Charles W. Kepler

As printed in 1901

[This passage is too damaged in the scanned book to reproduce. See the original book.]

At the battle of Corinth, October 3, 1862, he was severely wounded in the left high and was with difficulty saved from capture and death by the heroism of John R. McClaskey, of his company, who stopped the flow of blood and brought him from the field, at the risk of his life. After his recovery he was commissioned second lieutenant February 2, 1863, and served as such until he was promoted captain of Company A. January 9, 1865.

[This passage is too damaged in the scanned book to reproduce. See the original book.]

Mr. Kepler during the war took up the study of law under the guidance and direction of General Belknap, an able lawyer, who afterwards was appointed secretary of war by President Grant.

A few years after his return to Mount Vernon, he engaged in the practice of law and has continued in the practice ever since. He has met with marked success in his chosen profession and has won a merited place among the leading attorneys of the state, and enjoys a large and lucrative practice.

On the 26th day- of April, 1900, he was appointed by Leslie M. Shaw, Governor of Iowa, a member of the Commission for the Erection of Monuments on the battlefield of Shiloh, Tennessee.

On the 6th of November, 1866, at Lisbon, Mr. Kepler married Miss Mary Adaline McClaskey, who was Irarn in Montgomery county, Indiana, June 6, 1849. Her father, David McClaskey, was born in Henry county, Kentucky, November 27, 1814, and was a son of Isaac McClaskey, a native of Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, and a grandson of James McClaskey, who came to this country from Ireland when a young man, and first settled in Pennsylvania, but later removed to Kentucky in 1794, at which time his son Isaac was ten years of age. The latter married liss Sarah Goodsil, and in 1 8 18 they removed to Washington county. Indiana, where he cleared and improved a farm. There he died in 1861 and his wife passed away in 1846. They had eight children, of whom David was fifth in order of birth. He was reared and educated in Indiana, and in February, 1836, wedded Miss Mary Neely, who was born in Washington county, West Virginia, November 13, 1818, and was a daughter of William B. and Judith (Poole) Neely, natives of Wirginia and North Carolina respectively.

The year following the marriage David McClaskey removed to Montgomery county Indiana, where he owned and operated a farm until coming to Iowa in 1851. He purchased a farm in Pioneer township, Cedar county, where he made his home until 1883, when he removed to Mount Vernon. Politically he was first a Whig and later a Republican, and religiously both he and his wife were faithful, and consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He died January 27, 1889, at Mt. Vernon, Iowa, and his wife passed away December 4, 1888, their remains being interred at Mount Vernon.

In their family were eight children, namely: Martha E., Judith M., John R. (the one who so gallantly assisted in carrying our subject off the field at the battle of Corinth, and who participated in all of the engagements in which his company took part, and lost a limb at Nickajack Creek, in front of Atlanta), Isaac M., Sarah Jane, Margaret K., Mary x decline (wife of our subject), and Era A.

They were all educated at Cornell College, and the father completed his education at De Pauw University, Indiana.

Both Irs. Kepler's paternal grandfather. James McClaskey, and paternal great-grandfather.

— Xeelv. were soldiers of the Revolutionary war, under General Washington, the former being captain of the company in which President McKinley's grandfather served.

Mr. and Mrs. Kepler have two children, Hattie May, at home with her parents, and who is a graduate of the Musical Department of Cornell College, and Louis Howard, a graduate of Cornell College, who is now reading law in his father's office, but who intends entering a law school in the fall of 1901.

Socially Mr. Kepler is a member of the Knights of Pythias Lodge, Mount Vernon, W. C. Dimmitt Post, Grand Army of the Republic, and the Military Order of the Loyal Legion. He has twice been elected president of the 13th Iowa Regimental Association, and twice elected secretary of Crocker’s Iowa Brigade, an outline history of which appears in the sketch of Col. H. H. Rood, on another page of this work, and is a member of the board of trustees of Cornell College and of the Methodist church for twenty years. Pre-eminently public-spirited and progressive, he takes quite an active and influential part in the public affairs of his own town and county, and in his early life his fellow citizens called upon him frequently to fill many of the local offices of the town, such as mayor, councilman, etc. As a citizen he ever stands ready to discharge any duty devoting upon him, and his patriotism has been manifested in days of peace as well as in times of war.

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.