Edward Kelham House

Keyser owes its organization to the construction of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, which led up to the founding of the town of Garrett on the line between Richland and Butler townships. To avoid having the new town in two townships, the board of commissioners formed a new township at their June term, 1876, when it was "ordered, directed and decreed by the board that the territory bounded by a line commencing at the northeast cor- ner of section 25, township 34 north, range 12 east, and running from thence west on the north line of sections 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 and 30, to the west Hne of said township of Richland ; thence south to the west line of said township 33 north, range 12 east, to the southwest corner of section 7 in Butler township; thence east on the south line of sections 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12, to the east line of said township; thence north along the east line of said township to the place of beginning, shall be known by the name and style of Keyser township."

Passage source: History of Dekalb County, Indiana, with Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Old Families, published 1914.

The town of Garrett was laid out by Beverly L. Randolph, son of James L. Randolph, chief engineer for the Baltimore & Ohio. The original plat of Garrett was recorded at Auburn on April 9, 1875, and named Garrett in honor of John W. Garrett, president of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad. The first lot was sold on the 13th day of April, 1875, to Nathan Tarney, which was lot No. I in Block No. 18, although previous to this date O. C. Clark had contracted for lots on the southwest comer of King and Randolph streets, where Reyher's dry goods store and Hershberger's grocery stores are situated. O. C. Clark built the first house in Garrett in April, 1875, now owned and occupied by the Reyher drug store. The building was first occupied in 1875 by the Lancaster brothers as a dry goods store. The first postoffice Avas also in this building, on the second floor, and A. W. Pratt was the first postmaster. He appointed T. G. Baylor assistant to hand out the mail, as he was engaged in engineering the construction of the Baltimore & Ohio shops.

Passage source: History of Dekalb County, Indiana, with Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Old Families, published 1914.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Keyser Township - 2,823 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.