JACOB STEVENS
Jacob Stevens was born in Herkimer county, New York, in the town of Fairfield, on the 4th day of January, 1814, of German parentage. His father was born in the Duchy of Holstein, in Germany, and came to this country about a century ago. He was a shoemaker by occupation. He died three months before Jacob was born, leaqving his wife a widow and very poor, with seven children to care for, six of whom were bound out by the county authorities. Their names were as follows...James, Nancy, George, Conrad, Eliza and Sylvester. In 1817 his mother married a man by the name of Smith, and soon after removed to Jefferson county, New York. There they settled on a piece of government timber land, and cleared themselves a farm, but afterwards lost it. When about sixteen years of age, Mr. Stevens went to Canada, and squatted on a piece of government land. He then returned for his parents, took them to Canada, and began life as a frontiersman. He cleared eighty acres for himself, and about one hundred acres for other parties. While in Canada he married Mary A. Monk, he being twenty-one years old, and she eighteen. Mr. and Mrs. Steven began married life with only their willing hands and an axe, and one hundred and ten dollars in debt. Now commenced a struggle for the newly married pari, such as but few have ever experienced. Steeling far back in the woods away from neighbors and roads, the necessaries of life had to be carried in on their baqcks. Their bedsteads, chairs, tables, etc., were homemade, and of the cheapest kind, but answered the purpose. Mr. Stevens chopped and cleared his land at odd spells, and his faithful wife often assisted him by gathering and burning brush. Mr. Stevens having but little education, his wife taught him to read and write, and by this means he acquired a fair education, sufficient at least to meet the requirements of business in after life. Mrs. Stevens took in sewing and weaving, and so assisted materially in the race. In clearing their land, the ashes were saved, and manufactured into black salt (potash), which was a legal tender in those days. Mr. Stevens traded his wedding suit for a pair of two-year-old steers, which was his first team., Then he began clearing a farm of one hundred acres for himself, on Clergy Reserve land.
He afterwards sold his improvements, paid up all obligations, and made a small payment on fifty acres of other land. This he improved, and about the year 1848 he sold and removed to Wisconsin, with eight hundred dollars. He next bought one hundred and sixty acres of wild land in Dodge county, Wisconsin, and commenced anew in the woods, and chopped and cleared eighty acres of heavily timbered land. This he sold for sixteen hundred dollars, and bought adjoining it ninety-seven acres for eight hundred dollars. About the same time he bought in Michigan two hundred and eighty acres, for eighty cents per acre. Off of this land he cut and sold pine logs, to the amount of three thousand five hundred dollars, and after holding the land twelve years, sold it for four dollars per acre. Off the ninety-seven acres, he afterwards chopped and cleared seventy-five acres. He invested in railroad stock and lost two thousand dollars by it. About the year 1867, he sold this farm for three thousand two hundred dollars and moved to Nebraska. He stayed there one winter, and then moved to Cass county, Iowa, and bought his present farm, of two hundred and twenty acres, lying in sections 9 and 10, Cass township, for twenty-two and one-half dollars per acre, of F.H. Whitney. He also owns one hundred and ninety-three acres in section 15 of same township. Mr. and Mrs. Stevens have raised a family of thirteen children. The oldest son, George, was born in Durham, Oxford county, Upper Canada, November 6, 1835. He enlisted in company A, Seventh Kansas Volunteers, and served through the war. The second son, William, was born in the township of Norwich, county and province above named. He enlisted in company A, Seventh Kansas Volunteers and died in the hospital at Kansas City, December 5, 1861. The third son, Peter, was born in the township of Durham, on the 12th day of May, 1840. He enlisted in the service of the United States and served on the frontier against the Indians. The fourth son, John, was born in the township and province above named on the 28th day of January, 1842. The fifth son, James, was born on the 8th day of January, 1844. He enlisted in company B, Twentieth Wisconsin, Volunteers, and died the 9th day of May, 1863, at Rolla, Missour. The oldest daughter, Ann, was born in the place above named on the 10th day of November, 1845, and died at Hubbard, Dodge county, Wisconsin, on the 22d day of May, 1851. The sixth fon(sic), Jacob B., was born in the town of Norwich, Upper Canada, on the 7th day of September, 1847. The seventh son, Daniel, was born in Hubbard, Dodge county, Wisconsin, on the 13th day of October, 1849. The second daughter, Mary, was born in Hubbard, Dodge county, Wisconsin, on the 26th day of December, 1851, and was married to O.H. Conrad, October 3, 1871. The eighth son, Paul, was born in the county and State last named, on the 23d day of March, 1854. The ninth son, Jessie, was born on the 13th day of November, 1856, and died at Hubbard, Wisconsin, September, 28, 1862. The third daughter, Martha, was born on the 17th day of January, 1860, and died, at Hubbard, Wisconsin, August 30, 1863. The fourth daughter, Ann Jane, was born at Hubbard, Wisconsin, November 26, 1861, and was married on the 31st day of March, 1884, to C.L. Goudy. The above sketch is a short record of the most important incidents of a stirring and eventful life, and shows what may be accomplished by an earnest, determined, and honest purpose, coupled with industry and economy. Mr. and Mrs. Stevens are both in good health, and on the 1st day of January, 1885, will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of their marriage which will be a rare occasion.
Transcribed by Gloria Goltiani from "History of Cass County, Iowa. Together With Sketches of its Towns, Villages and Townships, Educational, Civil, Military and Political History: Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Citizens." Springfield, Ill.: Continental Historical Company, 1884, pp. 521-523.
