Details About Julius Morton (or Melanchthon) Keeler

name: Wesley Keeler¹ lists Julius's middle name as Morton (p266). FTM CD #171²lists it as Melanchthon (p625). Wesley Keeler gives this name (under a different spelling) to a brother who died several years before Julius was born.

born: 7/16/1824 in Malone, Franklin County, New York.¹

parents:¹

• Elijah Keeler (6/5/1780 in Lanesborough, Berkshire County, MA - 7/21/1844 in Malone, Franklin County, NY)
• Rebecca Cook (8/2/1786 in Charlotte, Chittenden County, VT - 9/3/1824 in Malone, Franklin County, NY)

married: Sylvia M. Marshall (1828-1856) 7/29/1852 in Malone, New York. She died about 1860 in Portland, Oregon.¹

their children:¹

• Percival Julius Keeler (5/16/1853in Forest Grove, Oregon - 4/23/1906 in Buffalo, New York)
• George Lindsay Keeler (8/4/1856 in Portland, Oregon -?)

married: Julia B. Field Lathrop (1838-?) (a widow) 7/3/1862 in New London, Connecticut^1,2,4 She was the daughter of George Lathrop and Marion Murray (Lathrop), of that city.⁴

their children:^1,2,4

• Jessie Maud Keeler (11/2/1865 in Salem, Oregon - after 1938). Married Chester Whitin Lasell 2/4/1886 in Wallingford, PA.
• Lawrence Murray Keeler (8/30/1870 in Orange, NJ - ?). Married Elizabeth Klock Whitin 1905.
• Addison Starr Keeler (7/5/1873 in San Francisco, CA - ?)

biographical notes:

• Captain in a Connecticut Civil War regiment, stationed in Oregon.¹
• There is a family tradition that he rounded the Horn on a sailing ship.⁵ We had assumed that this was the origin of his captaincy, but now trace this to his Civil War service.
• Possible the dastardly first mate named Julius Keeler who tried to sabotage a race around the Horn.⁶   
• Supposed to have helped found Oregon State University and been an early faculty member.^1,4
• Moved to California by 1879.¹
• Founded the town of Keeler on Owens Lake, Inyo County, California.^1,4  
  • Ran a shipping line across the lake before it dried up.³
  • Helped develop (and was possibly a part-owner of) the Cerro Gordo mine nearby.^1,3
  • The Owens Valley History site has posted a passage about him, in the context of a discussion of the Cerro Gordo mine.  (Look in the "Decades of Frustration" section.)

died: 1/28/1890 in San Francisco, California.¹

Source Notes:

¹ Wesley B. Keeler: Keeler Family: Ralph Keeler of Norwalk, CT, and Some of His Descendants. Baltimore: Gateway Press, 1985. Pp. 266-267.

² Family Tree Maker CD #171: Genealogies of Mayflower Families, 1500s-1800s: "John Lazell, of Hingham, Mass., and Some of His Descendants". The Learning Company, 1999. P. 625. Originally published in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register.

³ Robert C. Likes and Glenn R. Day: From This Mountain: A History of Cerro Gordo. Bishop, CA, 1975.

⁴ Hildegard Lasell Watson: At the Edge of the Woods: A Memoir. Various pages.

⁵ Don Keeler, personal communication.

⁶ Linda Grant De Pauw: Seafaring Women. Peacock Press, 1998 (reprint).