One Township's Yesterdays Chapter XXIX  

KEYSER

This was the KYSER (or KEYSER) family. Although they had come to Marshall County, as early as 1855, the Kysers did not move into Union Township until 1865. The original settlement of the family, however, was not far distant; land was first taken up in West Township.

ANDREW J. KYSER, the Union Township settler, was born in Summit County, Ohio, February 7, indiana_map_1827. He was a son of JOHN and REBECCA (WARNER) KYSER, both natives of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and early settlers of Summit County, Ohio. For a number of years JOHN KYSER was connected with the militia service in Summit County, and there also, for twenty-six years, he followed the trade of cooper. He was a local politician of the Democratic party, well educated in the English and German languages, and with his wife, first belonged to the Lutheran Church, but afterward became identified with the Reformed Church, in which he was a leader for fifty years. He died in 1873, and his wife followed him to the grave in 1885, both departing this life in Summit County, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. KYSER had a family of eleven children, seven of whom survived their parents:

Andrew J.
Mrs. MARY SORICK
Mrs. SARAH VANDERSOLL
Jeremiah
Elizabeth
Philander
Henry
John

a deceased brother, who came to Marshall County in 1866 and settled in West Township, died there in 1886.

ANDREW J. KYSER grew to manhood in Summit County, Ohio, and in 1851 married ELIZABETH KEMERY, daughter of JACOB KEMERY, a native of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and an early resident of Summit County, Ohio. It was in 1855 that Mr. KYSER came to Marshall County and settled in West Township, where he cleared a farm of 74acres, which he disposed of in 1865 and moved into Union Township, where he at length acquired 320 acres, 150 of which he cleared.

ANDREW J. and ELIZABETH KYSER were the parents of six children, three of whom were living in 1890:

Franklin M.
Carlisle D.
Flora R., of Burr Oak.

Mr. KYSER was a successful farmer and gave considerable attention to the breeding of fine horses. His lands, as mapped in the 'seventies, consisted of 160 acres in Section 34, on the south side of the Behmer Road and a bit northwest of Hibbard. The mapmaker spelled the name as Keyser, which is apparently the generally accepted spelling of late years.