Artist: Robert Wadsworth Grafton (1876–1936)
Louis Keefer
KEEFER, LOUIS (1844–1916), inducted by 1920
Born in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, Louis Keefer immigrated to the United States as a teenager, and by 1863, was buying livestock throughout Ohio to ship to the Pittsburg market. In 1873, he relocated to Chicago and formed a partnership with Levi P. Doud. Doud & Keefer was soon one of the largest exporters of live sheep and cattle to England. Keefer had two farms in northern Illinois, and he fed cattle extensively at various distilleries, particularly at Pekin and Peoria, handling as many as 12,000 head per year. Keefer was vice president of the Doud Stock Car Company as well.
Source: Saddle & Sirloin Guidebook 2026, p. 120