Homer Maxwell Keever
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
February 16, 1905
Homer M. Keever | |
|---|---|
| Born | Homer Maxwell Keever February 16, 1905 |
| Died | September 12, 1979 (aged 74) |
| Resting place | Oakwood Cemetery, Statesville, North Carolina |
| Occupations | local historian, high school teacher, Methodist deacon |
| Known for | history of Iredell County |
| Children | 2 |
Homer Maxwell Keever (February 16, 1905 – September 12, 1979) was a local historian, journalist, Methodist deacon, high school teacher, and author of hundreds of local histories published in Statesville, North Carolina about the history and folklore of Iredell County, North Carolina, including the book, Iredell, Piedmont County, published for the United States Bicentennial.[1][2][3][4]
Homer was born in a cotton mill house in Shelby, Cleveland County, North Carolina. He was the son of Reverend John Calvin Keever (1870–1961) and Annie Blanch (Monroe) Keever (1880–1965). His parents were married in late May 1904, less than a year before Homer was born. The Mill house served as the parsonage for the Albemarle Circuit of the Methodist Episcopal Church-South, for which Reverend J. C. Keever was minister. Homer married Alta Myrtle Allen (1906–1989). His mother was a school teacher. Homer's historical philosophy was heavily influenced by being raised by a minister and school teacher.[2][1]
Education
He graduated at age 14 in 1919 from a ten-grade school in Troutman. After graduation, he entered Trinity College in Durham, a Methodist institution and now part of Duke University. He received an Artium Baccalaureatus degree from Trinity in 1923 with an emphasis in the religious training curricula. After graduation, he taught for a year at Piedmont high school in Cleveland County, North Carolina. Then, he took a job with the Western North Carolina Conference of the Methodist Church for three years. He returned to Trinity College (re-named Duke University) in 1927. He earned an Artium Magister degree in 1930 and Bachelor of Divinity in 1931 in New Testament. He was unemployed for two years before obtaining a preaching job in Charolotte where he remained until 1933 when he found a job as a sixth grade teacher in Stony Point, North Carolina.[1]
Career
He was a school teacher in Iredell County from 1934 to 1968. He was a general purpose teacher but taught mainly biology and North Carolina history in grades six, seven and eight. Homer began his research of Iredell County in 1937.[1]
In 1949, Homer began publishing articles about Iredell County history in the Statesville newspaper, the Landmark and Statesville Daily Record, which became the Statesville Record & Landmark in 1951. In 1955, he took a part-time job as managing editor of the paper and began writing a bi-weekly column, Out of Our Past. He continued to write this column until he became ill in 1978 and wrote over 600 articles for the newspaper. He won second place in the Smithwick Cup for articles by local historians given by the Association for Local and County Historians.[1]