Jacob A. Grove (1851-1926)

GROVE

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 3/24/2022 at 12:04:25

Jacob A. Grove
(October 1, 1851 – May 7, 1926)

Jacob A. Grove owns and operates a valuable farm of two hundred and forty
acres in Lake Creek Township, whose neat and thrifty appearance well indicates his careful supervision. Substantial improvements are surrounded by well tilled fields, and all the accessories and conveniences of a model farm are there found.
Mr. Grove is a native of the Prairie state, his birth having occurred in Menard County, Illinois, October 1, 1851. His parents were Adam J. and Sarah A. T. (Horn) Grove, and his paternal grandparents were Henry and Eve Grove. The former was born October 20, 1784, at Ephrata, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. His father, Jacob Grove, settled near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, about 1800. The family is of German lineage and was established at Ephrata about 1785. The name was then spelled Graff and the family was identified with the Seventh Day Baptists. At Ephrata there are deeds of land purchased by Abram Graff and dated 1760. He had five children, and died in Lancaster County in 1788. His son, Jacob, was born in 1751. He made the family name Groff and there are many of his descendants still living in Lancaster County.
He married Nancy Kneisley, of Ephrata, about 1780, and they became the parents of sixteen children, one of whom was Henry, the paternal grandfather of our subject. It was he who adopted the present form of the name — Grove. He was married, in Hummelston, Pennsylvania, June 7, 1808, to Eve Hammaker, who was born January 9, 1791, in that county. They were the parents of twelve children, and on the first of November, 1836, they emigrated westward, settling at that date in Springfield, Illinois. The following year they took up their abode in what is now Williams Township, Sangamon County, Illinois. The grandfather was a farmer by occupation and passed his last days in Illinois.
The father of our subject was born near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on the 11th of March, 1809, and chose the tailor's trade as his life work, but he also engaged in preaching as a minister of the Christian church. He was married, at Xenia, Ohio, to Sarah A. T. Horn, and in the year 1830 removed to Springfield, Illinois, preceding his father six years. He spent some years in Sangamon and Menard counties, and died in Athens, that state, June 30, 1851. He was an earnest and consistent Christian and was highly respected and esteemed by all who knew him. His wife, who was born in Xenia, Ohio, May 4, 1816, departed this life December 31, 1893. After the death of her first husband, she married John England. The children born of the first marriage were as follows: Edwin H., April 20, 1836; John H., December 1, 1839; Sarah E., October 12, 1841 ; William B., January 10, 1843; Elizabeth C, February 18, 1844: Susan M., May 12, 1845; Daniel H., April 14, 1847; Anna, December 23, 1849; and Adam J. and Jacob A., twins, October 1, 1851, in Athens, Menard County, Illinois. Of this number John H. is now in Cape Nome, Alaska, although his home is at Williamsville, Illinois.
The subject of this sketch spent his early life in Illinois, and attended the schools near his boyhood home. At the age of twenty-one he left the parental roof and began to make his own way in the world. The first farm, which he owned was a tract of sixty acres in Logan County, Illinois, where he made his home until coming to Calhoun County, Iowa, in the spring of 1892. He purchased two hundred and forty acres of land in Lake Creek township, and to its improvement and cultivation he has since devoted his time and energies with marked success. He usually plants one hundred acres to corn and eighty-five acres to small grain, the remainder of his farm being meadow and pasture land, and there is also an orchard and grove. He gives considerable attention to the raising of stock, keeping forty head of short horn cattle and a
large number of Poland China hogs.
On the 30th of April, 1880, Mr. Grove was united in marriage to Miss Lydia J. Lucas, who was born in Mount Pulaski, Logan County, Illinois, November 1, 1858, a daughter of Richard B. and Martha (Nicholson) Lucas. Her father was also born in that county, December 5, 1830, and is now a farmer of Calhoun County, Iowa, his sketch appearing elsewhere in this volume. The birth of her mother occurred in Michigan, March 7, 1834. Mr. and Mrs. Grove have five children, the three oldest of whom were born in Mount Pulaski, Illinois, the
others in Calhoun County, Iowa. They are as follows : Richard A., born February 9, 1881 ; Vinton, August 20, 1882 ; Elmer, July 9, 1888 ; Verna, February 8, 1893 ; and Etta, September 25, 1895. Socially Mr. Grove is a member of Camp No. 2522, M. W. A., at Rockwell City, and politically is identified with the Republican party. He has served as president of the
school board three years and director for eight years ; and has also filled the office of township trustee three years ; and is now township treasurer. His official duties have been discharged with a promptness and fidelity worthy of the highest commendation, and he is justly regarded as one of the most
valuable and highly respected citizens of his community. [Source – Biographical Record of Calhoun County, Iowa, by S. J. Clarke, 1902, p.234]