Iowa: Its History and Its Foremost Citizens
Original Edition. 3 Vols. Des Moines, IA: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1915-1916.
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Unless otherwise noted, biographies submitted by Dick Barton.
FRED FRENCH KEITHLEY, attorney at law of Des Moines, was born in Adair county, Iowa, August 1, 1878, and is descended from German ancestry in the paternal line, the first representatives of the Keithley family in America coming from the northern border of Germany in 1772. These were three brothers, James, Joseph and John. The great-great-grandfather of Fred F. Keithley was John Keithley, who was a commissary officer in General Washington's army and assisted the troops at Valley Forge. James Montgomery Keithley, the father of Fred F. Keithley, was born in Indiana, December 22, 1850, and was therefore a youth of fifteen years when in 1865 he became a resident of Iowa, in which state he has since remained. For thirteen years he was a traveling salesman with the D. H. Baldwin Piano Company, having his headquarters in Chicago, but in later years he turned his attention to the real-estate business, opening an office in Des Moines. In 1873, in Winterset, Madison county, Iowa, he was united in marriage to Miss Florence A. French, a native of New York and of English descent, the ancestral line being traced back to the Duke of Normandy. The first representative of the French family on the soil of the new world was Nathaniel French, who became a resident of Massachusetts in 1721 and later took up his abode in the colony of Vermont. One of his sons, William French, was shot by Tory representatives of King George III at the courthouse in Westminster, Vermont, on the night of March 13, 1770, and has been called by some historians "the first martyr of the American Revolution." He was a great uncle of Florence A. French, who became the wife of James Montgomery Keithley. Of that marriage there were born four children, including Fred French Keithley, who, reared under the parental roof in Adair county, there attended school for two years, while later he became a student in the schools of Winterset, Iowa. Since 1893 he has made his home in Des Moines and he studied for a time in the North Des Moines high school, from which he was graduated with the class of 1899. He afterward matriculated in Drake University as a student in the college of liberal arts and completed his course there in 1903, winning the Ph. B. degree. He afterward pursued a law course and was graduated with the class of 1905. In June of the same year he was admitted to the bar and in the following month began practice as a partner of Judge Stephen F. Balliet, under the firm style of Balliet & Keithley. After a year Mr. Keithley began practicing independently and has never since then had a partner in his professional activity. He is a hard worker, an earnest student and deep thinker and his thorough preparatory training constituted the foundation upon which he has builded his later success.
In Des Moines, on the 28th of July, 1904, Mr. Keithley was married to Miss Imogene Balliet, a daughter of Judge S. F. Balliet, member of an old and prominent Iowa family and at one time judge of the district court of Polk county. Mrs. Keithley's birth occurred at Nevada, Story county, Iowa, June 18, 1882, and by her marriage she has become the mother of three children: James Balliet, born May 16, 1906; Helen Letson, September 7, 1908; and Florence French, June 29, 1910.
The parents hold membership in the First Methodist Episcopal church and are helpfully interested in its work. He is a member of the University Club and the Drake Law Club and finds pleasant associations in other memberships. He is a Scottish Rite Mason and a member of the Mystic Shrine. Politically he is a republican and takes an advanced stand upon many questions, believing in that continued progress which looks to the welfare of the majority and does not sacrifice the interests of the many to the wishes of a small minority. The greater part of his life has been passed in Des Moines, so that his history is an open book to his fellow townsmen, and that the course he has followed is an upright and honorable one is indicated in the fact that many of his stanchest friends are those who have known him from his boyhood to the present time.
Robert Henry Kingsley
In a history of agricultural development in Clay county the name of Robert Henry Kingsley should be mentioned, for he was among those who broke the sod and developed fine farms from the raw prairie. He had just attained success in substantial measure when death called him and it was with deep regret that his many friends parted from him.
He was born in Havana, Tompkins county, New York, May 13, 1838. He was left an orphan in boyhood days and at the early age of nine years started out in life empty-handed to make his own way in the world. Leaving the east, he traveled westward to Woodstock, Illinois, where he resided for two years and then removed to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where he resided for eight years. On the expiration of that period he took up his abode at Capron, Illinois, where he engaged in the lumber business and where he met the lady whom he afterward married. The year 1872 witnessed his arrival in Clay county, Iowa, which was then a frontier district, offering good opportunities to the settler who was not afraid to brave the hardships and privations of pioneer life. Much of the land was still in possession of the government and Mr. Kingsley entered a claim on which his last days were passed. He resolutely set to work to till the fields, having first to perform the arduous task of breaking the sod and preparing it for cultivation. Year after year his work was resolutely carried forward and in due course of time his place returned to him splendid crops. He bought more land from time to time until he had about five hundred acres and he added to his farm all modern improvements, erected substantial buildings for the shelter of grain and stock and built a beautiful residence. Everything was in shape for him to enjoy life with greater leisure than he had before known, but death terminated his plans.
It was on the 5th of March, 1879, that Mr. Kingsley was united in marriage to Miss Minnie Smith, a daughter of James Lawrence Smith, of Capron, Illinois. Her father was born in New York and her mother in Pennsylvania, and both died in Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Kingsley began their domestic life upon the home farm in Clay county but a year later removed to Spirit Lake, where they spent about twelve years. They then returned to the farm and thereon they reared their two children: Pearl M., now at home with her mother; and Mabel E., who is now the wife of D. W. Bettice and has one daughter, Barbara Mabel. The first born, Clyde R., whose birth occurred in August, 1882, passed away on the 4th of September of the same year. The family circle was again broken by the hand of death when on the 19th of January, 1898, Mr. Kingsley passed away.
He was a Mason and an Odd Fellow, true and loyal to the teachings and purposes of those organizations. He was ever ready to help the needy, to encourage the disheartened and speak a kindly word to those in need of sympathy. He voted with the republican party nor did he ever neglect his duties of citizenship. His religious faith was that of the Congregational church, to which he was always loyal, and in every relation of life he proved himself a man.
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