Guy Ketterman was the third child born to "Jack Ketterman and Nancy Walker Ketterman.

The bio is taken largely from "The Fifteen Children of John W. Ketterman by Romney J Ketterman and Barbara Ketterman Pendleton. Used by permission from Barbara Pendleton. I did paraphrase and omit some of it but stayed true to the spirit of the book. I also added information not available at the time the book was written.

"There is some question about his birth. He certainly believed that he was born on July 21, 1882. That is the date he used when he registered for WWI and for his Social Security number. However there is no birth record for Guy in Champaign County, where the Kettermans lived. His sibling's births are all duly recorded. There is however a record for Birt Edward Ketterman born to John W. and Nancy Walker Ketterman on July 10, 1882 in Foosland. This could be Guy and they later decided to change the name, but there is still the discrepancy in the birth date.

Guy may have been named for the town Urbana, Illinois, however he was always referred to by his middle name. "Guy"

Soon after Guy's birth his family moved to Pittsburg, Kansas. and his younger siblings, Chloe, Romney, and Derward joined the family.

On November 13, 1892, Guy's mother, Nancy died and his whole world changed. Almost from immediately after the funeral he was bundled off to a farm near Moran Kansas to live with his Uncle Willis Walker. A Photograph of the Willis Walker family taken only a short time after Nancy's death shows Guy at age 10 standing in the back looking awkward. The 1895 Kansas enumeration shows Guy living in the Willis Walker household.

In some respects Guy was fortunate to be sent to Willis' home. Willis and his wife Alice were kind and generous people, and by all accounts they treated their nephew well. After some time they also took in Romney and Derward, Guy's younger brothers as well. However in 1896 Alice took very ill and the youngest Ketterman boys were sent back to their newly remarried father in Pittsburg.

Guy apparently stayed on to help with the farming, but by the time he was 17 he was on his own. The 1900 census shows Guy in Plato Township, Sioux City, Iowa an employee on the John Tank farm.

When he was 29 he married Nancy Jane Cooper known as Jennie. They bought a farm near Riverside California.

In 1918 Guy registered for the draft listing his wife as his next of kin. He had severed all ties to his father by this time.

Guy and Jennie had no children. They seemed to be happy and have a good life together. Jennie died 16 Sept. 1954. Guy died on the 22 of April 1964.


About 1963 Romney C. and Lottie Ketterman visited Guy in California. He was very ill at that time. The news of his ill heath was passed on to the Walker cousins and they too came to visit.

Jean Trott Felkins wrote of her visit.
...
"Guy was feeling so bad when we were there that we didn't talk very long. But at one point I was alone in the room with him. He opened his eyes and asked , "How is Grace?" I told him that she had died of cholera a year before. Then he asked, "What about Frank?" I had to tell him that Frank also was dead. He closed his eyes and said nothing more. I was shocked that in his weak condition he still knew who I was & that Grace and Frank were my Aunt and Uncle. He remembered them from Kansas when they were all little kids-and had seen Grace on his last trip "home""