Biographical Memoirs of Wells County, Indiana, 1903. pp. 531-533.

JACOB J. SMITH.

Jacob J. Smith was born June 19, 1841, in Fairfield county, Ohio, his parents being Bartholomew and Mary (Eversole) Smith, natives of Virginia and Ohio respectively. He had come with his parents when they moved to Fairfield county, Ohio, in the early part of the last century and always lived on a farm, both dying in Fairfield county at advanced ages.

The youth and early manhood of Jacob J. Smith were spent in his native county of Fairfield and he received a fair education in the public and subscription schools. For two years he had cultivated his father's farm, previous to September 2, 1861, when he entered the United States service as a volunteer soldier, joining Company F. Seventeenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, serving under Captain Rickett, Colonel Collins and General Cook. He was out two years and four months and participated in numerous important and sanguinary battles, among them being Wild Cat, Kentucky, Mill Spring, Ft. Donelson and Shiloh. In the latter part of 1863 his left arm was fractured and for this and other disabilities he was discharged at Nashville, Tennessee. While in the hospital at Huntsville, Alabama, all of the sick not able to be moved were taken prisoners when Cook's brigade abandoned that territory. All were kept there, treated by rebel surgeons, and in three months he was exchanged and sent to the Federal hospital at Nashville, from which he was discharged six weeks later, and on his way to Louisville he called upon his regimental commander, then stationed at Gallatin, Tennessee. As a Democrat he entered the service, fought as a Democrat and has continued to vote as a Democrat ever since. When he had recovered sufficiently he resumed the cultivation of his father's farm.

August 3, 1865, Mr. Smith was married to Miss Elizabeth J. Morris, born July 22, 1844, in Fairfield county, Ohio. Her parents were Mitchell and Elizabeth (Hardesty) Morris. Her father was born in Fairfield county, Ohio, December 28, 1812, and resided on the farm where he was born and where his parents originally settled, from his birth to his death, a period of eighty-seven years. His wife, Elizabeth, who was born November 4, 1818, died on the same farm some years previous. After marriage the young couple found that their united fortunes consisted of a horse, a cow and four hundred dollars, the cash and the cow belonging to the wife. They rented in Ohio and also in Rock Creek township, Wells county, coming to it in October, 1865. After some time they bought forty acres in the woods, for a portion of which they went in debt. After building a house and clearing and improving the place they sold it for seven hundred dollars more than what the land had cost them, and with the money they bought eighty acres, all in the woods, in Liberty township. Upon this they built a good house and barn, cleared, ditched, fenced and improved the place and made of it a most valuable and desirable farm. On this place they resided twenty-seven years, when, in 1901, they sold and bought one hundred and twenty acres in Lancaster township. This was sold in three months and another eighty acres in the same township purchased but in four months they sold again and returned to Liberty township. Here they bought the Joseph Rose farm, within one mile of their old place, but this also has been sold and a farm of eighty acres in Harrison township was purchased. He has also residence property in Bluffton where he proposes to take life with more leisure.

To Mr. and Mrs. Jacob J. Smith six children have been born, viz: Rosetta is the wife of Peter Souerwine, of Rock Creek township, and they have three children, Virgil, Vesta and Daisy; Mary E., who taught two years, is now the wife of Hugh W. Fate, of Liberty township, and they have three children, Ethel, Clarence and Lola; Morris B., a constructor for the Indiana Bridge Company; Anetta is the wife of Jonathan Falk, of Harrison township, and they have three children, Guy, Justine and Howard; Virginia, who married Jacob Eckhart, of Liberty township, died aged twenty-two years; James resides with his parents.

What Mr. and Mrs. Smith possess today has all been made by industry, backed by prudence, good judgment and economy. He does general farming, including live stock growing, and gives preference to Poland China hogs and Red Polled cattle. Mr. Smith, wife and daughters are members of the Friends' church at Pleasant View. He belongs to Lewis Dailey Post, G. A. R., at Bluffton. His political creed is Democracy. The underlying principles of that party, opposed to the centralization of power in the general government, has overshadowed every minor issue, in his estimation, and wedded him to the party of Jefferson and Jackson. In that, as in all other matters, he is sincere and consistent, believing in the widest latitude and fullest liberty of the individual, consistent with the good of society. It is a matter of regret that more voters of this land of freedom do not study those important questions of state, and his example in this line, as indeed in most others, may be safely followed.