Sacramento County
Biographies
ABRAHAM KEITHLY
ABRAM KEITHLY.—A sturdy, successful
and influential pioneer, whose memory is held in highest esteem by all who knew
him, was the late Abram Keithly, the rancher who
passed away at Antelope, in Sacramento County, on November 29, 1918, at the age
of eighty-seven. He was born in the charming old Missouri town of
Wentzville, in St. Charles County, far back in 1831, was reared on a farm and
accompanied his parents, and brothers, John M., Hiram and Wilshire, across the
great plains with ox teams to California, arriving in Placerville in 1850;
there they engaged in placer mining, on Mormon Island and in the vicinity of
Folsom, experiencing varied luck. At the end of the second year, the
parents and brothers returned to the East, bur another brother, Harrison K.,
came West in 1854, by way of Panama,
and joined Abram. He was then conducting a feed and fuel yard at the
corner of Seventh and K Streets, in Sacramento,
where the Capital Hotel now stands, and during the cholera epidemic, both
brothers worked over-time, even in digging graves for those so swiftly carried
off by the awful plague.
In
1860, Abram Keithly bought 233 acres on the
Sacramento River, at Elkhorn Ferry, in order to cut the timber for fuel, and he
sold many hundred cords in his yards at Sacramento. Only
cow-trails existed there then in what is now Natomas
District No. 1000, and the wood had to be transported by river boat. The
flood-waters eddying in the region of this rancho made more and more of a
menace, and being anxious to sell out, Mr. Keithly
traded his ranch for a city block in Carson City, Nev., and moved to that place
in 1864, and there engaged in stock-raising. The following year, he
returned to Sacramento County
and settled on a homestead of 160 acres in the Del Paso grant, near
Antelope. He served for thirty-nine consecutive years as assessor of
American, Center, and Mississippi Townships,
and gave up this office only on account of impaired health, a short while
before his death. He was also road overseer for twenty years in this
district, and he made his efforts in behalf of better highways count. He
adhered to the principles of the Democratic party, and
was a Mason, affiliated with Sacramento
lodge.
Mr.
Keithly married Gertrude Chatterton, who was born in New
Jersey in 1843, daughter of the late John Chatterton, who located
in Sacramento County,
in 1853, coming out here with his family by way of the Isthmus of
Panama. There are many descendants of this famous pioneer
family, but the only survivor of the immediate family is James Chatterton, the
retired rancher of Sacramento. Four
children made up the Keithly family. Mary E.,
born in 1862, resides at Keithly rancho, and owns a
part of it. Louise, born in 1864, is the wife of James Denham, and resides
in Kings County,
a rancher near Hanford, having nine
children. William U., who was born on April 2, 1867, is a rancher at
home. James D. was born on July 25, 1879, and is also at home, on the
ranch, where the four children have been reared. They attended the Center Union
school, and their father served as a trustee for
forty-five consecutive years. The sons have successfully carried on
general farming operations for years, and formerly were extensive grain-raisers
in the Grant, leasing hundreds of acres. They are also owners of desirable
oil property in Kern County.
Transcribed 7-02-07
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Reed, G.
Walter, History of Sacramento County,
California With Biographical Sketches, Pages 931-932. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.
© 2007 Marilyn R. Pankey.