H. W. Keller, a farmer of Lauderdale County, is a son of Irmi and Virginia H.
(Posey) Keller. His father was born in Abbeville, S. C., in 1808, and the
mother in 1812. They were married in Tipton County, Tenn., in 1832, and of
four children born to them our subject is the only one living. Mrs. Keller
died June 10, 1837, and with her husband belonged to the Methodist Episcopal
Church. After her death Mr. Keller, Sr., took charge of a plantation in
Mississippi, where he met an untimely death at the hands of a negro slave in
1838. In politics he was a Whig. Our subject, H. W. Keller, is of Scotch-
Irish descent on his father’s side, and was born in what is now Lauderdale
County, Tenn., December 13, 1835, just before the organization of the county
from Tipton County. He was raised on a farm by his uncle, Col. H. C. Keller,
as his parents died when he was small. He received a good education.
December 19, 1860, he married Miss Roberta C. Burks, who was born in Haywood
County, Tenn., in February, 1840, and they had eleven children — four sons
and seven daughters — three sons and four daughters are now living. In 1862
Mr. Keller enlisted in Haywood’s company, Seventh Tennessee Cavalry
(Confederate Army), and was in the service until 1863, receiving no wounds.
After the siege of Vicksburg, he returned home and resumed farming. Mr. and
Mrs. Keller belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church South. In politics he is
a Democrat. He owns 400 acres of very rich land, and has been a resident of
Lauderdale County all his life, being well known all over the county, and
greatly respected by all who know him. He is a Mason, having taken the Royal
Arch degree, also a member of the Henning Lodge, K. of H.

Goodspeed’s Biographies of Lauderdale Co., TN