Rebecca J. Keck
Dr. Rebecca J. Keck (1838–1904), was an American eclectic physician and patent medicine seller who practiced in Illinois and Iowa. She was one of the wealthiest independent businesswomen in the Midwestern United States, and was a prominent opponent of medical industry regulation. Early life and education The oldest daughter in a large Pennsylvania Dutch pioneer farming family, Rebecca Keck (née Ilgenfritz, sometimes spelled Ilginfritz) was born in Wooster, Wayne County, Ohio in 1838. She moved with her parents to Fairfield, Iowa at the age of thirteen, where she may have completed schooling as far as the eighth grade. In 1857, she married John Conrad Keck, a merchant and mechanic who had recently arrived in Fairfield from Northampton County, Pennsylvania. Three of Rebecca's brothers died of tuberculosis between 1857 and 1869; while she was nursing them through their illnesses, she also gave birth to six children (five girls and a boy) and began to develop a reputation among her neighbors as an herbalist. During this time, her husband built up a substantial farm equipment and foundry business. Career Following the national banking Panic of 1873, John Keck's foundry business collapsed and the couple began to collect herbs and brew her remedies