Ewald
Henry Keller
The
Denison City Directory for 1901
carried this listing: "Keller, Ewald H.,
carriages, buggies, phaetons,
harness, saddles, 404 West Main ... Residence in
Fort Worth, Texas.
Benjamin F.
Shepherd, manager." Some years later, a pictorial
book, Industrial
Denison, included a
photograph with this caption: ""Depository No. 2,
E. H. Keller."
The 1900 Census listed Benjamin Franklin "Frank"
Shepherd (1858–1943)
as "merchant, buggies." He and his wife Eva lived
at 700 West Gandy
Street. These references suggest that Ewald
Keller's Denison
"repository" was a short-lived branch of his main
business at his
home city, Fort Worth.
"Depository
No.
2, E. H. Keller."
Robinson, Frank M., comp. Industrial Denison.
[N.p.]: Means-Moore Co., 1901. Page 35.
The
Keller outlet at 404 West Main
Street perhaps was in operation as early as 1900
and closed before
1909, when
the photo was published. The 1907 Denison City
Directory no longer
listed the
Keller business and indicated that Frank Shepherd
had formed a
partnership with
Harry W. Lingo, "Lingo & Shepherd, broker."
There
is no evidence that Ewald H.
Keller ever lived in Denison, but Shepherd spent
most of his adult life
there,
as a merchandise broker, real estate agent, and
insurance agent. Even
so, to
understand the significance of the Keller
operation in Denison, it is
useful to
have some background about Ewald's life and his
role in the changing
face of
transportation in this period in North Texas.
No
man of his age and
opportunities has had a more wonderfully
successful career than has
Ewald H.
Keller, the prosperous carriage manufacturer of
Fort Worth, Texas.
He
was born in Texas, October 22,
1855. His father, Joseph Keller, was a native of
Prussia, Germany, from
whence
he came to Texas, where he and his wife became the
parents of two
children,
Ewald H. and Emma Ida. The Kellers were a
prominent family in the old
country.
Several of Joseph Keller's relatives were officers
of high rank in the
Prussian
army.
Ewald
H. Keller had been attending
school only a short time when the Civil War broke
out, and during the
war his
schooling was suspended, but, boy as he was, his
pluck and energy
asserted
themselves, and he employed his time selling
newspapers, often making
$25 a
week in this way. He spent two and a half years
working in a bakery.
After that
he began learning the carriage and blacksmith
trade under the
instruction of W.
H. Williams, of Galveston. There he served an
apprenticeship of three
years,
paying all his expenses except board with money he
had saved while
selling
papers. Then for one year he worked at the same
place and received
small wages.
Having completed his trade, he started for Fort
Worth via Dallas, and
from
Dallas he completed the journey on foot, his means
being exhausted.
This was in
1873. Here he secured work at his trade, at one
dollar a day, and
continued
thus employed one year, but as his salary was
small he could save
nothing, so
he sold a bicycle he had traded for in Galveston,
and with the money
thus
obtained left the town.
Next
we find him at Calvert,
Texas, where he was employed by Gillam &
Stanger until March
1875. He began
work for them at $2.50 per day, and was receiving
$4 at the time he
left and
went to Austin. At Austin, however, the only
position he could obtain
was at $7
per week, and after he had worked there a year he
was discharged,
because the
proprietors said they did not want a boy who could
do finer work than
they
could. At this juncture he resolved to try his
fortunes in Fort Worth
again,
and accordingly came hither and resumed work for
his old employer, Mr.
Williams, at $2.50 a day. He remained with him
until 1876, when the
firm
failed, and he lost every dollar of his savings he
had left in the
hands of his
employer. Again we find him stranded, but with
courage undaunted. He
had
intended to go into business for himself had not
his savings been lost.
About
this time, a friend offered
him a position at Galveston as bookkeeper, at $75
per month. He replied
that
his desire was to go into business at Fort Worth.
The friend asked the
sum
needed and was told that $75 would be sufficient.
He sent him $100. Mr.
Keller
offered his note for the amount, but his friend
refused to accept it,
saying
his word was enough. With this $100 he began
business on the corner of
Tenth
and Main streets, where he purchased a lot of
Captain A. M. Doggett for
$500,
on two years' time. With the cash on hand he
purchased lumber to build
his
shop, hauling the lumber from Dallas with an ox
team. The shop he built
was
twenty feet square. His first stock of material
was purchased from
Wadsworth,
Griffith & Company, hardware dealers of
Dallas, on sixty days'
time. He
himself carried the brick and mortar with which to
build his forge, and
he gave
his note to the brick mason for doing the work.
The sum was $7. His
promptness
and the quality of his work were his best
advertisements, and his
business
prospered from the start.
In 1884, on account
of failing
health, Mr. Keller sought a change of climate
and went to California.
He felt,
however, that Fort Worth held his best
prospects, so he returned to
Texas in
May, 1889, and leased the ground where he now
does business. He now
owns the
lot, 100 x 120 feet, situated on the corner of
Throckmorton and West
Second streets,
which is nearly covered with shops and storage
rooms, the property
being valued
at $14,500. In 1890 he sold his first shop. That
same year he began
handling
the Columbus buggies and carriages, and is now
[1895] the only dealer
in these
celebrated vehicles at Fort Worth. Indeed, his
establishment leads in
the
manufacture and sale of spring-wagons, buggies,
carriages, harness,
etc., at
this place. He employs from thirteen to
thirty-two hands in conducting
his
business.
 Left image; E.H.
Keller-Ft.
Worth, Texas
During
his comparatively brief business
career, Mr. Keller has accumulated considerable
property. He has an
elegant
residence on Second and Burnett streets, valued
at $14,000, and owns
other
property, which he rents. He is president of the
Mutual Building and
Loan
Association, a director in the Gazette Building
and Loan Association,
and is
also a director in the Farmers' National Bank.
In 1892 he attended the
Southern
Carriage Building Association, held at Atlanta,
Georgia, and was chosen
second
vice president of the association. He is now
first vice president. It
is his
desire to merge this organization into the
National Carriage Builders'
Association, which he believes will be mutually
beneficial.
Mr.
Keller is recognized in Fort
Worth as one of the leading and influential
citizens. His enterprise
and
energy, and well-known character [sic] for
honesty and integrity have
given him
a reputation second to none in this city.
Broad-minded and
public-spirited, he
is always found on the progressive side of all
public questions, and is
always
ready to lend his aid and influence to all
movements calculated in
advance the
interests of his adopted city.
E.
H. Keller Letterhead
January 9, 1904
Mr.
Keller was married March 24,
1880, to Miss Carrie M. Turner, daughter of
Charles Turner, and a
granddaughter
of Captain E. M. Doggett. Her father was one of
the first settlers of
Fort
Worth. They have three children: Carrie Ida, Emma
Corinne, and Ewald
H., Jr.
He
and his wife are members of the
Episcopal Church, and are liberal supporters of
the same. He is a
prominent
Mason and a member of all the branches of Masonry,
including Knights
Templar,
and is Captain General of Fort Worth Commandery,
No. 19. He is also a
member of
the Knight and Ladies of Honor, and of the Sons of
Herman.
Source: History
of Texas, Together with a Biographical History
of Tarrant and
Parker Counties (Chicago: The Lewis
Publishing Company, 1895).
"As the
nineteenth century
ended, the story of five men is the story of
Fort Worth—and of America
in
general.... [One of them,] Ewald Henry Keller
had come to Fort Worth as
a
blacksmith in 1873. In 1876 he opened a stable.
Then he began making
carriages,
wagons, and buggies.... By 1914 Ewald Henry
Keller had converted his
wagon
works to an auto works, repairing, upholstering,
and painting horseless
carriages."
Left; E. H.
Keller- Fort Worth 1914
Source:
Excerpt
from "Hometown by Handlebar," blog post called
"Once Upon a
Flivver Fever (Part 1): Ramblers and Ropers,"
posted January 12, 2013.
Accessed at http://hometownbyhandlebar.com/?p=4650
* * * * *
Singer
of Rare Ability
Miss
Carolyn
Keller Wins Her McKinney Hearers
Miss
Carolyn Keller [1883–1974],
who sang the bridal song at the
Clifton-Speight wedding here Wednesday afternoon, is
a young singer of
rare
ability. She touched her listeners with her tender
and sympathetic
interpretation of the song "All for You," and with
the graceful swing
carolled out her deep, rich, limpid notes like
another wood bird
calling to its
mate. Miss Keller looks toward artistic attainments
and promises a rich
future.
She does her first concert work on Monday night next
at Stephenville,
Texas.
Concerning
her, the Fort Worth Record of a few
days since,
said: "Miss Carolyn Keller, daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
E. H. Keller, is
one
of Fort Worth's most talented singers. After
studying under Professor
David
Ross of Toronto, she took a two years' course under
Saenger of New York
City
and expects to leave next month to resume her study
under this great
artist."
Miss
Keller has the distinguished
honor of being the singer of the evening at the
banquet at the Oriental
Hotel
at Dallas, Oct. 21, given in honor of General
Atterson of Nashville,
Tenn.
[Source: Weekly
Democrat-Gazette
(McKinney, Tex.), October 31, 1907]
Biography Index
Susan Hawkins
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