, seventy miles distant,
were his market places. There was a variety
and abundance of game here then, including
deer and turkeys, and the frontier life had
its pleasures as well as its hardships.
While his farming is now diversified, Mr.
Keck makes a specialty of corn and cotton,
and at present is experimenting with
alfalfa.
Both Mr. Keck and
his wife are worthy members of the
Christian church. Politically he is a
Republican.
Mr. Keck married,
in 1867, Miss Catherine Woodruff, a native
of Davis [Daviess] County, Indiana, born
June 30, 1846, daughter of John and Anna
(Holt) Woodruff. The Woodruff family went
from North Carolina to Indiana at an early
day and were among the pioneers of Davis
County. John Woodruff, a prominent and
highly respected farmer of Davis County,
is still living, having reached a ripe old
age. His children are: Mrs. Susan Mathews,
Mrs. Catherine Keck, Sarah J., Mrs.
Candiss Herrington and Hester. Mr. And
Mrs. Keck have ten children, namely:
Newton, the eldest, a native of Indiana,
the others having been born in Texas;
Lilburn and Oloway, farmers in Texas;
Elbert, of Oklahoma; John W., of Indian
Territory; Viola, wife of C. Hanson; Mrs.
Pearly Kemp; Bessie and Keely, at home,
and Armetta, who died in August, 1904, at
the age of eleven years.
[Source: B. B.
Paddock, History and Biographical
Record of North and West Texas (Chicago:
Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), Vol. II, pp.
124-125.]
Biography Index
Susan Hawkins
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