Wagon Ruts West
JOHN KEENEY, JR. FAMILY By Ralph Ray Keeney
Published in 1983
Acknowledgment
The following selection is taken from "Wagon Ruts West" written & published by Ralph Ray Keeney in 1983. The book is currently out of print. This section is published with the kind permission of Ralph Ray Keeney. The book this selection is drawn from is under copyright and permission has been granted for educational purposes and it is not to be used in any way for any profit or commercial venture.
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The following is Section 3
SECTION 3. John Blanden Keeney -***
KEENEY FAMILY TREE
___ John, Sr. (1750? - 1845?) Married Martha ?
| Jonathan Anthony (1778 - 1850) | ___ John Jr. (1780 - 1845) Married Mary Ramsey Buckhalter, 1805 | | Mary (1806 - 1850?) | | Thomas (1808 - 1842) | | Isley (1811 - 1842) | | Jonathan (1813 - 1878) | | James (1816 - 1885) | | Abraham (1818 - 1843) | | ____Andrew Jackson (1819 - 1898) Married Elizabeth Mulholland, 1841 | | | Frances Ann - drowned with Mother in the Missouri Riv. | | | 2. Married Hannah Daniels Cooper (daughter, Anna Cooper) | | | Elias P. (1852 - 1857) | | | James Madison ( 1853 - 1913) | | | George R. (1856 - 1859) | | | William Daniel (1857 - 1930) | | | ____John Blanden (1859 - 1942) Married Ella Hurt, 1881-*** | | | | Maude (1882 - 1958) | | | | Rhoda C. (1884 - 1884) | | | | Ira Marvin (1885 - 1945) | | | | ___ Willard Warren (1888 - 1958) Married Alice L. Crall, 1920 | | | | | Jack LeRoy, 1921 | | | | | Ralph Ray, 1923 | | | | | Harold Blanding, (1925 ? 1925) | | | | | Loa May, 1926 | | | | | Ida Dee, 1929 | | | | | Billie Fae, 1932 | | | | | William Warren, 1933 | | | | |____Bessie Jo, 1935 | | | |______Glenn (1894 - 1954) | | | 3 Married Amanda Jane Morse Matthews, 1861 (daughter, Rebecca) | | | Martha Ellen "Matty" (1862 - 1911) | | | Benjamin Franklin (1865 - 1935) | | | Andrew Alva (1866 - 1954) | | |________Thomas Paine (1869 - 1947) | | Rebecca (1821 - 1895) | | Eli (twin) (1828 - 1878) | |___________ Elias (twin) (1828 - 1910) | Thomas (1782 - 1846) | Nancy ( 1786 ? -? ) | James (? - ? ) | Hiram (?- ? ) |_________Others ?
JOHN BLANDEN KEENEY
Son of Andrew Jackson and Hanna Keeney
John Blanden Keeney was born October 20, 1859, in Lane County, Oregon, on his Fathers' farm about one-half mile south of Goshen, Oregon. He was the son of Andrew Jackson and Hanna (Cooper) Keeney. His Mother died of heart desease when he was five months old. In December, 1861, his Father married Amanda Jane Morse Matthews, who raised him, his two brothers, his half-sister Ann, and her own daughter, Rebecca Ann Matthews by a previous marriage. As the years passed, four more children were born; Martha Ellen (Matty), Benjamin Franklin, Andrew Alvan, and Thomas Paine Keeney.
Very little is known of .John's youth, but he grew to early manhood there on the Goshen farm.
John married Ellen L. Hurt of Goshen, in 1881, and their first child, Maude, was born the following year. A second daughter, Rhoda C., was born January 10, 1884. In September of that year, she was to suffer a fall from a bed, and John B. rode a racehorse to death going after the doctor. But it was too late, and Rhoda died. A son, Ira Marvin, was born July 7, 1885.
About 1887, John B. moved his family east to Gilliam County, Oregon. He was a farmer and owned several different ranches in this county; the latest located about one mile south of Gwendolen. It was on this ranch that Willard Warren was born February 10, 1888. Ellen gave birth to another son, Glenn D., October 3, 1894.
In the early 1890's, John's parents were aging and in need of help on the home place, and his step-mother, Amanda, died in 1892. Soon after Glenn's birth, John took his family back to the Andrew Jackson farm, near Goshen, where they lived for several years. His Father returned from Tacoma to live with them on the farm in 1895. After Andrew Jackson died in 1898, John was appointed U.S. Deputy Marshal and returned to Gilliam County in 1903, with the assignment to disperse the Vigilantes who had taken over during the cattle and sheep wars. He was responsible for establishing law and order, which he accomplished with little trouble, since he had previously lived in the area and had been well-known and liked. In gratitude, the people of Condon appointed him City Marshal. The Gilliam County History Books show that he was serving as Chief of Police in March of 1911.. He was on the force for several years, and even as late as 1927, was still being called to serve as an extra officer, whenever one was needed, such as Rodeo and Fair Time. His old handcuffs and star are now in the possession of his grandson, Ralph R. Keeney.
After becoming City Marshal in the early 1900's, John had a large, two-story home built in the northwest section of the city. He filled it with some of the heirlooms and furniture of the Andrew Jackson estate. This included many books, photo albums and the Family Bible. There was also an old musket, that hung in the attic, perhaps the very one made and given to Andrew Jackson by his Father, John, Jr., which was carried across the plains in 1857.
On Sundays and Holidays, his wife Ellen would spread the best tablecloth and dinner would be served. She was truly one of the finest cooks in the county. An invitation to her table was indeed a pleasure and an honor. Friends and family gathered there, and while the women were getting the meal on the table, the men would sit out on the front porch and smoke, spin yarns, and pitch pennies. After the meal was over, the women would start to clear the table. The kids retired to the back yard to play in the barn or sail a pea husk boat in the water trough, and the menfolk slowly drifted away to the downtown saloons, until finally only one was left, the Uncle who preferred to snooze on the front porch with his old dog asleep at his feet.
While John was Marshal, a murder was committed. The suspected murderer fled the scene of the crime and returned to work, herding a band of sheep in the foothills of the Blue Mountains. Marshal Keeney took up his trail and arrived at the sheep camp. Not wishing to spook the suspect before he could make an arrest, John acted the part of a prospective sheep buyer, until he was close enough to his quarry to arrest the man in a swift and decisive manner.One 4th of July, Marshal Keeney was called to a barroom because one of the cowhands had indulged in too much rye whiskey and was loud and rampageous, and occasionally shooting his pistol into the floor or ceiling. Officer Keeney came in the door and walked directly up to the drunken wrangler.
"Put up your gun and come with me," the Marshal said.
"Go to Hell!" was the reply of the cowboy. Without another word, Marshal Keeney quickly landed a blow with the barrel of his pistol alongside the head of the cowpuncher. Little John Keeney and one of the bar patrons dragged him off to the city calaboose, where he bandaged his head, locked him in a cell and left him to cool off until morning.
Another time, the boys got to whooping it up in the streets of Condon. When the Marshal arrived, to insist that law and order prevail, they saw the Marshal coming so they ran for their ponies and rode off in all different directions. One poor fellow got scared and a little confused, so he scampered up an electric light pole that happened to be handy.
This was the one and only hombre that the Marshal could catch! Standing at the foot of the pole, looking up at the treed trouble-maker, he said,
"You are under arrest for distrubing the peace. Come down."
The fellow shook his head, "No!"
Marshall Keeney drew his revolver and aimed it at the mans' head.
"Come down or I'll bring you down."
The man did not hesitate to come down then and was led off to the City Jail. Would the Marshal have taken that shot- Anyone that knew John B. would have answered,
"Damn Right"
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