Israel Keech Tefft

Israel Keech Tefft (February 12, 1794 – June 30, 1862) was an American writer and businessman who was co-founder of the Georgia Historical Society in Savannah, Georgia.

Life and career

Tefft was born in 1794 in Smithfield, Rhode Island. His father died when Israel was around four years old, and his mother relocated so that he could be educated in Boston, Massachusetts.

In 1816, he relocated to Savannah, Georgia, and started a hardware business. he married Penelope Waite Sessions, a native of Thompson, Connecticut, and granddaughter of Darius Sessions, deputy governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. From 1849, the couple lived at the corner of Bull Street and West Jones Street in Savannah.

Tefft fell into heavy debt by December 1818, a month after becoming a father, having had several planned business transactions fail. The business folded during the Panic of 1819.

With his friend Henry J. Finn, albeit briefly. He sold his share in the business to George Robertson Jr., who restored the paper's name to The Georgian, which was published in Greenock, Scotland.

Tefft was a first corporal with the Chatham Artillery; he resigned after losing out to William Turner for the role of fourth sergeancy.

In 1839, Tefft co-founded the Georgia Historical Society, in which he became a close friend of Alexander Smets. Tefft possessed a large library of autographs and manuscripts, which he had begun around the age of 21. His collection of autographs was believed to have been one of the world's rarest. In 1867, William Gilmore Simms arranged a sale in New York City of Tefft's autograph collection for the benefit of his widow.

Death Tefft died in 1862, aged 68, having been ill for around three months. He was interred in Savannah's Laurel Grove Cemetery. His widow, who survived him by eleven years, was buried beside him. The couple survived each of their three children.