Lewis Walter Keplinger (1841-1928) was born in Morgan county, Illinois. He attended Illinois Wesleyan University but his studies were interrupted with the outbreak of the Civil War. He served in Company A, Thirty-second Regiment Illinois Infantry and during the last half of the war, he fought in Sherman's campaigns. Keplinger graduated from the University in 1868 and that summer was among the first party to climb Pike's Peak in Colorado. Afterwards he began his law studies and opened a practice Humboldt, Kansas. In 1883 he moved his practice to Wyandotte (now Kansas City), Kansas. He married Jessie Wolfkill of Logansport, Indiana, in 1886. Besides his law practice, Keplinger was a well-respected citizen, serving as a Kansas State House Representative in 1877 and a judge in Wyandotte County.
From the guide to the Keplinger family papers, 1862-1975, (University of Kansas Kenneth Spencer Research Library Kansas Collection)
