Biographical Memoirs of Wells County, Indiana, 1903. pp. 352-354.

JAMES H. KEEFER.

This young, talented and energetic editor and proprietor of the Weekly News, published at Ossian, Indiana, was born in Maysville, Allen county, Indiana, February 11, 1869, and is descended from parents in whose veins the blood of the Pennsylvania Germans largely predominated. He secured the elements of an education in Maysville at the common schools and the completion of his studies was accomplished through self application to books, travel and close observation of men and things as they passed before his mental and physical vision. He was of an inventive turn of mind in his youthful days and a year of labor in a printing office taught him the details of the profession, although he had intended to follow an entirely different line of life work. At the age of twenty he entered into the wholesale butchering and meat business at Maysville, but in 1885 Swift & Company, of Chicago, had monopolized the trade by underselling the local dealers. Mr. Keefer then turned his genius to newspaper work and how well he succeeded will be found in a sketch of the Ossian News. The Ossian Weekly Telephone was founded by DuBoise & Huffman, but dragged along a sickly existence of a few weeks only, when a Mr. Lipes started a job-printing plant with a view of founding another journal, which never materialized. In December, 1890, Mr. Keefer secured a meager five-hundred-dollar equipment and began the issue of the Ossian News. The quarters were too small and in February, 1891, he moved his establishment into the north room of the Ossian House. His determination to win overcame the doubts and prejudices of those who had been "gold bricked" by the Weekly Telephone, and soon subscriptions began to come in, and advertising to boom. In April, 1891, seeking larger quarters, Mr. Keefer moved into the upstairs rooms of the old postoffice building, where he had his living rooms as well. The News remained there until increased prosperity induced the proprietor to build his present office, to which he moved in April, 1893. The paper at the start was a four-column quarto, but in three weeks its size was increased to a five-column quarto, two pages being printed at home, the rest being "ready-print" from the Fort Wayne Newspaper Union. This continued a year, when Mr. Keefer began to print four pages at home. January 1, 1898, the News changed dress to brevier and showed further improvements, making its appearance "pasted and trimmed" in its present neat and attractive form. Recently a large Jones-Gordon press and a serviceable low-power gas engine were added, the equipment costing about twenty-five hundred dollars. The job printing facilities of the plant are equal—indeed superior—to any other in the county. The News itself is a bright, tasty, readable weekly, a mirror which reflects the life of the community, its carefully prepared news columns being now considered authority on local matters. It finds its way into nearly every home in this section of Wells county and has become almost a household necessity. Its news and editorial articles are written in a crisp, catchy style, such talent as that of C. A. Carpenter adding zest and pith to its columns and making it the favorite paper in hundreds of families.

In December, 1902, The News added a zinc etching plant by which it is enabled to present to its readers a line of interesting cartoons that materially enhance the value of the paper both from a reading and an advertising standpoint. A 20th century souvenir volume of Ossian, with an edition of two thousand copies, was issued by the News and received encomiums of praise from leading editors throughout the country.

In 1902 James H. Keefer was chosen by the building committee of the new Presbyterian church to superintend the erection of the fine sixteen-thousand-dollar edifice and so satisfactory were his efforts that the building is without a peer when compared with other church edifices of the same cost. Following is a list of the members of this committee: L. F. Wilson, chairman, Jas. H. Keefer, W. H. Rupright, A. F. Roe, G. A. Morton, Rev. E. P. Gilchrist. Jas. H. Keefer was tacitly looked upon as a man whose critical powers would be of service and indeed he was of much valuable assistance, for the entire committee deferred frequently to his judgment in weighty matters.

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