West Liberty History 1838-1938

Source: One Hundred Years of History
* Commemorating a Century of Progress in the West Liberty Community * WEST LIBERTY, IOWA
THE S. W. JACOBS SALE

Along about the year 1884 Silas W. Jacobs owned a farm on the south side of the old Muscatine and Iowa City highway. The farm is now owned by the Vannatta estate.

In the day and age of Silas W. Jacobs the house was a very large one, part of which has been removed and now stands on the R. W. Brooke farm some distance to the east. In the days of Silas W. Jacobs his house was equipped with a pool room or billiard room on the third floor. He was known far and wide as a breeder of shorthorn cattle, and about 1884 he held an auction sale which was perhaps the most talked of and longest remembered sale ever held in this community. The sale was held at the farm in the spring of the year, and a special sidewalk was built from the farm along the south side of the road which was an extension of Maxson avenue in West Liberty, from the town to the farm, a distance of about one and a half miles. At this sale a cow and calf sold for the sum of thirty-six hundred dollars which was a fabulous price in that day and age.

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