Wagon Ruts West

JOHN KEENEY, JR. FAMILY
By Ralph Ray Keeney

Published in 1983

JOSEPH B. KEENEY

Joseph B. Keeney - Seated on outside left
Stage Owner & Driver
Walla Walla, Washington, 1970

JOSEPH B. KEENEY
(B. June, 1830 - D. 1905)
No record of parentage

Joseph B. Keeney was born in Crawfordsville, Indiana in June of 1830. In 1852, he went by steamer through the Isthmus of Panama in route to California.

Mr. Keeney soon became identified with the big companies who wre engaged in the Star Route Contracting. For a number of years he was a stockholder in one of the companies that had its headquarters in San Francisco. He came to Oregon in 1869, and took charge of Wells Fargo and Co., as Business Agent, and followed this business until the Union Pacific Railroad was completed.

"Joe" Keeney was connected with the, now historical Overland Stage Route that extened from the Dalles 800 miles eastward to the Western terminus of the Union Pacific Railroad. During this period he had a residence in the Dalles, Oregon, Wasco County, and in 1870 drove stage from the Dalles through Shaniko and on into the John Day Valley to terminate at the Snake River opposite Old Ft. Boise, where my great Uncle Jonathan Keeney was operating his Riverside Inn and Ferry. This route was then called the Dalles Military Road.

Later in life, Joseph Keeney was elected twice to the office of County Clerk for Umatilla County, Oregon. After retiring, he moved to Walla Walla, Washington.

He married a Frances M. White in 1854 in California, and they had four children; Edward, who lived in Monument, Oregon; Joseph, at La Grande; Mrs. E.W. Farrel of Barnegat Park, New Jersey; and Mrs. Ben Morgan, of Pendleton, Oregon in this year of 1905. Francis (White) Keeney passed away and is buried in a park at Pendleton, Oregon.

Joseph was married a second time in 1891 to Elizabeth Bourn, and they had one little girl, Esther.

Joseph B. Keeney passed away at his home in Walla Walla, Washington in 1905 at the age of 75.

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The following is from the pages of HISTORY OF GRANT CO., page 681.

EDWARD C. KEENEY:

He was born May 6, 1868 in Salt Lake, Utah, the son of Joseph B. Keeney and Francis M. White, From Salt Lake, they moved to Kelton, Utah; to Boise, Idaho; to Walla Walla, Washington; to Weston, Oregon; to Pendleton, Oregon. In 1889, he operated the stage lines from out of Heppner to Monument. They moved to Long Creek where he operated a hotel; then to Drewsey.

Edward C. Keeney married Mary May Violett Jan. 1, 1893, at the home of her sister, Mrs. J. S. Woolery, in Ione, Oregon.

• Heppner Gazette - January 3, 1893 at the Bancroft Library:

  "Married - At Ione, at the residence of the bride's brother-in-law, (J. A. Woolery, Esq.) Mr. Edward C. Keeney and Miss Mary May Violett, Edwin Palmer officiating. It was a very quiet wedding, but few being present. It was however, none the less enjoyable. The contracting parties were two of the most estimable and popular young people of Morrow County. We congratulate them on their passage from single blessedness to double bliss and trust that others will emulate their wise example."

• Heppner Gazette -
  Oct. 25 1889, page 3 at the Bancroft Library:

  "J. B. Keeney, Superintendent of Idaho Stage Co., passed thru Long Creek on way to Canyon City."

  Oct. 24, 1890, page 3

  "J. W. Keeney has sold his ranch on which the town of Long Creek is build, to M. S. and T. B. Keeney."

  Oct. 25, 1889, page 3

  J. W. Keeney sent a load of lumber to his mine on Big Creek."

  Oct. 3 1890, page 3

  "Miss Mamie Violett of Monument, left Long Creek thursday A.M. for the Malheur County where she will visit relatives. Ed Woodall acted as escort."

• Copy of news item, Dec. 23, 1888 in Blue Mt. Eagle:

  MARRIED: At the residence of the bride's parents, at Monument, Oregon, on Sunday, Dec. 23, Joseph Woolery to Helen Violett, Mr. Geo. Baker, J.P. officiating. The happy couple have secured the best wishes of the EAGLE forevermore, by sending us a piece of their wedding cake. May happiness and prosperity attend them.

Edward and Mary May (Violett) Keeney had a daughter, Edna, and she grew up and married Ernest J. Schmitz and they are now living in Portland, Oregon.

Edward Cope Keeney had operated the stage from Heppner to Monument, Oregon in 1889. He died in Portland in 1930.

My Father, Willard Warren Keeney, had picture postcards from his cousins "The Keeneys", who lived in Ione, Oregon in 1910. One of the cards shows a man on a motorcycle, and is signed, "Your Cousin, "Cope Keeney."

Edna (Keeney) Schmitz's sister, Gladys P., married Harley Sprouls on Nov. 3, 1917 in Morrow Co., Oregon. They lived for many years in Condon, Oregon where they operated a Second Hand Store and Ice Plant. They had one son, Harley Sprouls, Jr., who died in about 1931 with Infantile Paralysis. About 1940, they moved to Portland, Oregon and ran a Public Auction Yard there for several years. Both are now deceased.

Another sister, Juanita B. married Jack Bryant Dec. 21, 1913 in Grant Co., Oregon. The Gilliam County History Book, published in 1981, shows Jack S. Bryant as Chief of Police of Condon, Oregon for 1934.

A brother of Edna's, Chauncy W. Keeney, married Ellen Davidson Nov. 16, 1968 in Multnomah Co., Oregon.

There was another sister, Tina, of which we have no record.

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