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PIONEER FAMILIES
KEETON FAMILY
Information from Meredith Kincaid - Rootsweb World Connect 
Born in Illinois in 1799, John Robert Keeton is the son of Hezekiah (Sr.) and Batsey Keeton. By the time he was two years old, he had moved to Kentucky, where he most likely received his education, and then moved on to that portion of Perry County, TN that later became Decatur County. He stopped off in Franklin County, TN long enough to find the girl who became his wife, his cousin, Catharina Keeton. He is said to have been in (Perry) Decatur County in 1835 and was on the 1837 Perry County Tax Rolls but is believed to have been there by 1826 when his and Catharina's first child, John Lawson Keeton, was born.
With the departure of the Indians and less fear of attacks, white settlers quickly began moving to west Tennessee by about 1820. Robert and Catharina, were the very first Keetons to arrive and settle in what became Decatur County. They found plentiful wild game and fish for hunting, cheap, fertile bottom land for farming, and abundant opportunity waiting for adventurous pioneers.
It must not have been very difficult for Robert and Catharina to leave Franklin County and go west. They settled at a place called Shannonville, currently known as Bob's Landing. It is speculated that they could have arrived as newly weds, by river boat, or barge, on the Tennessee River, and got off the boat on the west bank at Shannonville, after having been married at Catharina's home in Franklin County, TN. Even if Robert and Catharina came to Shannonville by boat, they first could have traveled overland by covered wagon or other period vehicle as far as Clifton, for example. Nothing has been found to indicate whether Shannonville was their intended destination when they set out from Franklin County and headed west.
Robert probably received his schooling in Lexington, KY, while living in Franklin County, KY and Scott County, KY. After finishing medical school about the early 1820s, he followed his parents and siblings to Franklin County, TN where they were close neighbors of John and Elizabeth Keeton. John Keeton and his first wife, whose name is unknown at this time, were the parents of Catharina. Elizabeth Keeton, John's second wife, was a sister of Robert. It is generally believed that John Keeton and his family had lived close to the Hezekiah Keeton family in Kentucky. So it is possible that Robert and Catharina had known each other before their separate moves to Tennessee. At any rate, they did court each other while living in Franklin County, TN. It seems probable--in the absence of any writt en record--that their marriage was performed by Catharina's father, Justice of the Peace John Keeton.
Historians have written that Robert and Catharina are cousins and genealogists are still trying to trace their blood lines to find where they connect. It is written in Goodspeed's History of Tennessee that they were cousins. Were they first cousins? No one knows for sure. After marrying in F anklin County, TN, they moved on to west Tennessee, settling in what became Decatur County and the new doctor set up a medical practice at Shannonville, near the banks of the Tennessee River. That was the beginning of his highly successful career in family medicine. He was regarded as a rather famous doctor during his time.
In addition to farming and practicing medicine for almost 40 years, there is evidence that he was also appointed as legal representative in a significant court case representing his and Catharina's families in Missouri. Furthermore, court records for Decatur County, TN indicate that Robert Keeton was appointed as guardian of minor children in at least one case, in the April, 1850 term. However, there is no record of him ever being schooled in law.
Dr. Robert received several land grants in Decatur County (see note below). He and Catharina cleared the land and built their home on property he acquired along the banks of Turnbo Creek near Dunbar, Bath Spring s, just a few steps from the site that is now Keeton Cemetery.
One of the earliest white settlers in Decatur County--the Chickasaw Indians had occupied the west Tennessee territory until about 1820--he first practiced medicine at Shannonville, then later at Scotts Hill. He and Catha rina became the parents of nine children (some genealogists and historians have reported that there were 11 children but they do not give names and this researcher can find only nine names). Robert died June 8, 1858, and is buried at Keeton Cemetery beside his wife, Catharina.
The Missouri court case referred to above involved the settlement of the estate of Robert's brother, William Keeton, deceased, which consisted primarily of about 20 slaves that William had fraudulently purchased in a rigg ed auction of John Keeton's estate. The court case was filed in St. Francois County, MO. Robert was appointed attorney and legal representative on behalf of himself and his other brother and sisters and their spouses as well as the children of John Keeton, deceased, Robert's father-in-law, all claiming to be heirs. The defendants, the widow and daughter of William Keeton, were represented by several attorneys, William Spradling being one.
The slaves had belonged to John Keeton. John hired his wife's brother, Deputy Sheriff William Keeton, to help him take the slaves from Franklin County, TN, first to Illinois to mine salt--which proved to be not profitable --and then to Missouri to mine lead in the 1820s. John Keeton died in 1826 and William Keeton, who was not an heir, was appointed administrat r of John Keeton's estate, brought the slaves back to Tennessee and rigged an estate auction at which he bought most of the slaves at low, low prices. That auction was later found by the court to have been a fraud.
Meanwhile, William, claiming ownership of the slaves, took them back to Missouri to resume the lead mining operation. He got involved romantically with a married woman, Hannah Cole, who had a daughter, Susan, while s he was still living with her husband. The woman filed for divorce from her husband, Thomas Cole, in 1844, when the daughter, Susan, was about seven years old, and married William Keeton on October 16, 1845. William claimed the daughter, Susan, as his own and, very soon after William's death, she was legitimated by the St. Francois Co., MO court as William's daughter. Less than three months after William married the woman, he died, before January 6, 1846. The widow and daughter claimed ownership of the slaves, which, the court later ruled, were fraudulently taken from John's estate settlement several years earlier and they should be claimed by their lawful owners, the children of John Keeton.
Robert, and his other brother and sisters and their spouses, and John Keeton's children, filed suits in St. Francois County, MO, all claiming that t hey were the rightful heirs and that Hannah and Susan Keeton were not entitled to the slaves. In the suit, Robert Keeton was named as attorney and legal representative. The case went to court in the mid- to late-1840 s, was appealed to the Missouri Supreme Court and dragged on until after Robert Keeton's death but there is ample proof that he traveled to Missouri and actively represented the family until his death, after which another attorney was appointed.
In the appointment of a new attorney in March 1862 to replace Robert Keeton, Catharina names herself and some--but not all--of her children and th ir spouses as heirs of Robert Keeton, deceased, who was an heir of his brother, William Keeton. For example, her son, John Lawson's, name was not included. Perhaps that was because he had already built a successful medical practice of his own, at Swallow Bluff. In addition to Catharina, those named are Thomas B. Garrard, Julia M. Garrard, William H. Keeton, Sophr nia Jobe, Francis Jobe and Albert Keeton.
Had the Robert Keeton heirs prevailed in the case, Catharina might have received up to three slaves in the distribution of the estate. The case was so complicated and dragged on so long--until after 1862--that Preside nt Abraham Lincoln had already signed the Emancipation Proclamation freeing all persons held as slaves before a ruling was handed down that the sla ves had been fraudulently bought from John Keeton's estate and should be a warded to the rightful owners, the heirs of John Keeton. In the end, no o ne got anything.
Occupation: Physician & farmer Not much is known about Dr. John Lawson Keeton. Very few written recor ds have been found. Apparently, there are not even many stories remembered by family members. Several cousins from different branches of the fami lies of John Lawson Keeton and each of his two wives have said that th ey do not recall any stories about him being passed down through the gener ations. Genealogists have tried to collect information about his schooli ng and medical practice but have not found records in any of the likely pl aces. We do know from the inscription on his grave marker that he was born May 25, 1826 and died June 14, 1881. It is believed that he was in De catur County both when he was born and when he died. It is generally thou ght that his parents left Franklin County, TN soon after they were marri ed and moved to Perry County, TN, settling in the western part of that cou nty which later became Decatur County, and that is probably where John Law son Keeton was born. Dr. John Lawson Keeton's home place was on a hill above Turnbo Creek near the present Keeton Cemetery. He owned and, with the assistance of his children and some laborers, farmed several acres of land. His oldest d aughter, Julia Saphronia Keeton Maners, used to tell her children stori es about working in the fields as a child. She gave the impression that n ot only she but the whole family of Keetons worked in the fields. That st ory might indicate a life style less affluent than one would expect f or a doctor--but there is no proof of that. He was married, first, to Margaret Levisa Kelley and they had seven children. He was married, second, to Margaret Brigance and to that union four children were born. Dr. Keeton and both Margarets are buried in the Keet on Cemetery. Following the path of his physician father, John Lawson obtained the necessary schooling and training to become a medical doctor and practiced--reportedly for nearly 40 years--at Swallow Bluff in Decatur County, TN. Swall ow Bluff was a thriving river port community at the time. After the Civ il War, there were luxury passenger liners plying the waters of the Tennes see River and they made stops at Swallow Bluff. It is known that Dr. Keeton traveled, usually on horseback, making house calls throughout much of Decatur and some adjoining counties. There is a story about how, during the Civil War, the slaves would hide his best sadd le horse to keep soldiers from stealing it. They wanted the doctor to ha ve a good horse ready to take him to see sick folks.
Robert Forrester (Bob) Keeton, born August 13, 1848 in Decatur County, TN, was the second of seven children of Dr. John Lawson Keeton and Margaret Levisa Kelley Keeton. He was a farmer and merchant, working on the Keeton Farm and managing the general merchandise store at Dunbar (he probably was running the store in 1884 because in that year several local people entered into Trust Deeds with R. F. Keeton. It was a normal practice for farmers to enter into Trust Deeds with the local merchant as a way of obtaining credit to tide them over until their crops were harvested). In about 1982, Bob's oldest grandson, William Curtis Keeton, at age 79, recalled that his Grandpa Keeton ran the "store log building" during the Civil War and slept there because the rest of the family (his father, Dr. John Lawson Keeton, and step-mother, Margaret Brigance Keeton), lived down on the creek across from the Keeton Cemetery. He ran the store for some time by himself until Mr. W. D. (Billy) Johnson, Jr. bought one-half interest. They then called it Keeton & Johnson. Robert F. grew old and sold out to Mr. Johnson who ran the store for years before selling it to Mr. Hence Ray. Robert F. Keeton's youngest son, Bedford Benard Keeton, bought the store about 1925 after Mr. Ray had run it for only a short time. Later, Bedford sold the store to Walter H. Lafferty and J. Leonard Magers. They ran it for one or two years before selling it back to Bedford, who again ran the store and moved into a modern, new building before selling it to his own son, Bryan, in 1957. Bryan was the sole proprietor until he sold out to his son, Joel and wife, Amy, in 2001. Declining business forced them to close the store in early 2005. On two occasions, Robert F. Keeton was appointed Postmaster of the Dunbar post office, which was located in the log building store. He was the first Dunbar postmaster, appointed on May 2, 1879, and served until April 15, 1881. He was appointed again on February 14, 1889, and served until December 26, 1893. Incoming and outgoing mail was handled by stagecoach between Lexington and Clifton on the Old Stage Road (present Highway Tenn. 114), with connections to Nashville and Memphis and points beyond. The slot in the door for the mail drop at the old Dunbar store/post office is still visible. Curtis Keeton also recalled that when Robert F. Keeton was a young man dating, the Boggan girls gave him a gold dollar. After he died, Grandma kept it in a sack she had made until her mind started to fail. She then gave it to Bedford, who kept it a long time. Sometime in the early 1960s, Bedford gave the coin to Curt to keep in the Keeton family to be handed down. Curt also remembered Robert F. as an old man sitting on the front porch talking about how bad the Civil war was. And he remembered that Bedford was a small boy trying to plow cotton down behind the house and Robert F. went down there to try and showed him how but he was so old and his mind so bad that he just handed the plow lines back to Bedford and told him to do the best he could. Robert F. went back and sat on the porch. Robert married Sarah Emily Tucker January 2, 1881. They lived in the Keeton home at Dunbar and had seven children. There is a Masonic symbol on Robert's grave marker and an Eastern Star symbol on Emily's grave marker. They are buried in the Keeton Cemetery near the site of his childhood home on the Keeton farm.
From Gordon H. Turner, Sr., The History of Scotts Hill, Tennessee (Carter Printing Company, Southaven, Mississippi, 1977):
"Dr. William Bedford Keeton was another local Medical Great. Born Dec. 4, 1863 in the Keeton Springs community (Dunbar), he was in the middle of a line of doctors by that name. His parents were Dr. John L. and Margaret Brigance Keeton born respectively in 1826 and 1823. They were mar ried in the 1850's.
"Dr. W. B. Keeton's grandparents were Dr. Robert and Mrs. Catherine Keeton, born likely in N. Car., but who moved to what was then Perry County (became Decatur in 1845) in the 1820's - first Keetons to come to this area.
"Dr. W. B. Keeton began practice also in and around Shady Hill just north of Scotts Hill. A close friend of Dr. Tav Rogers, he relocated here in 1884, moving into the house (still standing) across the street from our home. Dr. Keeton, between practice periods, studied Medicine at Vanderbilt University from which he took an M.D. degree in 1895.
"He was in the forefront of all good things here. A dedicated leader in the Methodist church, he was also a strong supporter of Scotts Hill College. His first marriage was to Cora Ella, daughter of Mark and Lindy Laffer ty Brasher. Their children were: Orville, deceased, long manager of the big Clover Farm dairy in Memphis; Will, Jr. ('Wibb'), now retired in Br uceton, who chalked up one of the best engineering records ever made in American railroading (on the N.C.& St.L., now L&N). With never a demerit a nd no serious accidents, he advanced to Chief Travelling Engineer.
"He handled two special trains which hauled U.S. Presidents. Among prized possessions are letters from them commending his fine service; then there was Ewing Keeton, a retired Memphis businessman. Another son's (Dr. R. T. 'Bob' Keeton) record I appear; further on.
"After the death of his first wife, Dr. W.B. Keeton married Stella Bagby (daughter of James L. and Mattie Frances Rushing Bagby, see Civil War chapter). Keeton children by this marriage were Waters, now of Medina, and Mrs. Hazel Hardaway of Humboldt.
"After Dr. R. L. Wylie located here in 1906, he formed a partnership with Dr. Keeton centering in a small two-room clinic. At first they dispensed their own drugs but man they and Oliver Helms had combined to form a town drugstore with Helms as manager. Hugh A. Smith shortly replaced Helms and remained as druggist for many years until he moved to Paris, Tenn.
"But the fatal Go West fever had so infected the Keetons that, following the town's 1917 tornado (May 27) and then the catastrophic fire on Oct. 16, reluctantly set out for better fortunes to Medina. Possibly the move was well. His practice there was pleasant and successful until his death in 1937. Mrs. Stella Keeton died in 1945. They are buried in Medina.
"Older Scotts Hillians still have fond memories of the Keetons. I 'played' much with the boys just across the street. Dr. Keeton had accompanied the stork to my parents' little home when I was born on Nov. 22, 1898. I felt a special closeness to the family. The genial doctor practiced for 20-odd years over these clay roads, all but impassable in winter ti me.
"His heart was almost as big as his big body and he shared with all in need. When farmers came by selling fresh meat or fish from a wagon bed, Dr. Keeton bought not just a mess. He would tell his wife to pick out the best and buy 'plenty' to go around!
"Until he bought a Model T Ford about 1913 - and long after - he kept three fine riding horses. As were horses of army Generals to their soldiers, so were the horses of doctors to their patients and friends. Dr. Keeton was partial to his big roan, Charlie, but his boys took equal care of all three.
"When Dr. Keeton and Dr. Wylie bought the second and third automobiles to come here it was necessary to find chauffers to drive them in. The problem was soon solved. Dr. Keeton got word to Jim Russell, an acquaintance beyond Saltillo (he had learned to drive a car in Memphis) to co me and drive one car. And Brown Brothers of Lexington, the Ford agency, a greed to let their faithful old Negro specialist, Hershel, drive the other .
"Incidentally, a big crowd gathered atop Bevill (Devil?) hill here to watch the arrival of the automobiles and to see whether they could 'make' the big hill! They made it but only in 'low' gear. It was some time before the boys could pull that hill in high gear!
"Dr. Keeton wanted the best of anything that came around. He was the first to leave the Ford when a few years later, he bought an Overland. It was a wonder to behold in these parts! Dr. Wylie stayed with small cars throughout his long practice, however.
"Dr. Keeton was a strict disciplinarian. There was no such thing here as a bathroom (there were some privies for the gentler sex but more often our earlier homes had stove wood piles and nearby thickets to shield women and girls; those of the male gender went farther and in a different direction!) Thus Dr. Keeton could have no 'bathroom' conferences with his s ons, like those popular in later years.
"So he contrived the idea of a nice privy where after rush hours if need be, he would go into a serious conference with one or two of the boys - never all three at one time for in that case they might gang up on him; one or two was always excluded and never knew what he would say! It was a convenient rest-conference room with three holes, a large one for t he doctor, and middle and small sizes for one or two of the boys.
"Here many comfortable decisions were arranged with the Keeton father and sons and it was all dead serious. Many years later, FDR introduced one and two holers but he had nothing on good Dr. Keeton. Many people ca me to see the Keeton three-holer during its heyday. Had a collection been taken up, the family earnings might have been enhanced! Oh, for more s uch Privy Conferences nowadays!"
Notes for Julia Saphronia Keeton
James and Julia Sophronia had seventeen (17) children. They lived on a 30 0-acre farm in the Bath Springs, Decatur County, TN, area.
The following is quoted from an undated cook book, Southern Recipes from the Maners Clan:
"The name Keeton is spelled many different ways. To cite a few: Keaton, Keetan, Keeting, and Keeton. Early records indicate that the Keetons came to this country from Ireland; first to Virginia, then to North Carolin a, and then to West Tennessee. Keetons were found living in Franklin County, Virginia in the early 1700s. John Keeton received a Military Land War rant for land in North Carolina in the late 1700s. William Keeton receiv ed two land grants in Bledsoe County, Tennessee in the early 1800s. Indic ations are that these are the great great grandfather and great grandfathe r, respectively, of Julia Saphronia Keeton. 'Robert Keeton, Dr.', as he s igned several real estate transactions, received nine land grants in Decat ur County, Tennessee from 1849-1852. Dr. Robert Keeton was the grandfather of Julia Saphronia.
"Julia Saphronia Keeton was born August 9, 1845 in Decatur County, Tennessee. She was one of four children born to Dr. John Lawson Keeton and Margaret Kelley Keeton. It appears that she was named after her father's siste r. Dr. John Lawson Keeton's will refers to 'the old home place on Turnbo Creek'; it appears that she was raised there. Her mother died, and h er father married Margaret Brigance. Julia Saphronia had two brothers, Ro bert Franklin (Robert F.'s wife said his middle name was Forrester, not Fr anklin. There being no known documentation to the contrary, Robert F.'s d irect descendants use the middle name Forrester.), and Cisco, and one sist er, Margaret. She had two half brothers, Sanders and Will, and one half S ister, Katherine. Julia was of medium height, and she had red hair which she always wore parted in the middle to conceal a small bald spot in the center of the top of her head.
"James Maners and Julia Saphronia Keeton were married January 7, 1866 by Squire John Christenberry. To this union were born seventeen children between March 23, 1868 and May 5, 1892. They lived and reared their children on a farm in Decatur County, Tennessee in the general area of Wylie Cem etery on Stewman's Creek. The farm consisted of approximately 300 acre s. A portion of it was acquired from her father; other portions were purc hased, in small acreage lots, from numerous people. The original house bu rned when John Lawson, their third child was a very small boy. The replac ement house was torn down in 1959.
"James Maners died April 24, 1900 of jaundice which indicates a liver ailment. Julia lived another 30 years - blind for the last few years of her life. She died September 24, 1930. Both are buried at Wylie (Gardner) Cemetery in Decatur County, Tennessee."
Julia Sophronia was buried at Gardner/Wiley Cemetery, Decatur Co., TN
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