New Information: John Kever, father of Jacob Kever, listed on a List of German Passengers on Board the Ship North America, Tys de Haas, from Amsterdam, October 10, 1787.
On a list of the Names of Persons who took the Oath and Affirmation of Allegiance to this State, passed the fourth of March 1786, dated September 24, 1787. John Kever, of the Northern Liberties, Cordwainer, took the oath on October 10, 1787.
Enrolled in the Rolls Office of the State of Pennsylvania in Commission Book No 1 Page 101, Witness my hand and Seal of Office, the 20 October 1790, Matthew Irwin.
Jacob Artimaes (various spellings used) Kever (126) (1792-1880) was the first of the Kevers we know much about. He is shown on the 1820 census in Iredell County, North Carolina but not on the 1810 one, so presumably he arrived there in that ten year period.
Martha Kever Rakes has shared with me a history of the Jacob Artimus Kever family written by a descendant, Homer M. Keever. Much of the information about the Kever and Correll ancestors comes from his account. He says it is not clear who Jacob A.’s parents were, that some descendants think his father was named Henry, but no records can be found to document this. He says that Jacob A.(126), who lived at Third Creek, was probably the son of Jacob Kever of Norwoods Creek. Word of mouth stories told by descendants say that Jacob A.’s father died when he was about 12 years old, in 1804 or 1805 and there was a Jacob Keever at Norwoods Creek who died at that time.
The same tradition says that Jacob was bound out to a blacksmith and census records bear this out. He became a blacksmith and used earnings from his trade to buy land for farming and taught his sons to be blacksmiths. Iredell County indentures of the day required that one bound out be given a rudimentary education as well as being taught a trade.
In those days it was not uncommon for needy families to put out a child to serve as an indentured servant. The family from which he came would get some badly needed money, the the child could learn a trade. It seems plausible that this might have happened soon after the death of Jacob’s father. Sometime about the time he was 21 and his indenture completed Jacob Kever (126) married Mary Ann Correll (127) who lived near the head of Third Creek in what was then Iredell County.
The first documented evidence of Jacob at the head of Third Creek is to be found in two deeds made to him in 1817, one of which was made by his father-in-law, John Correll (318). Eventually, Jacob acquired and paid taxes on 530 acres on Third Creek and the head of Elk Shoal Creek. It is said that his goal was to leave each of his children a tract of land and there are deeds to some of the daughters to suggest that he tried it. After Mary (319) died in 1859 he made over his farm to his son, Artimus, to care for him.
Mary Ann Correll Keever (127) spent all of her life near her birthplace in North Carolina but Jacob made a big move after he was widowed and an old man. He deeded his property to a son, Jacob Artimus, Jr. who wanted to "seek his fortune" in Arkansas. Soon after 1870 the son and his family, along with Jacob Sr. moved to the Wolf Bayou area.