ROBERT KEATING. To that representative business man and citizen, Robert Keating, two provinces of enterprise have afforded the opportunities of success. In the earlier part of Mr. Keating’s long residence in Buffalo he won distinction and acquired wealth in manufactures. At the present time he devotes himself to his important banking interests.
Robert Keating is a native of Ireland. The family to which he belongs lived for generations in County Carlow, near Dublin, and later in the County of Wexford. Tradition says that the Keatings originally came to Ireland from France.
Robert Keating, the father of Robert Keating of Buffalo, was a resident of the County of Wexford, where he was well-known as a land-ownder and as the agent of a large estate. In 1827 he married Eleanor Langford, who, like her husband, was a member of the Church of England, and belonged to a very old Irish family.
Robert Keating, the subject of the present sketch, was born in County Wexford on the 30th of September, 1834. He was educated at public and private schools. In 1854 he came to America to visit his brother, George Keating, of Brooklyn, N. Y. Mr. Keating liked this country so well that he decided to remain here. In less than a year after his arrival he came to Buffalo and entered the employ of Jewett & Root, stove manufacturers. With that firm he remained about eleven years. He rose to the positions of cashier and buyer, and in 1866 formed a partnership with Henry C. Jewett, son of S. S. Jewett, in the tannery business. The enterprise was very successful, having plants in Olean, N. Y., and in Port Allegany, Pa. With this industry Mr. Keating was connected until 1892, when the business was sold to the leather trust. Thereafter Mr. Keating retired from manufacturing, and has since devoted his time to banking, being identified with some of the most important financial institutions in Buffalo. Since 1866 he has served as a Director of the Third National Bank; is Secretary of the Standard Savings & Loan Association, and has been Vice-President and trustee of the Buffalo Savings Bank since 1894.
He is a trustee fo the Buffalo Orphan Asylum and for twenty-five years served as a trustee of the Buffalo General Hospital. He is a life member of the Young Men’s Association, and the Fine Arts Academy, and belongs to the Historical Society. He is President of the Board of Trustees of the Delaware Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, and has been a member of the board ever since its organization thirty-five years ago.
In 1858 Mr. Keating married Caroline W. Root, daughter of Francis H. Root. The only surviving child of the union is Robert Keating Root, who was adopted by Francis H. Root, who wished an heir to perpetuate the family name. Mrs. Keating died in 1866. In 1868 Mr. Keating married a second time, his wife being Anna J. Putnam, a daughter of the late Hon. James O. Putnam. The children of the marriage are: George P. Keating; Jeannette P. Keating, now Mrs. Roger C. Adams, and Harriett Keating.
Source: Memorial and Family History of Erie County, New York: Volume I, Biographical and Genealogical, published 1906-1908 by Genealogical Publishing Company, New York, pp. 195-196. Available via books.google.com.
See also the biography of Robert’s son, Robert Keating Root, aka Francis Root Keating. [Note: See Elizabeth W Knowlton’s comment below on the relationship between Robert Keating Root and Francis Root Keating. I should know better by now than to jump to conclusions…Â –Â John]
Francis Root Keating and Robert Keating Root are two separate men, probably brothers, the first born in Apr 1862 and the second in Jun 1866. They appear separately on the censuses, the first living with his father, Robert Keating; the second with his grandfather, Francis H Root. They married different women, the first Grace Brayley; the second, Emily Knowlton Davis (ca. 1889). The latter had no children. Because Robert Keating [adopted] Root was born in June 1862, the year his mother, Caroline Root Keating died, I assumed she died in childbirth. However, there is another child, Langford S. Keating, in the Root household, supposedly the son of Robert and Anna, his second wife. He was born in 1866 also. Can anyone explain where he came from?