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- Birth: Batch #: 8570907, Sheet #: 41, Source Call #: 1396078
Census: 1870 Burnside Post Office, Pilot Grove Twp., Hancock Co., IL; LDS# 545726; p. 31; 2 5 JUL 1870. Listed as "Marian B."? aged 15 yrs, born IL
History of Page County, Iowa; Chicago: S.J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1909; p. 247 D.M. Ketcham-- Since starting out in life on his own account D.M. Ketcham has made for himself a substantial place in the world, and through investment in farm lands has accumulated a competence that now enables him to practically live retired, although he retains his home on a small farm of twenty acres, located just outside the corporation limits of Shenandoah in Grant township.
He still owns other farm land in Page county--one tract of one hundred and forty acres in Morton township.
Mr. Ketcham was born in Hancock county, Illiniois, October 12, 1854, a son of James and Louisa (Fairbanks) Ketcham, both of whom were natives of the state of Indiana, where they were reared and married. The year following their marriage they took up their abode in Hancock county, where the father engaged in farming. He is still living at the age of eighty-five years and now makes his home with his children, his wife having been called to her final rest in the fall of 1907, when she was seventy-two years old.
D.M. Ketcham was reared on the home farm in Hancock county and acquired his education thro ugh the medium of the public schools of that state. His education, however, was somewhat limited. As he was the eldest in a family of eleven children, and the father owned a small farm of sixty-two acres, he had to not only provide for his own support from an early age but much responsibility rested upon his young shoulders in caring for the younger members of the household. He remained with his father until after he had attained his majority, giving him the benefit of his services, but in the meantime, in order that he might make something for himself, he operated rented land as well. Through this means he accumulated a sum of money whereby he felt justified in establishing a home of his own and starting out in life upon an independent business venture.
Accordingly on August 7, 1879, Mr. Ketcham was united in marriage to Miss Louisa Peck, of Hancock county, Illinois, and the following spring removed with his young wife to Iowa, locating on a farm in Morton township, Page county. He operated rented land there for four years and at the end of that period purchased forty acres in the same township. For one year he rented his land while he continued to operate leased land. Taking up his abode on his own farm at the end of a year, he cultivated the same for two or three years, and in the meantime, having made improvements upon the latter tract he improved and cultivated it four years and then disposed of that and purchased one hundred and forty acres in Lincoln township, on which he made his home for seven years.
He then returned once more to Morton township and purchased two hundred and forty acres of l and, which he continued to operate for two years. He then disposed of that farm and bought one hundred and twenty acres in Grant township but he has sold one hundred acres of this and now owns but twenty acres. This farm is located on section 28, Grant township, just outside t he corporation limits of Shenandoah. It is therefore valuable because of its close proximity to the city as well as for the modern improvements whch are found upon the lace. Since taking up his abode here Mr. Ketcham has spent few idle moments, for he had bought and sold many tracts of land in this manner has accumulated a competency that now enables him to live practically retired, although he still looks after his invested interests. His two farms, one in Morton township and the other in Grant township, are operated by his sons. While Mr. Ketcham has made many changes in his place of residence since coming to the state, it will be note d that he has confined his investments to Page county land, which is an indication of his firm faith in the value of land in southwestern Iowa.
The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Ketcham has been blessed with six children, of whom five survive, namely: Clyde, a resident of Providence, Rhode Island; Mark, who is on his father's farm in Morton township; Earl who operates his father's farm in Grant township; and Lena, and Beulah, both at home.
While Mr. Ketcham endorses the principles of the democratic party at the polls, he has never been active as an office seeker, preferring to give time to private business interests. He belongs to the Modern Woodmen camp, while his wife is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, taking an active interest in the work of the various organizations, especially in the Ladies Aid Society. From an early age Mr. Ketcham displayed marked business ability. Deprived of many of the comforts of life in his youth and early manhood his strong ambition an d desire was to acquire a competence that would provide himself and family with a good living, and his ambition has been rewarded, for today he is numbered among the well to do citizen s of Grant towhship, and yet he stands in the same relation to his fellowmen today as he did in former years when struggling for a livelihood.
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1854 - 1940 (86 years)
