Tampico Area Historical Society

Source: Portrait & Biographical Album of Whiteside County, IL
Originally published 1885 Chapman Bros., Chicago, IL

Transcribed by: Becky Jones

Page 257

Dr J. Frank Keefer, practicing physician at Sterling, was born May 10, 1856, in Hopkins Township, this county.  His parents, Henry and Elizabeth (Stricker) Keefer, were natives of Pennsylvania, and in 1854-5 came West, settling in Empire, Hopkins Township, where Mr. Keefer purchased a farm of 80 acres and followed farming until 1875, when he sold and moved into Sterling. In the spring of 1878 he purchased Dr. Galt’s drug-store on the corner of Locust and Third Streets, and has since been engaged in business there.

Mr. Keefer, the subject of this sketch, was reared as a farmer’s son until 17 years of age, when he entered the Carthage (Ill.) College and continued there until the spring of 1878, graduating; then, attending Rush Medical College at Chicago two winter terms and one spring, he received his medical diploma, Feb. 22, 1881; and finally located in Sterling, in the practice of his profession, in which he has a rising popularity. He is also a partner of his father in the drug-store, which also is a leading business establishment of the place.