C. How

As printed in 1901

C. HOW.\RD KEPLER.

One of the best known and most highly respected of the citizens of Franklin township is C. Howard Kepler, who resides on section 5. where he is engaged in general farming and stock raising. He is a native of the county, born May 9. 1846. and is a son of Conrad and Margaret (Lingerfelter) Kepler, both of whom were born in Frederick county. Marvland.

Conrad Kepler, who is numbered among the pioneers of Linn county, was born in 181 1, and continued to reside in his native state until 1843, when he came to this county. Throughout his active business life he followed farming, but now, at the age of ninety years he is living retired at the home of our subject. In the years that have passed, he has taken quite an active part in local affairs, and was called upon to fill many local offices. In early life he was a member of the Lutheran church. InU is now connected with the Methodist Epi.coal church, of which his wife was also an earnest member. She died on the home farm in Franklin township at the age of sixty-nine years.

Six sons and two daughters were born unto Conrad and Margaret Kepler, as follows: John \A'william, who formerly followed farming in Franklin township, but who is now engaged in the wood business in Mt. Wernon; Peter H., a farmer who died in Franklin township: Thomas S., a practicing physician in IMt. Wernon, whose.sketch appears elsewhere in this volume; Charles W., an attorney of Mt. Vernon, who is also represented in this work: Edward M.. who was a soldier in the Civil war and is now engaged in farming in Kansas: Columbus Howard, our subject: Rebecca, wife of George Riley, a farmer of Franklin township, this county-: and Elizabeth, wife of O. B. Cole, a farmer of Jones county, Iowa.

The boyhood and youth of our subject were spent on the home farm in Franklin township, and his elementary- education was obtained in the country schools. Subsecjuently he attended Cornell College, in Mt. Vernon, for a time, but left school at the age of nineteen years and commenced life for himself, renting his father's farm of one hundred and sixty acres. He made his first five hundred dollars in raising wheat which was marketed in Lisbon, and for which he received two dollars and twenty-five cents per bushel. This was about the close of the Civil war when everything was high. For four years he ci.tinued to operate rented land, during which time he accumulated enough capital to purchase fifty acres of his present farm on section 5, Franklin township, to which he subsequcntlj.' added a tract of thirty acres, and just west of his original farm he purchased a tract of one hundred and forty-three acres, and in all has now two hundred and twenty-five acres. He has made many improvements upon his home farm, including the erection of a large barn and cattle sheds, and has remodeled the house fmm garret to cellar.

Mr. Kepler was united in marriage at Mt. Vernon, Iowa, October 2, 1868, with Miss Mary E. Neal, who was born in Ohio, April 11, 1851, and is a daughter of Horace and Maria Turner Neal, natives of New York and Ohio respectively. Her parents were married in Ohio, from which state they came to Iowa in 1834, locating in Mt. Vernon, where the father engaged in the manufacture of harness. Being an excellent workman, and conscientious in all he did, some of the harness which he made over forty years ago is still in use in this county. He died in Marion, Iowa, September 15, 1884, on the sixtieth anniversary of his birth. By his union with Maria Turner there were two children, Myra, who died at the age of thirteen years, and Mary E., wife of our subject.

Lnto Air. and Mrs. Kepler have been born four children, and they have also an adopted daughter. Harry E., born November 28, 1869. was graduated in the civil engineering department of Cornell College, and afterwards took a course in electrical engineering at Des Moines, Iowa, in the Highland Park College, but is now engaged in the telephone business in Aladison, Wisconsin. He was married June 16, 1898, to Grace Ingram, and they have one daughter. Dorothy. Hattie O., born April 1872, has a remarkably fine voice, and was graduated in music from Cornell College. She was married October 25, 1893, to John Howard Jones, a native of Wisconsin, who was graduated at Cornell College, and the law school at Denver, Colorado, and is now an attorney in Chicago. They have one son, Elliert. Alerton T., born September 19, 1875, was married June zy, 1890, to Stella Hogle, a native of Alt, Vernon. Iowa, and is now assisting his father in farming and stock raising on the homestead, Agnes. born February 13, 1881, and Alerritt E.. born July 12, 1889, are also at home.

Since beginning life for himself in the farm rented from his father. Mr. Kepler has devoted much of his time and energies to raising a fine grade of stock. In the beginning, he devoted considerable attention to the handling of horses, but he now gives his attention to the raising of a hue grade of cattle and hogs, his specialty being the breeding of the famous Aberdeen Angus cattle, and he derived his start in this line through 'illial Smith, now deceased, of Mt. Vernon, who secured a number of cattle from the Pierce farm, which is located at Creston. Illinois, about sixty-five miles west of Chicago. A steer belonging to the same stock was sold at the Fat Stock Show in Chicago in 1900 for one dollar and fifty cents per pound, this being the highest price ever paid for an individual steer from the block in the history of the world. Mr. Kepler undoubtedly has some of the finest cattle of this breed in the state of Iowa.

While;Mr. Kepler is one of the most enterprising and public-spirited men in Linn county, and takes an active interest in public affairs, he has never been prevailed to accept any office except that of school director, which he has so acceptably filled for twenty years. Politically he affiliates with the Republican party, and socially with the Star of Bethlehem Lodge, K. P., of Mt. Wernon, and also the Legion of Honor and the Modern Brotherhood of America. He is an active and prominent member of the Alethodist Episcopal church, of Islt. Wernon, of which he has been steward for sixteen years, and has also been in charge of the ushers for a number of years. All who know him hold him in the highest esteem.

As printed in Biographical records of Linn County, Iowa .. (1901). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.