JACOBS, A.J.: 1829-1906

JACOBS, JORDAN, JUNK

Posted By: Volunteer: Sherri
Date: 7/19/2013 at 06:32:01

Death of A.J. Jacobs.

Ex-County Supervisor A.J. Jacobs, whose residence has been in Cedar township, this county, for the past 50 years, died April 26, 1906, aged 77 years, 2 months and 18 days. Mr. Jacobs was one of the best known and also one of the best citizens of Van Buren county. He lived a useful and upright life. He was conservative but a public spirited citizen as well. To A.J. Jacobs, more than to any other man, is due the credit for the substantial bridges that span the Des Moines river at Farmington, Bentonsport and Pittsburg. Mr. Jacobs was elected county supervisor in 1881, and during his service in that office these three bridges were erected. There was strife in 1882 for bridges at all these points, and Mr. Jacobs took the stand for an appropriation for the "three bridges or none." One other member of the board desired to make an appropriation for a bridge at Bentonsport only, and the other member at first advocated waiting a year, but finally Mr. Jacobs, after a nearly all night consultation of the board in a room in the old Shepherd hotel on the lot where the J.C. Stickling drugstore and Dodds furniture store now stand in Keosauqua, won the other members of the board to his side, and the next day, in the Keosauqua opera house, before a large body of citizens from Farmington, Bentonsport, Pittsburg and Keosauqua, as many of our readers will remember, the board announced its decision to build three bridges, thus settling the strife for all time between these points.

Mr. Jacobs was born in Fayette Co., Pa., Feb. 8, 1829, and in 1856 came to Iowa to see the country and in 1857 moved his family to the farm where he died. Dec. 18, 1851, he married Mary A. Jordan, in Pennsylvania, who died May 5, 1871. On Oct. 6, he was again married to Mrs. Claudia Junk, who survives. There were eight children, Wm. R., Oscar, John, Joseph, Ida, Edson, Anna and Ella, all of whom are living except Ella and Edson.

Until his health began to fail a few years ago he was president of the Stockport Savings Bank and, as we understand it, was a stockholder when he died. He was a member of the Free Will Baptist church at Hillsboro, and was a Christian gentleman in the fullest meaning of that word. His life was worthy for the young man to model after, for he was true to his family, his citizenship, his church and his party. The funeral was held Sunday, April 30, a large concourse of friends and acquaintances being present, and the burial was in the Hillsboro cemetery near the church where he worshipped for nearly half a century.

Source: Van Buren Co. Genealogical Society Obituary Book C, Page 155, Keosauqua Public Library, Keosauqua, IA