Contributed by Charlene Saunders:
CHRISTIAN B. KEIPER, a prominent physician of La Fayette, is a native of
Easton, Pennsylvania, born December 4, 1816, a son of PETER and MARY ANN
(BUTZ) KEIPER, who were also natives of Pennsylvania, the father born in
Allentown, Lehigh County, and the mother born in Northampton County.
Both parents are deceased, the father dying about the year 1867, aged
seventy-two years, and the mother about 1880, at the advanced age of
eighty-five years. The paternal grandparents of our subject came to
America from Bavaria, Germany, and located at Allentown, Lehigh County,
Pennsylvania. His maternal grandparents were both of German and Quaker
origin. His father was a tobacconist, and wished his son to follow the
same occupation, but the latter was opposed to it.
He was reared at his birthplace until attaining the age of seventeen
years, receiving in his boyhood the benefits of the common schools. He
commenced learning the carpenter's trade, but followed it only a few
months when he left Easton for Philadelphia with the small capital of $4
or $5. He found employment in that city in a cabinet-maker's shop, and
there followed that trade three years, and in 1836 he went to
Pittsburgh. In the summer of the same year he went to Cincinnati, Ohio,
and in the fall went to new Orleans, where he began work on billiard
tables at high wages, but his employer failing the following spring, he
lost two-thirds of his wages. He then went to Nashville, Tennessee, and
three months later (in 1837) he went to Tuscaloosa, and from there went
to Huntsville. He made some money in the meantime, and concluded to
enter Marietta College, Ohio.
He stopped on his way thence, at Louisville, Kentucky, and on going down
to the river at that place, he met an old friend, a steamboat captain,
with whom he had become acquainted at New Orleans, who induced him to
accept the position of second clerk on his boat. After running for
three months between Louisville and New Orleans he became disgusted with
river life, and left for Marietta, Ohio, where he entered college,
remaining there a year, working on Saturdays and during vacations to
help defray his expenses. He then went to Jacksonville, Illinois, but
one year later started again for Marietta. Arriving at Evansville,
Indiana, he was advised by a gentleman to go to Greencastle, Indiana,
when he went by steamboat up the Wabash River to Terre Haute, proceeding
thence to Greencastle on foot.
He entered the college at Greencastle in 1839, which he attended three
and a half years, after which he studied law for four months, when he
abandoned that profession, and commenced the study of medicine with Dr.
Cowgill, and also studied under the preceptorship of Drs. Preston,
Talbert and Ballard. He commenced the practice of medicine at Alaska,
Indiana, at the junction of Putnam, Owen and Morgan counties, practicing
there thirteen years. During this period the attended medical lectures
at the University of the city of New York, and later at the New York
Medical College, which was afterward merged into the Bellevue Medical
College, and graduated from New York Medical College in 1852.
In 1859 he left Alaska for St. Louis, Missouri, where he practiced his
profession about a year and a half. About the time of the taking of
Fort Jackson he came to La Fayette, Tippecanoe County, where he
practiced until 1874. His health then failing he returned to his old
home in Easton, Pennsylvania, where he followed his chosen profession
until 1881. In that year he went to Minneapolis, but, his health again
failing him, he remained there but three months, when he returned to
LaFayette, where he has since made his home, engaged in the practice of
medicine.
DR. KEIPER was married in Easton, Pennsylvania, May 8, 1862, to MISS
MARY ANN FLEMING, a native of Pennsylvania, her parents being among the
early settlers of that State. Her father was a native of Germany. MRS.
DR. KEIPER died May 20, 1879. Three children were to DR. and MRS.
KEIPER--GEORGE F., who graduated with honor from De Pauw University in
the class of 1887, and is now attending the medical department of the
Michigan State University at Ann Arbor; FRANK graduated from the
LaFayette High School in the class of 1887, and is now a student at
Crawfordsville, Indiana, and ELIZABETH FLEMMING, who graduated in June,
1887, at the Moravian Seminary at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and is now
taking a post graduate course at that institution, preparatory to
entering a higher college.
The doctor enjoys good health, and is surrounded with all the necessary
comforts of life, having accumulated considerable means. He is a member
of the Masonic fraternity, belonging to La Fayette Lodge, No. 123, at
LaFayette. During the war DR. KEIPER served as Surgeon at the soldiers'
barracks at La Fayette.
Biographical Record and Portrait Album of Tippecanoe County, Indiana,
pp. 535-536