Keller Church & The Dean Family Massacre

     

Keller Church

     Right off of Rt. 22 on Fox Run Road there is a small church and cemetery with an almost forgotten past. Keller Church is in Catherine township on top of a hill, and has not held a service in years. The Church was founded in 1846 and was the prominent burial ground for the Keller family and other families in the Canoe Valley. The church is made of brick on a limestone foundation. The cemetery is adjacent on the hill-side with tall pine trees over the graves. A little history also lies with one of the occupants of the cemetery, Matthew Dean. 

 

      Living near Keller church for a part of my life, I stumbled across this piece of history while taking photographs of historical places in my area. I found a memorial to the Dean family which reads,"Massacred by Indians October 1780." I had forgotten about the memorial for a few years; however, Recently I had revisited this site and look deeper into its history.

      Matthew Dean was of Irish decent and made his home approximately 3 miles southwest of Waterstreet Pennsylvania. In the late 1700's while the Revolutionary War was taking place in the eastern part of Pennsylvania, a lot of the rural parts of the state were still faced with the remnants of the French and Indian War. In the autumn of 1780, the wife and three children of Matthew Dean were killed by Indians at their home in what is now Catherine township. Some accounts of the massacre say the family was burned in the home while others only say they were scalped and murdered. Most of the accounts tend to agree that Mr. Dean and his oldest children were at work in the fields when the raid happened on the homestead. Mr. Dean and his son found the remains of his family and they were later buried in Keller cemetery. Matthew Dean later died in April of 1781 and was buried in Hart's log Cemetery near Alexandria PA.

      This is just one of the many accounts of Indian raids and massacres that happened in central Pennsylvania. Some accounts have been lost to history; were as, others hold ground in our world by small memorials or accounts passed from generations. I hope to continue to investigate these incidents and keep them alive for another generation.