In August 1881, a town site was
surveyed, named Athol, the tract contained 40 acres of land. The name was changed a few months later to
Keller honoring J.C. Keller, a surveyor on the Railroad.
The railway line had been completed
in May and the first train came through on
May 9, 1881.
It was a festive occasion. People
for miles around brought basket lunches and celebrated this coming of the
railway in manner as was the custom of the day.
The area was settled many years
before. In 1847, Mother Permelia Allen,
her three sons, Thomas, Richard F. and Jesse; her sons-in-law Dan Barcroft,
Ireaneous Neace, Owen Dunham and Charles Medlin with their families staked out
their claims. These families little
realized that shortly thereafter when surveyors came through and marked the
county line between Denton and Tarrant Counties,
that their names would be used. Many
surveys bearing the names of these people are within the city limits of the
city at present.
Business was soon established and
Keller boasted, in less than ten years, a post office, lumberyard, hardware and
implement store, hotel, boarding house, millinery shop, carpet weaving shop,
blacksmith, livery stable, cotton gin, mill, churches, literary clubs, doctors,
and drugstore. The first schools were subscription
schools. The Keller Independent
School District was
established April 24, 1911. At present
there are 343 people employed by K.I.S.D. with a total enrollment of 3995.
The city was incorporated in late
August or early September of 1956 with a population of about 600 people. Current population is 5300 and we are now
under Home Rule Charter.
In an old letter, written in 1916,
one of these first settlers, Dr. T.R. Allen, wrote, “Here we found the country
which had been most wonderfully blessed by the Architect of Nature, a soil as
rich as the craving of man could wish for, and timber, water and grass in
abundance and sufficient evidence of the sunshine and the showers, besides the
woodlands were lined with wild deer and turkey, and fine herds of antelope on
the prairies the year round, the buffalo was there during the winter
season. We found upon our arrival in
this section two small bands of natives, the Caddos and Seminole Indians, they
were friendly disposed with us and so remained for many years.”
Information given by; Lyda White
