After attending schools in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, he read law there with Andrew Gregg Curtin, a relative of Keatley's father who was elected governor in 1860.

[2] He joined the 125th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment as an administrator, and was an assistant adjutant general on the staff of Jacob C. Higgins during the Gettysburg campaign.

[3] In 1878, he lost a race for Iowa's 8th congressional district as a Democrat to Republican William Fletcher Sapp, placing third behind a Greenback candidate.

[11] He was a manager of the Senate trial of Iowa State Auditor John L. Brown, who was acquitted after being impeached by the House of Representatives.

[13] In August 1887, U.S. Treasury Secretary Charles S. Fairchild appointed Keatley to be "chief of the miscellaneous division of the second controller's office.

"[14] On July 9, 1888, President Grover Cleveland nominated Keatley to be Judge of the United States Territorial Court for the District of Alaska.

[15] Upon his early September arrival in Alaska, Keatley was not in good health, as had been reported several times since his military service.