Matthew Keller (c. 1811-1881), shopkeeper, vintner, and councilman, was known by the Spanish honorary “Don Mateo”. Born in County Cork, Ireland, Keller reportedly immigrated to the U.S. in 1832 and spent the 1840s in Mexico. He came to Los Angeles in 1850-1851, allegedly after befriending fellow Irish expat Andrew Boyle in the Gulf, and ran a general store on Alameda Street. Keller soon took an interest in viniculture and became one of the region’s top winemakers: his Rising Sun Vineyard was located due west of present-day Mateo Street, named in his memory in 1886. Keller was also famous for owning Rancho Topanga Malibu, which he bought in 1857 (possibly 1854) to turn into another vineyard. In a sad but curious detail, Keller spent nearly all of 1877 promoting his wines in New York, even though his 41-year-old wife Eliza died at home just five days after his departure that January. He did not return until December. In the interim, their five minor children were apparently raised by family friends Thomas Leahy (who I strongly suspect was actually Keller’s son from a forgotten first marriage), Isaias Hellman, and/or Andrew Boyle’s daughter Maria and her husband William H. Workman: indeed, Matthew and Eliza Kellers’ longest surviving son was named Henry Workman Keller, and it was he who sold Malibu to the Rindge family in 1892.
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