Mrs. Harriet M. Kellogg

The owner and proprietor of one of the farms in Benton township, Fremont county, Iowa, is Mrs. Harriet M. Kellog, the subject of this sketch.  She is the widow of one of the early settlers of this township, Samuel J. M. Kellogg, who was born in Newington, Hartford county, Connecticut, and died at Percival, Fremont county, Iowa, January 29 , 1883, in the sixty first year of his age.  Samuel J. M. Kellogg came to Iowa in 1857 and settled at Gaston, now Percival, where he bought eleven hundred acres of land in Benton township, Fremont county.  Until the time of his death he engaged in farming, although he did not till but one hundred and sixty acres himself, having suitable tenants upon different farms.  Mr. Kellogg was a Republican in his political belief.  He was a member of the Congregational church and was a man who was interested in religious work.

On March 23, 1858, occurred the marriage of Samuel Kellogg to Miss Harriet M. Rogers, who was born in Waterford, Connecticut, although she was reared in New London, that state.  She was the daughter of Dr. James Rogers and Elizabeth (Latimer) Rogers, names known all through New England.  They reared three daughters and two sons.  One of the sons died at the age of twenty-two years.  The survivors are one son, two daughters and Mrs. Kellogg.  Dr. Rogers died in New London, Connecticut, January 1, 1851, where he had been a successful physician for many years.  He was closely identified with the improvement of New London and was respected in all that locality.  His lamented death was caused by accident, when he was but sixty-three years old.  He was a lineal descendant of the martyr John Rogers, while the mother of Mrs. Kellogg was one of the Latimers, a daughter of Pickett and Eunice (Douglass) Latimer.  Mr. Latimer was connected with the West India trade and was a relative of the well-known family of Saltonstall.  His father was a man of wealth, and his fine brick mansion on the outskirts of New London was burned by Benedict Arnold and the British soldiers, September 6, 1781, when New London was laid in ashes.  The people of New London had taken their most valuable possessions there for safe keeping.  Every article was burned.  The aged mother of Mrs. Kellogg died in Hartford,  Connecticut in 1878.

Mrs. Kellogg has two sons, Samuel L. is a farmer in Percival, where he resides upon a fine farm with wife and four children; Roger W. resides on the farm of eighty acres upon which his mother settled after her husband's death.  Mrs. Kellogg was educated at Mount Holyoke College at South Hadley, Massachusetts.  Her sons have attended college, Samuel L. in Oskaloosa and Tabor and Roger W. in Tabor and Simpson Colleges.

Christopher Keyser is living a retired life on his large farm on section thirty in Benton township, Fremont county.  He was born in Campbell county, West Virginia, February 10, 1832.  His father is an octogenarian and is identified with agricultural pursuits in Sidney township, Fremont county.  Henry Keyser was reared to farm life in West Virginia until sixteen years of age, when he acompanied his parents on their removal to Missouri in 1848, making the journey by way of the water route.  In the family were six sons and one daughter was born to them in Missouri.  The father purchased a farm in that state and Christopher continued to aid in its cultivation until he had attained his nineteenth year, when in the fall of 1889 he left home and came to Iowa, one hundred miles north of his Missouri home.  He worked by the month, hunted, fished and trapped, having become familiar with those lines of work in Virginia.  He continued to reside in this locality with his uncles until his father sold his Missouri property and removed to Fremont county, following his two sons, Christopher and his younger brother, Samuel, who had previously come to Iowa, but the latter is now a resident of Kansas.

Mr. Keyser, of this review, was married on the 10th of October, 1851, to Olivia L. Lambert, of Benton township, Fremont county, who was born in Kentucky, July 13, 1837 and was then fifteen years of age.  Their union has been blessed with the following children, of whom nine are now living: Elizabeth, wife of  S. S. Orr, an extensive farmer of this locality;  S. J., a farmer and business man of Percival, who is married and has eight children and has lost two; Abigail, who died at the age of thirteen years; Elvira, who became the wife of Paul Hineline and died leaving four children; Emma, who died at the age of eighteen years; C. C. a farmer of Benton township, who is married; Eddie, who is living on his farm in Benton township and has five children; W. W., who resides on a part of his father's farm and is married and has one daughter; Emma, who died at the age of eighteen years; Louisa, wife of Ambrose Parkerson, a merchant of Percival, by whom she has one son; Hannah J., wife of William Wood, of Benton township, and they have four children; Maggie, wife of Bert O'Connor, who operates a part of his father's farm and by whom she has one son; and Freddie, who is at home unmarried and assists in the operation of the home farm and also carries on business in Percival.

Mr. Keyser is the owner of one thousand acres of the rich bottom land of Fremont county, worth not less than forty dollars per acre, and he keeps stock enough to consume all of the products of the farm, carrying on that line of business on an extensive scale.  He raises fine red polled cattle, having a number of thoroughbreds.  He also has good grades of horses, mules and jacks to the number of two hundred and has a valuable flock of Shropshire sheep.  He has about five hundred acres planted to corn, yielding twenty thousand bushels, and this he feeds to his stock.  He is a most enterprising, progressive and practical farmer, and his business has brought to him very gratifying success.  He was a man of great strength and endurance and has been actively concerned in the control of his farm until recent years, when rheumatism forced him to relegate the more arduous duties of farm life to others.  In 1897 he erected his present large and commodious residence, which stands within twenty rods of the old home in which his marriage was celebrated.  He is a Republican in politics and has been township trustee.  His wife is a member of the Methodist church.  They were the first white people married in the county, Rev. John Todd performing the ceremony.  From the period of early pioneer development they have been witnesses of the growth and progress of this portion of the state and have done all in their power to promote its advancement.  As highly esteemed people and worth early settlers they well deserve representation in this volume.