Earl W. Ketter
Earl W. Ketter, clerk of the water works at Ironton, Ohio, is still a young man, but has had a varied and eventful career in which he has gained success through his own efforts and abilities. Wearing the uniform of his country when a mere lad, subsequently connected with various business enterprises of his community, a victim of the floods of 1913, and eventually a successful city official and a prominent figure in the fraternal and athletic circles of his community—surely there has been enough of action in this young man's life to satisfy the most strenuously inclined.
Mr. Ketter is a native son of Ironton, born July 17, 1880, a son of Charles II and Rosina (Duis) Ketter. His father, born in Scioto County, Ohio, in 1849, grew there to manhood and was married, not long after which he came to Lawrence County and, locating at Ironton, engaged in the commission business, a line in which he is now widely and prominently known. The mother was also born in Scioto County, and met her death in 1893, in an accidental manner, and Mr. Ketter subsequently married her sister, Anna Duis. Nine children were born to the first union: Lillian, George, Earl W., Harold, Otto, Helen, Mabel, Ralph and Gladys, of whom Ralph is deceased. By the second union there were six children.
Earl W. Ketter received his education in the public and high schools of Ironton, and in the meantime assisted his father in the commission business, working industriously during vacations and spare times and mastering the details of the trade. He was less than eighteen years of age when the Spanish-American war broke out, but June 4, 1808, with other patriotic youths of his neighborhood, enlisted in Company E, Seventh Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with which he marched off for the front. This organization, however, never left the United States, the war closing before it was called upon for active service, and Mr. Ketter received his honorable discharge, November 6, 1898, and returned to his home. At that time he became a bookkeeper in his father's business, and continued as such until 1901, when he purchased an interest in the Ketter Clothing Company, acting as a clerk with this enterprise until 1909. Succeeding this, he turned his attention to the confectionery business, and was identified therewith until the flood of March, 1913, washed out his place of business and he then concentrated his energies upon his duties as clerk of the water works, a position to which he had been appointed in 1912. He has continued to handle the affairs of his office in an entirely satisfactory manner, and through his energetic and up-to-date methods has succeeded in introducing a number of needed reforms into the department.
Mr. Ketter was married June 6, 1907, to Miss Anna J. Nauert, daughter of Herman Nauert, of Ridgeway, Pennsylvania, superintendent of the Ridgeway Dynamo and Engine Company. One child has been born to this union: Earl W., Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Ketter are members of the First Methodist Church, and in politics he is a republican. In April, 1903, he was appointed captain and regimental adjutant of the Seventh Ohio National Guards, under Col. C. A. Thompson, serving also as adjutant under Col. E. E. Corn, and was captain of commissary in 1907 at the time of his resignation. In 1906 Mr. Ketter assisted in the organization of E. C. Smith Camp No. 28, Spanish-American War Veterans, of which he was elected quartermaster, and still holds that office. For some years Mr. Ketter has been greatly interested in athletics, particularly baseball, and through his earnest and skilled efforts the Ironton Club of the Ohio State League, of which he is manager and assistant secretary, has been developed into a speedy and hard-fighting organization. Mr. Ketter is popular with those who know him in all walks of life, and few men have a wider circle of friends.
From "A Standing History of the Hanging Rock Iron Region of Ohio" by Eugene B. Willard, Daniel W. Williams, George O. Newman and Charles B. Taylor. Published by Lewis Publishing Company, 1916