Charles E. Keller. The position of court stenographer is which calls for speed and accuracy in execution and intense concentration of mind. The records of the testimony taken in court are too important in character to be handled in any slip-shod manner, and the individuals designated for this kind of work are therefore chosen for their reliability and fidelity as well as for their intelligence and mere physical attributes. The court reporter of the Circuit Court of Champaign County, Charles E. Keller, has been the incumbent of his present position since 1915 and his skill and exactness have gained him the approbation of the bench and bar. He is an alert and reliable young man, and as he is a product of Champaign County the people here have watched his advancement with interest.
Mr. Keller was born on a farm in Scott Township, Champaign County, Illinois, December 3, 1889, being a son of Peter and Ella Belle (Flowers) Keller. His father, a native of Hocking County, Ohio, came to Champaign County when a young man, and here adopted the vocation of farming, which he followed for many years, or until his retirement. He was industrious and enterprising and developed a handsome property in the vicinity of Bondville, but the accumulation of a competence made it unnecessary for him to labor any more and he is now living in comfort at his home in that village. Mrs. Keller, who also survives, is a native of Champaign County. There were two children in the family: Charles E.; and Bessie Opal, who is unmarried and resides with her parents. The parents are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Charles E. Keller’s boyhood home was in the vicinity of Bondville, and the schools of that place furnished him with his preliminary education. He was reared on the farm and trained in the matters that go to make up the skilled husbandman, but like many other farmers’ sons before him he answered the call of the city, and in order to train himself for a career in the busy, energetic life of the larger centers pursued a course in bookkeeping and stenography at the Brown Business College at Champaign. When he had completed his studies there, Mr. Keller secured a position in the office of Judge Boggs, of Champaign, with whom he remained from July, 1908, until 1915, in which latter year he was appointed to his present position. As before noted, he has “made good” in the official capacity of Circuit Court stenographer, and has made numerous friends among the officials and attaches of the Court House at Urbana, where his office is located.
Mr. Keller was married October 4, 1911, at Champaign, to Miss Ethel Matilda Rayburn, who was born in Champaign County, and they are the parents of three children: Ernestine, born July 25, 1912; and Charles Irwin and Chester Edwin, twins, born July 20, 1916. Mr. Keller maintains an independent stand in politics. He is a Mason and a Pythian Knight, and he and Mrs. Keller belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church at Urbana.