My Genealogy Hound

CHARLES J. KEIM, M. D., a skillful physician and surgeon of Catasauqua, is also President of the Borough Council, and is active in all public enterprises. He has been engaged in practice here since 1875, and is therefore widely known and occupies a high place among his professional brethren in this vicinity.

Our subject is a native of Northampton County, and was born in Bethlehem, March 19, 1843, in the house where his father, Leopold, and grandfather, Valentine Keim, were also born. This residence is an old stone structure, one and a-half stories high, and is located on land purchased from William Perm. The grandfather of our subject afterward located near Bethlehem, and there died in his thirty-third year. He was a large land-owner, and engaged extensively in agriculture. Leopold Keim, also a tiller of the soil, resided one mile from Bethlehem, on property which was a part of the original farm bought from the Penns. This he sold in 1868, and moved into Allentown, where he resided until 1882. Afterward he made his home with our subject until his decease, in 1890, when in his seventy-eighth year. He was a member of the Evangelical Church, and enjoyed the esteem and confidence of all who knew him.

The mother of our subject, Mrs. Mary (Stahr) Keim, was born in Salisbury Township, Lehigh County, and died at the age of sixty years. Her father, Conrad Stahr, also a. native of this county, and of German descent, was a soldier in the War of 1812, and during the active years of his life followed contracting and building. The parental family included four sons and two daughters, of whom our subject was the third in order of birth, and is the only survivor. He remained on the old farm until reaching his thirteenth year, and then entered Wyoming Seminary, where he was a student for several years. Later he continued his studies in John Lasher’s school in Easton. After completing his education, he began clerking in a store in Butztown, and from that place went to Allentown, where he was employed during the late war.

A call being made for more volunteers, in 1862 our subject offered his services to preserve the Union, and he was mustered in as a member of Bethlehem Company F, Fifth Pennsylvania Home Guards. After being mustered out, he entered the mercantile business for himself in Allentown, his store being located at the corner of Eighth and Hamilton Streets. He continued at that stand for eighteen months, when he purchased a half-interest in the clothing store of T. V. Rhoats, the firm being known for a year afterward as Rhoats & Keim. Our subject then purchased his partner’s interest in the business, and continued alone for a twelvemonth, when he sold out.

It had been the desire of Mr. Keim since boyhood to follow a professional life, and now, the opportunity presenting itself, he began reading medicine with Dr. M. E. Hornbeck, of Catasauqua, and in the fall of 1873 entered the medical department of the Pennsylvania University, from which he was graduated March 12, 1875, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He immediately located in this city, with whose interests he has been associated ever since. In 1882 he completed his beautiful residence at No. 742 Front Street, where his office is also located.

December 15, 1863, Dr. Charles J. Keim and Miss Eliza C. Seider, who was born in Coopersburg, this county, were united in marriage. The lady is the daughter of Edward Seider, a hotel-man of Allentown. To our subject and his wife there have been born two children: Edward L., who died when three and one-half years old; and Harry J. S., a graduate of the Medico-Chirurgical College of Philadelphia, and now associated with his father in his professional business.

The Doctor, although a very busy man, has found time to aid in all measures which would benefit his community. In 1878 he was put on the School Board, holding the position of Director for three years. In 1888 he was elected President of the City Council, and so acceptably did he discharge the duties of the position that he was re-elected in 1891, and is the present incumbent of the office. During his administration the city has been lighted by electricity, which improvement was followed by the introduction of electric street cars. The Doctor is a Democrat in politics. In religious affairs he is a devoted member of Trinity Lutheran Church. Socially he is a member of the Lehigh County Medical Society, of which he was President for one year. He is also connected with the Lehigh Valley Medical Society, in which body he has held the office of Vice-President, and is prominent in the State and American Medical Societies.