My Genealogy Hound

Joel H. Kellar, an old pioneer of Scotland County, has been postmaster at Etna for many years. His birth occurred in Oldham County, Ky., in 1812, and after he reached manhood he was married to Mildred E. Snyder. They immigrated to Illinois in 1831, where they reared their family. In 1854 they moved to Lee County, Iowa, and three years later to Etna, where he was engaged in farming and hotel keeping for many years, the latter until 1883. He first became postmaster in 1859, and has held that office continuously ever since, excepting two and a half years during war times, and even then acted as deputy, so that he has been a veteran in the mail department. The ancestors of our subject are German, there being three brothers who came from Germany and located in South Carolina, and one of these was the great-grandfather of our subject. The grandfather, William, was a Baptist minister, and was a native of Virginia in which State his son, Abram, was born. The father, Abram, came to East Tennessee as an infant, and about 1795 moved to Kentucky. He was the father of eleven children, all reared to maturity, and of whom our subject was the eldest. His death occurred in Illinois.