June 29, 2026,  site is new, check back for frequent updates

Shawn’s third great-grandfather, Lieutenant Michael (O’)Keeffe, lost his mother at just two years old and his father by the age of eleven. At only fifteen, he enlisted in the United States Army for the first time.

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When the Mexican-American War began, Michael was just 16 years old and among the first four American soldiers to cross into Mexico. He and his lifelong friend, Captain James J. Butler, then just 15 years old, were captured during the campaign and became prisoners of war. Subjected to torture in an effort to reveal the strength and movements of the American Army, the two boys refused to betray their fellow soldiers. Their courage so astonished those who later told their story that it was written,

"The wisdom and the loyalty of those two lads in such a crisis would have put to shame many an older man." Their extraordinary ordeal was later immortalized in "Two Soldier Boys of the Mexican War".

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When the nation again found itself on the brink of civil war, Michael answered the call a second time. Following President Abraham Lincoln's appeal for 75,000 volunteers, he was again among the first to enlist, joining the 1st New Jersey Cavalry. Described in the regiment's official history as,

"perhaps more perfectly prepared for the field than any other in the army," the 1st New Jersey Cavalry would earn a reputation as one of the Union's finest mounted regiments.

Over the next four years he fought in at least 97 engagements, including First Bull Run, Second Bull Run, The Wilderness, Gettysburg, and the Appomattox Campaign, where he witnessed the closing days of the Civil War and the surrender of General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.

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His extraordinary life would ultimately span nearly fifty years of military and law enforcement service, from the battlefields of Mexico and the Civil War to an astonishing 39 years, 7 months, and 11 days as a police officer in Paterson, New Jersey. He retired at the age of 77, leaving behind a legacy of nearly half a century devoted to serving his country and his community.

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Michael's character was perhaps best described not by historians, but by someone whose family knew him throughout his life. Following the death of Captain James J. Butler on September 25, 1910, Butler's daughter, Phila Butler Bowman, paid tribute to the lifelong friends who had stood together through two wars:

"Michael Keeff, with James Butler, was one of the first four to set foot on Mexican soil at the beginning of the war. Both men were exponents of that patriotism which knows no sham, no insincerity. Captured during the Mexican war and questioned concerning the strength and the movements of the army, the wisdom and the loyalty of those two lads in such a crisis would have put to shame many an older man. To the day of their death they resembled each other in their unswerving devotion to the flag and their loyal allegiance to the country for which it stood. Comrades through two wars and through life, they left a record for courage, and that sort of manhood which should be an inspiration to the youth of today."