Biography of Jacob Kepler, pages 217 / 218.  History of Northeast Indiana; 
LaGrange, Steuben, Noble, and DeKalb Counties, Vol. II, under the editorial 
supervision of Ira Ford, Orville Stevens, William H. McEwen, and William H.  
McIntosh.  The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago and New York, 1920.

   Jacob Kepler.  The Keplers moved into Franklin Township of DeKalb County 
over eighty years ago. As a family the name has been identified with some of 
the largest land holdings in DeKalb and Steuben County, and throughout this 
region the name is synonymous with prosperity, good business management and 
undoubted thrift and hard work.
   Jacob Kepler, a son of the original settler in DeKalb County, has for 
many years owned and worked a large and complete farm in Otsego Township, 
part of which is in the Village of Hamilton, where he resides.
   His father, Samuel Kepler, was born in Stark County, Ohio, October 30, 
1814, a son of John Kepler.  Samuel Kepler in the fall of 1837 settled on 
section 21 of Franklin Township in DeKalb County.  He entered land in that 
section and in section 28.  He went there with practically no capital, but 
was young, willing to work hard and was ambitious, and succeeded much 
above the average.  His enterprise took several different directions.  
About 1853 he built the first grist mill in the township, on Fish Creek, 
and that mill was fulfilling its functions in grinding local grain for 
over thirty years.   Samuel Kepler was one of the largest wheat growers in 
Northeast Indiana.  He had a genius for acquiring extensive tracts of land, 
and at the time of his death, which occurred March 19, 1862, at the age of 
forty-seven, he owned over 1,000 acres in Steuben and DeKalb counties, and 
1,100 acres in Iowa.  He was not content to hold the land merely as an 
investment, but always improved it, and had a fondness for good buildings.  
His old grist mill stood about a mile and a half east of Hamilton.  Along 
with farming he sold agricultural implements, and had a store in Hamilton.  
In 1834 he married Mary Noragon, who was born in Pennsylvania.  She died 
June 15, 1892, at the age of seventy-one years.  They had a family of 
fourteen children, and those to reach mature years were: Andrew, John, 
Caroline, who married Samuel Hussman, Edwin, Samuel, Sarah Jane, who 
married Lafayette Perkey, Solomon and Jacob.
   Jacob Kepler was born September 14, 1851, in Franklin Township of 
DeKalb County, and attended public school there.  He early learned the 
value of honest toil as a means of making his way in the world.  He worked 
his mother’s place in Franklin Township for several years.  He married 
Rosanna Brown, daughter of William and Elizabeth Brown. After his marriage 
he moved into Otsego Township of Steuben County, and has since occupied 
his present farm, about thirty acres of which are within the corporation 
limits of Hamilton. Altogether he has 320 acres. The splendid buildings 
were all erected by him and his farm is devoted to general agriculture and 
stock raising.
   Mr. Kepler is a member of the United Brethren Church.  He has three 
children: Gertrude, who married Charles Hoch, and has two children, Oline 
and Gertrude; Bertha, wife of Charles Swift, has one child, Marsell; and 
Wier.

Submitted by:
Arlene Goodwin
Auburn, Indiana
Agoodwin@ctlnet.com