JOHN Q JACOBS, b 1 May 1826

JACOBS, HOUSTON, JOHNSON, KEISTER

Posted By: Donna Moldt Walker (email)
Date: 6/12/2004 at 07:14:33

John Q. Jacobs, late a resident of this county, settled in Brandon Township as early as 1854. He endured the hardships and privations incident to pioneer life, spent a season in the service of his country as a soldier, and on account of the privations and hardship encountered, returned with his health so much impaired that he never fully recovered. He, however, sustained by more than ordinary courage and resolution, battled with the difficulties which followed as the consequence of much physical suffering, and lived until the 28th of October, 1888. Then his remains, followed by a large number of friends and acquaintances who had known him in his life-time, were quietly laid to rest in the cemetary in Brandon Township.

Mr. Jacobs was born in Loudoun County, Va., May 1, 1826, and was the son of F. and Fanny Jacobs. The family left the Dominion ten years later and took up their residence in Champaign County, Ohio, where the mother with her children lived a number of years; the father having died in the Old Dominion. John Q. resided with his mother in Ohio until a man of twenty-eight years, then coming to this county, accompanied by her and the two other children of the family, settled in Brandon Township, where he afterward made his home. He was the youngest born. His eldest sister, Cornelia, is still living and a resident of this county; Amanda is long since deceased.

In February, 1854, the subject of this sketch was married to Miss Elizabeth Houston, daughter of George and Leah Houston. Mrs. Jacobs was born in Licking County, Ohio, April 13, 1836. Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs, after their marriage, lived in Brandon Township one year, then removed to Davenport, where Mr. Jacobs followed gardening four years. We next find them in Otoe County, Neb.; but in 1864 they returned to this county and settled upon a tract of new land in Brandon Township, from which Mr. Jacobs cleared the timber and constructed a good homestead; here he spent his last days. He was a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and politically, was a pronounced Republican. He left a nice property - the farm of ninety-five acres, with good improvements, where Mrs. Jacobs still resides.

Six children were born to our subject and his estimable wife, of whom the eldest, a daughter, Ida, is the wife of William Johnson, of this county; Thomas is living with his mother; Fanny is the wife of William Keister, of Jones County, Iowa; George, Victoria, and Jessie remain at home with their mother. Mr. Jacobs, in 1864, during the progress of the Civil War, entered the service as a scout from Nebraska, and served nine months; mostly on the frontier fighting the Indians. In 1880, he took the census of Brandon Township, and was appointed a delegate to the Republican State Convention. He served as Treasurer of his School district for many years. Socially, he was a member of the G.A.R., and was widely and favorably known along the western line of this county, where his name will be held in kindly remembrance for many years to come.

("Portrait and Biographical Album of Jackson County, Iowa", originally published in 1889, by the Chapman Brothers, of Chicago, Illinois.)