Biographical Sketch of

Henry Hugh Keach

Transcribed by Robert Schieber

Source: Memorial and Biographical Record and Illustrated Compendium of Biography of Citizens of Columbia, 
Sauk and Adams Counties, Wisconsin, published 1901 by G. A. Ogle & Co., Chicago, 1901, Pages 757 - 758


Henry Hugh Keach, a progressive and enterprising agriculturist, who resides in Jackson township, Adams county, 
Wisconsin, is one of the most intelligent representatives of that farming community for which this part of that 
state is justly noted.  He is a son of Israel and Margaret (Cook) Keach, the former being a native of Madison 
county, New York, of French ancestry.  The grandfather of our subject, Israel Keach, Sr., came to this country 
from Canada, settled at Unadilla, New York, at a time when that town was sixty miles from any other settlement, 
and endured many hardships and privations incidental to pioneer life, having been forced to live for six weeks 
on grain, without bread.  He erected a saw mill, and did considerable lumbering business on the Susquehanna river 
and died at that ripe old age of ninety years.

Israel Keach, Jr., the father of our subject, was a native of Madison county, New York, where he followed the 
occupation of an agriculturist, and died in his native county at the age of forty-eight years.  Both he and his 
father had been stanch members of the Democratic party, and exercised considerable influence in the local affairs 
of their community.  Mrs. Margaret (Cook) Keach, our subject's mother, was a daughter of David Cook, who was a 
lifelong resident of Madison county, New York.  She departed this life at the age of forty-five.

Henry Hugh Keach was born at Unadilla, Otsego county, New York, July 23, 1848.  he received the rudiments of his 
education and passed his boyhood days in that locality, and in the fall of 1863 enlisted in Company E, One Hundred 
and Fourteenth New York Volunteer Infantry, where he remained until the term of service for that regiment had 
expired, when he was transferred to Company B, Ninetieth New York Volunteer Infantry.  His regiment was a part of 
that Army of the Gulf, and participated in the Red river expedition under General Banks.  He was detailed to work 
on the dams, by which means the vessels were enabled to descend the river.  In 1864 he was ordered to Washington, 
from thence to Pennsylvania, and then up the Shenandoah, under the famed General Sheridan, being detailed as 
sharpshooter on the skirmish line in the battle of Winchester.  It was in this famous battle that he contracted the 
rheumatism, which confined him to the hospital for a time.  After his recovery he was sent with his regiment to 
Hawkinsville, Georgia, where he remained six months, as, owing to the ravages of the Ku Klux Klan, that region was 
kept under martial law, and constant vigilance was necessary in preserving order in that locality.  Mr. Keach 
received his honorable discharge from the service on the 9th of February, 1866.

H. H. Keach came to Wisconsin form New York in 1866, located in the town of New Chester, where he remained until 
1884, when he took up his residence in the town of Jackson, where he has made his home ever since.  He has erected 
a fine house, new bans, and other buildings necessary for the housing of his grain and stock, on his well improved 
farm of one hundred and sixty acres, of which one hundred acres are under a high state of cultivation, and, taken 
as a whole, presents as fine appearance as any estate in that vicinity, being well watered by the sough branch of 
Neenah creek, which affords him ample water power for his mill.  In connection with his agricultural pursuits Mr. 
Keach also operates a sorghum mill, manufacturing as high as three thousand gallons per annum.

On the 23rd of July, 1866, Henry Hugh Keach was united in the holy bonds of matrimony to Miss Viola Colton, a 
daughter of Benjamin and Lydia Colton, and a native of Unadilla, New York.  Mr. and Mrs. Keach are the parents 
of that following children:  Mary, who died in her seventeenth year; George; Lucy, now Mrs. E. Worden; Scott; 
Lee and John.

Mr. Keach has filled numerous offices of trust and the confidence reposed in him by his many friends and 
acquaintances has never been abused.  Politically he is a stanch adherent to the principles of the Republican 
party, having been a loyal supporter of that cause since his youth.  He has also been a member of the G. A. R. 
and the I. O. O. F., but owing to his failing health during recent years he has severed his connections with 
the above mentioned societies.

Mr. Keach is a man of much energy and is one of the successful and systematic agriculturists of the county.  As 
a citizen he is loyal in his adherence to the principles of good government, and he has planted himself firmly 
in the confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens.


Transcribed by Robert Schieber






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