Rev. Warner Keller: 52 Ancestors Prompt "At Worship"

Warner Berton Keller: 1919-2010

52 Ancestors, 52 Weeks: At Worship

                My family included several ancestors who were ministers, some in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and others in the twentieth century. My third cousin once removed, Warner Berton Keller, was of the more recent clergymen I have found in the family tree.

                Rev. Keller was born August 11, 1919 to parents Jacob and Sadie Randall Keller. He was a twin; his brother was named Wendell. Warner grew up on the family farm near Burtrum, Minnesota. He attended school in Burtrum, where he played on the baseball and basketball teams and was class valedictorian.

                                           Jacob, Wendell, Elsie, Warner and Sadie Keller

                According to his obituary, he had a religious conversion at age 12, and felt called to the ministry in his teens. He became a pastor of his first church at age nineteen, without formal training or a college education! Such confidence and commitment at such a young age! The 1940 census shows him living on his own in Burtrum, working as a minister. The industry column reads “of the Gospel”.

                On December 30, 1940, he married Pearl Knapp of Minneapolis. I am not sure how he met the young woman, as Minneapolis was a considerable distance from Burtrum. 

                By the time of his WWII draft registration, he was the minister of the Free Methodist Church in Motley, Minnesota, about forty miles north of Burtrum.  His brother, meanwhile, was in a teacher training program at the time he registered for the draft. While Warner did not serve in the military, his brother Wendell did, serving several years and eventually marrying a woman in Arizona.

Warner and his wife ministered to several churches in a variety of states over several decades, serving Methodist parishes in South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, Oregon and Washington. They had five children: Roger, Barbara, Robert, Rick and Kathi.

                According to Warner’s obituary, the church congregations he served all experienced growth during his years as their pastor. He was elected as the Superintendent of the North Minnesota Conference of the Free Methodist Church at only 33. The obituary noted that he was known for his “excellent preaching and his evangelistic fervor”.

                 Warner spent several years as the minister of the Free Methodist Church in Centralia, Washington, and returned to the city in retirement. Rev. Keller died at age 90 on January 16, 2010 after a long life at worship.