More About Lester Keephart

Lester Mahoney Keephart was born on August 24, 1897 in Alexandria Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey. Lester Keephart's mother and father were Alfred Keephart and Adah M. Bloom. Lester's early years were spent on the family's New Jersey farm, although he left as soon as he was able and traveled to Chester, Pennsylvania where he went to work for the Philadelphia Electric Co. Lester was an inventor and held a number of patents, including a patent for "Empty indicator for raw coal pipes and the like" which was filed in 1951.

Lester married Katie Evans Barker and they had three children: Mary Keephart, Richard Keephart and Frederick Evans Keephart. On the fifteenth of August in 1944 Frederick Keephart died of bronchial pneumonia at the age of 15.

Lester built "Keephart Cottage" in Betterton, Maryland sometime in the 1930's on a piece of property which abutted the Inotio Camp property. The Inotio Camp property would later be purchased by Lester and Katie's son, Richard Keephart, and renamed "Stoneton West."

Mary Keephart eventually married Ken Thomson and had four children (Martha A. Thomson, Jay S. Thomson, Eric E. Thomson and Kirk A. Thomson) who today manage the Stoneton West property.

Lester's grandchildren called him "PopPop" and he loved them dearly. Lester Keephart was an avid fisherman and folks around town used to call him "Uncle Josh," after a popular fishing bait manufacturer. He himself manufactured fishing lures, most famous of which was the "Keephart Special, now a collectors item.  He loved children and he used to tell them fish stories while he cleaned the fish he had caught in the Sassafras River and the Chesapeake Bay. PopPop taught his grandchildren how to check the fish stomachs to understand what the fish they caught had been eating.