Jacob F. Ware

JACOB F. WARE.

Jacob F. Ware, a retired agriculturist of Palestine. Darke county, is an honored representative of the early pioneers of Ohio, and is a true type of the energetic, hardy men who have actively assisted in developing and improving this beautiful and fertile agricultural country. A native of this state, he was born in Preble county, December 13, 1820. His father, John Ware, was born in Knox county. Tennessee, in 1789, and was a son of John Paul Ware, a native of Germany, who, when a young man, was captured and brought to America as a soldier ir. the employ of the British during the Revolutionary war, but after serving six months he deserted and joined the Continental forces, with which he fought seven years. About 18 14 he came to Preble county. Ohio, where he was killed by a horse at the age of sixty-six years. His wife had died previously in Tennessee.

The father of our subject grew to manhood in his native state and in Guilford county, North Carolina, married Sarah Coble, a native of that county. Her father, Lewis Coble, was also born in Germany and came to this country when a young man. In North Carolina he married a native of Pennsylvania. By occupation he was a farmer. It was in 1810 that John Ware and wife removed to Preble county, Ohio, and located in Twin township, where he lived for sixty-two years. He died at the age of eighty-five, honored and respected by all who knew him. He was a soldier of the war of 181 J. under General Harrison, and was at the treaty of Greenville in 18 14. He was a prominent member of the Lutheran church at West Alexandria, where he helped to build the house of worship. His wife died at the age of sixty-six years. In their family were fourteen children, six sons and eight daughters, all of whom grew to manhood or womanhood, and five sons and three daughters are still living.

In this family our subject is the sixth child and third son. He was reared in

Twin township, Preble county, and attended school in a building constructed of round logs, with luncheon floor, greased-paper windows and a slab laid on pins driven into the wall for a desk. During his youth he assisted in the work of the home farm and learned the carpenter's trade, and after attaining his majority engaged in contracting and building for five years, doing all the work, such as hewing the raw timber into braces, studding, rafters, etc., which was all done by hand. Two of the barns built by him in Darke county, in 1844, are still standing and in a good state of preservation. He employed from four to twelve men, but at the end of five years his health failed and he came to Darke county, locating in German V unship, in the woods, where with his own hands he cleared one hundred and twenty acres of land. He made the first jumping shovel plow ever made in the county. He raised fifty bushels of corn per acre for his first crop, and continued to successfully engage in farming until 1899, when he removed to Palestine and has since lived retired. At one time he owned two hundred and forty-four acres of land, but has since given his son, Joseph, eighty acres of this. In 1 87 1 his barn, 40x80 feet, and one of the best in the count)', was destroyed by fire, together with its contents, including two thousand bushels of threshed wheat, fifteen thousand bushels of corn, five hundred bushels of oats and fifteen tons of hay and all farming implements, amounting to five thousand dollars. He rebuilt the barn the following year. On the 2d of April. 1898. he had the misfortune to lose his house in the same way, but this was insured and was afterward rebuilt.

On the 2 1 st of October, 1844. -Mr. Ware wedded Miss Mary C. Ritnoure. and to them were born five children: John R.. who is married and lives in Wabash county.Indiana; Weltha Ann, the wife of William Stover, of Lightsville, Darke county. Ohio; Sarah Jane, the wife of Joshua Jeffries, of German township. Darke county; Martin A., who died at the asre of two years; and Joseph \Y.. a business man of Gordon, Mississippi. The mother of these children died February 16, 1878, ami for his second wife Mr. Ware married Mrs. Lydia (Paulus) Fry, widow of George Fry. She was born in Montgomery county, Ohio, April 10, 1836, hut was reared in Darke county from her first year. By her first marriage she had four children: Mary A, Sarah J.; Franklin L., deceased; and Kachael Alice. Her father, Daniel Paulus, was born in 180;, and is still l;ving. in Randolph county. Indiana, at the age of ninety-three years, and enjoys good health. He had thirteen children, four sons and nine daughters, all of whom reached years of maturity and three sons and five daughters are still living. Mrs. Ware is the sixth child and fifth daughter in this family. In his political affiliations Mr. Ware is a Democrat, and he has most efficiently filled the offices of school director and supervisor of his township. In 185 1 he was a member of the first board of education ever organized in the county, and served as school director in one district eighteen years. He has been chairman of four different old settlers' organizations— the West Alexandria, Preble county; Lightsville, Spring Hill and German— and is an active and prominent member of the United Brethren church in Palestine, in which he served as assistant classleader five years. He has been a hard wk irving and industrious man, and the success that he has achieved in life is due entirely to his own well directed and energetic efforts.

As printed in A Biographical history of Darke County, Ohio : compendium of national biography (1900). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.