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         JACOB W. ELRICK, a prominent farmer residing on section 28, Elliott Township, is a native of Westmoreland County, Pa., and a son of Frederick and Margaret (Caton) Elrick, the father of French and German descent, the mother of Scotch-Irish ancestry. The paternal grandfather of our subject served as a soldier in the Revolutionary War. Frederick was a tanner . . .

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. . . by trade, and to him and his excellent wife were born ten children: Elizabeth, wife of Alex McChesney, a capitalist, of Westmoreland County, Pa.; our subject; Samuel, who died in Pennsylvania at the age of fifty-five years; George, who also departed this life in that State; Washington, whose death occurred in Eureka, Nev., in 1876; Clark, who died in childhood; John, a practicing physician of Butler County, Pa.; Robert, whose home is in Westmoreland County, that State; Wallace, a locomotive engineer residing in Mason City, Iowa; and Ann, wife of William Bergman, of Westmoreland County, Pa. The parents of this family were members of the Presbyterian Church. The father died in 1875, aged seventy-five years, and the mother departed this life in 1886, at the age of eighty-three years.

The early years of our subject were spent upon a farm, but at the age of fourteen he served an apprenticeship to the tailor’s trade, in Blairsville, Pa., and after his three-years term of service had expired went to Philadelphia, Pa., where he worked one summer. Returning home, he there remained for a short time, and then started out as a journeyman tailor, traveling through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama, for seven years, when he returned to his native State in 1842, making a short visit, and then going to Muskingum County, Ohio.

In April, 1843, Mr. Elrick wedded Catherine Wycoff, a native of Ohio, and a daughter of John Wycoff. After their marriage they remained in Muskingum County until 1855, when they removed to Mercer County, Ill., Mr. Elrick there following the trade of tailoring, in Keithsburg, for ten years. He then purchased a farm in Mercer County, and engaged in its cultivation until 1878, when, with his family, he removed to Louisa County, settling in Elliott Township, where he purchased 280 acres of land on sections 28 and 29, and has there made his home continuously since.

Twelve children have been born to Mr. Elrick and his estimable wife: Aeoles, a stock-raiser residing near Denver, Col., who served one year as a soldier in the 120th Illinois Infantry during the late war; Leonidas, a dry-goods merchant of Clearfield, Taylor Co., Iowa; George, who was one of the boys in blue, died in New Orleans; Herbert, a merchant of Seaton, Ill.; Kate, wife of Joseph Ogle, a resident farmer of Mercer County, Ill.; Frederick, a merchant of Elrick, Iowa; James, who is also engaged in the same business at Elrick; Elizabeth, wife of James Berry, whose home is in Oskaloosa, Iowa; Alice who wedded Tuttle Jameson, a resident of Wapello Township, Louisa County; Susan, who is at home; and two children who died in infancy. Mr. Elrick and his wife are both members of the Presbyterian Church. He has held the office of School Treasurer of Elliott Township for five years. Every enterprise which has for its object the public good receives his hearty support, and in 1883 he donated the ground on which the present town of Elrick is situated. Politically, he is a Greenbacker, and one of the leading and representative farmers of Elliott Township.