The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1926-11-04
EVANSVILLE LOSES TWO
PROMINENT MEN BY DEATH
DIR. George Charles Keller, Den
fist, and Ralph Engle, Agri-
culturalist, Succumb.

| NsA~t
On Friday, October 10Th, 1926, at
1920 o'clock p. M, passed to his eter-
nal rest one of the oldest and best
known residents of Grantsville, DR..
George Charles Keller. He was born
in Hampshire county, Virginia, the
second son of Daniel Taylor Keller
and Mary Jane Thistle Keller, and at
the close of the Civil War was strip
ling youth. His father having been
an officer in the Confederate Army
(Stonewall Brigade) emerged from
that great conflict, like many others
of the old South, impoverished, and
died soon thereafter. To escape the
then ravaged condition of the South,
! his widowed mother removed to Mary
! land where DR.. Keller grew to man.
hood. He selected dentistry as his
profession and allowed no obstacles
to stand in the way of the acquire
ment Of proper training. He was
! graduated from the Baltimore Col
lege of Dental Surgery in 1886 and
Immediately started to practice in
Grantsville. He continued in this
practice for more than twenty-five
years or until about 1912 when he de-
cided to return to his native state,
where his eldest son was engaged in
the drug business at Winchester.
However, the ties of his adopted State
were too strong, and after a year or
so he came back to Maryland where
his practice continued unbroken until
about four years before his death. He
was probably the best known dentist
in Garrett county and his practice
reached into all the surrounding ter
ritory and into the adjoining States
of Pennsylvania and West Virginia as
we'll. While devoted to his profession,
his hobby, if he may be said to have
one outside of his profession, was
civic interest.
Coming from the South, he was
naturally a staunch Democrat, and
while never seeking nor accepting
political preferment, he was never
theless a power in his party and his
hand was in part back of many
| movement for better local and State
| governmental conditions. His COM
| munity interest was not confined to
| politics. He was elected a director of
! the first bank to be established. in
Grantsville and later when the First
| State Bank was launched in 1910, he
was chosen president of that institu-
ton, which office he held until his
death, or for more than sixteen years.
Having been confirmed in early
youth, he remained a devout member
of the Reformed Church all of his
life and held successfully the offices
of deacon and elder in that religious
organization.
His funeral took place at $50
| o'clock on Monday, November l, 1926,
Rev. Samuel Lobach, pastor of the
Grantsville Reformed Church, offici-
ating. The gathering of friends and
relatives from great distances, the
profusion of lovely flowers, the peo-
| pie that overfowed from the church
into the churchyard and the street,
the closing of all business places in
Grantsville, the kilograms of sympa-
thy, the help and offers of help to the
bereft family, all these were marks
| of the esteem and love in which Doc
tor Keller was held by all who knew
him. His six nephews We're the pail
bearers, namely: DR.. w. B. Getty,
Messrs. Daniel B. Getty and Oliver G.
Getty, of Meyersdale, Pa; Dr. Cor
man G. Getty, of Homecoming, Md;
Messrs. Frank and William D. Getty,
of Grantsville. The flower bearers
were his associated directors in the
First State Bank and other intimate
friends, namely: Messrs. J. j. Ben
der, F. W. Bender, Simon S. Miller,
H. P. Miller, J. A. Beachy, Louis
Hanft, C. E. Ellithorp, C. A. Bender,
j. u. Gnagey, w. b. Stanton, j. U.
Stant9n, V. L. Blocher, J. J. Glotfelty,
Richard Younkin, John Zehner,
Noah Warwick, and Drs. n R. Davis
and j. H. Dorsey.
Doctor Keller's death was due to
heart disease. Every effort that love
or science could devise was made to
defeat the approach of the enemy,
| death, but while his coming was made
easier by the use of sedatives, there
was no power that could stay him. In
his last illness, DR.. Keller was treated
by DR.. John E. Legge, Baltimore heart
| specialist; DR.. Bruce Lichty, Of Mey-
| ersdale, Pa, DR.. Keller's brother-in-
law; DR.. Johnson, of Cumberland; DR..
B. T. Keller, his brother, of Cuyahoga
Falls, Ohio, and DR.. N. R. Davis and
DR.. J. H. Dorsey, of Grantsville.,
~