SAMUEL B. KEPNER, deceased, who was identified for over half a century with carpenter and building contract work in Miami County, with residence during the most of that time in Covington, was born January 11, 1843, on a farm in Darke County, Ohio, son of Absalom and Margaret (Radebaugh) Kepner.

Absalom Kepner was born in Juniata County, Pennsylvania, where his father died, after which he accompanied his mother, in early manhood, to Darke County, Ohio. By trade he was a weaver, but his main business through life as farming. Prior to his marriage he ran a loom at Covington, but when he married Margaret, daughter of John Radebaugh, the latter gave him a farm in Darke County, on which he resided until 1859. He then came to Covington and shortly afterward started a little grocery store one and a half miles out in the country. Still later he operated a store at Clayton, where his death occurred in February, 1881.

Samuel B. Kepner was only fifteen years old when he started to learn the carpenter's trade under his brother, Benjamin Kepner, and for a number of years they worked in partnership. At the age of nineteen he enlisted in Company B, Ninety-fourth O. V. I., August 7, 1862, and spent three years in the service of his country. In 1872 Benjamin Kepner went to the West, and subsequently died at Denver, Colorado. From that time on until he was sixty-five years old and felt he was ready to retire from business activity, Samuel B. Kepner was engaged in contracting and building and met with more than usual success. He did a large amount of farm building, constructing many comfortable farm residences and innumerable barns. One of his large contracts was the building of the tobacco shed for Joseph Mohler, which was 116 feet long, with an extension of the old barn of eighteen feet, one end being thirty-five feet and the other forty feet in width. It was Mr. Kepner's policy to keep plenty of help and to use only the best material, and thus he was able to be punctual and satisfactory in completing his contracts. During his last years of active business life he utilized a larger force of men and did more business than in any one previous season.

On August 12, 1869, Mr. Kepner was married to Miss Martha Boggs, a daughter of Aaron and Melvina (Hitt) Boggs. She was born and reared in Newberry Township, Miami County. Her father was born near Piqua, Ohio, and was a son of Ezekiel Boggs, who operated one of the early grist-mills on the Little Miami River. In January, 1873, Aaron Boggs moved from his farm to Covington, and there he died suddenly of heart disease, having been attacked while attending church. He married Melvina Hitt in Kentucky, of which State she was a native, and after his death she moved back to the farm in Newberry Township, where she died in January, 1883. Mr. and Mrs. Kepner had five children, as follows: Cora, who is the wife of William Helman, resides on a farm two and a half miles west of Sidney and has three children-Maurice, Ruth and Etoile; Amanda, who is the wife of Ora Wenrick, resides at Indianapolis, and has three children: Mildred, Pearl and Floyd; Melvina, who is the widow of A. L. Stahl, and has one child, Flossie; Charles, who married Nora Loxley, resides on his farm of sixty acres in Darke County, and has two children: Naomi and Charles Ivor; and Pearl, who is the wife of J. W. Goudy of Camden, Ohio, and has one daughter: Martha Catherine.

In 1883 Mr. Kepner moved to his farm in Darke County, residing there until 1907, when he returned to Covington, and subsequently occupied a handsome brick residence which he built in the fall of 1906, and which is situated on North High Street, adjoining the Highland Cemetery. Mr. Kepner belonged to the Church of the Brethren, the religious society otherwise known as the Dunkards, of which his wife is also a member. The last dread summons, which came to him suddenly on April 14, 1909, found him prepared, like the Wise Virgins, with his Lamp trimmed and burning. An earnest and consistent Christian, we cannot doubt that he heard the glad words of his Master, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." He was ever a devoted husband and a kind father, and to his children he left the priceless legacy of a good name. He was a man of high standing in his community, one who through a long business career made honesty and integrity its foundation stones.