My Genealogy Hound

JONATHAN Y. KECK, wholesale butcher and meat packer of Pottstown, is a native of New Hanover township, where he was born March 25, 1860. He is the son of Daniel H. and Elizabeth (Yoder) Keck.

Daniel H. Keck (father) was a farmer all his life. He was a very useful man in his neighborhood, filling the position of justice of the peace for a period of eighteen years. He also took an active interest in educational matters and was a member of the New Hanover school board for nearly twenty years. Daniel H. Keck was one of the best-known residents of that section of Montgomery county, where he lived all his life. In early manhood he taught school for fifteen years. He died February 26, 1896, in his sixty-sixth year. He was buried at Swamp. Mr. Keck was a Lutheran in religious faith. He was also an active member of the Patrons of Husbandry. He and his wife had eleven children, two of whom died in infancy, and a third, a daughter, when sixteen years of age. The living children are: Jonathan Y.; David J.; Joel Y.; Henry Y.; William M.; Sarah, who married John Schwenk; Emma, who married Oscar Seigenfuss; and Cora, who married William Gaugler.

David Keck (grandfather) married Rachel Hoch. He was a farmer and resided in New Hanover township all his life. The family originally settled in Oley. Mrs. Keck was born in 1802 and died October 2, 1868, in her sixty-sixth year. Mr. Keck was born in 1802 and died in 1886, at the age of eighty-four years. Both were members of the Lutheran church, and were buried at Sassamansville.

The maternal grandparents of Jonathan Y. Keck were Jacob and Anna (Eshbach) Yoder. They were farmers and resided in Douglass township, affiliating with the Mennonite persuasion, and leading quiet, uneventful lives. The couple had fifteen children, of whom five are living, as follows: Elizabeth (mother); Abraham; Jacob, living in Virginia, where he is a school superintendent; Jonathan, who lives retired; and Mrs. Harriet Mensch, residing in New Hanover township.

Jacob Yoder (great-grandfather) also resided in Douglass township. He was a farmer by occupation.

Jonathan Y. Keck attended the public schools of the neighborhood until he was about fourteen years of age and then turned his attention to farming, which he followed for about five years, when he went to Pottstown, where he engaged in the business of quarrying stone for about two years. He then obtained employment in a rolling mill for another year. After farming for himself three years he returned to Pottstown and engaged in the carting business for a few months, then started a retail butchering establishment, gradually enlarging his business, and is now engaged as a wholesale butcher and meat packer. He began in this line in 1886. His brother David joined him in the business in 1897, and the firm is known as J. Y. Keck & Brother, doing business at Nos. 17-23 Third street, Pottstown. In the plant he gives employment to fifteen men constantly. They cover a large field, handling the trade between here and Philadelphia, also in that city. They reach south to Washington, D. C., and as far south as the Carolinas, and also in Reading and Lebanon. The business is one of the principal enterprises of Pottstown. He erected the building which is used for the purposes of the firm, who operate a large establishment. Mr. Keck also built the house in which he lives. The wholesale business was started in the year 1900 and has been successfully carried on ever since. Mr. Keck has purchased several farms in the vicinity of Pottstown, where he keeps the stock intended for slaughtering, fattening them during the winter. He is a very enterprising business man, and the firm of which he is the head enjoys great prosperity.

Mr. Keck was married, August 13, 1880, to Hannah, daughter of Frederick and Caroline Nagle. Mr. Nagle was a quarryman and owned many of the quarries in that section of the county. Both he and his wife have been deceased many years.

Of the children of Jonathan Y. and Hannah Keck four are deceased and five living: Wilmer N., born April 6, 1882, a graduate of the Pottstown Business College, resides with his parents; Bertha May, born January 3, 1881, died January 23, 1885; Harvey A., born March 5, 1884, is a painter, and for one year has lived in Pittsburg, where he is engaged in contracting; Maud N., born October 5, 1887, and Bessie N., born January 24, 1889, reside with their parents; Lawrence, born February 9, 1886, died September 24, 1886; Daniel N., Born May 21, 1890, died at the age of six weeks; Jennie N., born March 19, 1892, resides with her parents; Jonathan N., born July 11, 1893, died on Christmas day, of the same year.

Mr. Keck is a Democrat in politics. He has been a member of the town council of Pottstown for twelve years, his last election occurring in the spring of 1904, when he received the largest vote ever carried by him, double his opponent’s vote. He is connected with several of the prominent enterprises of Pottstown. He belongs to the Order of American Mechanics, to the Patriotic Order of Sons of America, to the Foresters of America, the Masonic fraternity and Continental Beneficial Society. He has been a delegate to Democratic conventions of the county.