Will County ILGenWeb Biographies..... 
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File contributed for use by:
Dori Leekly & Margie Glenn

Author: History of Will County, Illinois; Chicago: Wm LeBaron Jr & Co, 186 Dearborn Street, 1878.

James KEAY, farmer; P. O. Custer; was born in county of Forfarshire, Scotland, Feb. 24, 1812, 
and is the son of John and Isabella (BARRY) KEAY, of Scotland; his father was a Sergeant Major 
in the British army; the latter part of his life he was a toll-keeper; when Mr. KEAY was 20 
years old, he entered the manufacturing business, and followed this for three years; he then 
was engaged in the mercantile business in Forfar, the county seat of Forfarshire, and remained 
in business about twenty years; in 1855, he emigrated to America with wife and four children; 
landed in Quebec, Canada. then, by lake, to Chicago, IL; here he attended a Government land 
sale and purchased 120 acres, the present homestead; in 1855, he came to Will Co. and settled 
where he now lives. Mr. KEAY married in 1834 to Miss Jane JOHNSON, of Forfarshire, Scotland, 
by whom he has had seven children. Mr. KEAY states that when he first came here the country
was very wild and only five houses between his place and Wilmington, Will Co.