Rev. John Q. McKeehan

    Rev. John Q. McKeehan has officiated as pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Hartford City since May 1, 1884. The greater portion of his life has been spent in this, his native State. He was born at Vernon on the 15th of September, 1827. His father, George McKeehan, a farmer, was a native of Pennsylvania, while his mother, whose given name was Elizabeth, owed her nativity to the State of Kentucky.

    At a very early age for that day he had received a good common school education, and the age of sixteen found him teaching a country school in the neighborhood of his home, and this became his profession, which he regularly followed until reaching the age of twenty-four years. He then commenced attendance at Hanover College, from which institution he graduated in 1855. Before closing his studies here, however, he had officiated for some time as tutor in Greek, and indeed for a year and a half after graduation, he taught that language and Latin in the college. He then took charge of the Hopewell Academy as principal, and remained at its head until 1859, and his success in that capacity brought him invitations to positions of trust in more than one important institution of learning.

    His natural inclinations, however, led him rather in the direction of the pulpit, than in that of the profession in which he had thus far achieved marked success, and in April, 1859, he was licensed by the Presbytery of Madison to preach the gospel, though not ordained until March, 1864. He supplied Edinburg and Shiloh Churches (Indiana) during he remainder of 1859 and a portion of 1860, and in the last named year was called to Dayton, Ohio, and in that year and 1861 he was pastor of the Fourth Presbyterian Church of that city. He filled the pulpits of Pleasant and Jefferson Churches in 1861-'62, and 18620'65 officiated at Bethany, Shiloh and New Prospect Churches, and during the last three years of that time also conducted a select school at Franklin.

    His next field of labor was at the place of his birth, and during 1868-'69 he had under his charge Vernon and Graham Churches. His health, never robust, always presented the greatest obstacle to the successful prosecution of the work which a willing disposition laid out for him, and for which natural qualifications abundantly qualified him, and his lack of physical strength more than once has caused him a long retirement from the active duties of his chosen calling. In 1880 he had so far regained his strength as to enable him to accept the position of  superintendent of schools of Jennings County, and he has ever since been actively engaged. In 1881 he accepted a call to the pastorate of the Presbyterian Church at Whiteland, and from there he was called to Hartford City.

    In October, 1859, Mr. McKeehan was married to Miss Sarah Porter, at Warren, Ohio. She died in 1864, leaving two daughters -Mary P. and Addie E., the former of whom is a teacher in the public schools of Hartford City. The standing of Mr. McKeehan in the church is of the highest, and the year 1887 marks the fourth of a highly successful pastorate at Hartford City.

Source: Biographical and Historical Record of Jay and Blackford Counties, Indiana by The Lewis Publishing Company, 1887.