BIO:  Jacob SHEADS, Gettysburg, Adams County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

Copyright 2005.  All rights reserved.
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History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania
Chicago:  Warner, Beers & Co., 1886
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Part III, History of Adams County, Page 372

JACOB SHEADS, dealer in lumber, coal and wood, Gettysburg, is a native of Adams 
County, Penn., born at Gettysburg May 12, 1821, son of Peter and Solone 
(Troxwel) Sheads, the former a native of Adams County, the latter of Maryland, 
and both of German descent.  The father was a mason by trade, an occupation he 
followed for many years in Gettysburg.  His death occurred in 1848.  He was the 
father of eleven children, the eldest of whom was born in this county in 1808.  
Jacob Sheads, the ninth child, was reared in Gettysburg, where, early in life, 
he learned the tailor’s trade, and subsequently was for a time engaged in that 
business, in connection with W. T. King, the present popular merchant tailor of 
Gettysburg.  In 1866 Mr. Sheads established his present business, and has since 
conducted the same, meeting with moderate success.  In 1854 he was married to 
Miss Agnes Flora Gehr, daughter of Henry Gehr, and of English and German 
extraction.  To Mr. and Mrs. Sheads have been born the following children that 
are now living:  Ida (wife of Rev. C. T. Durboraw, of Kansas), David E. and Anna 
M.  The parents are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which Mr. 
Sheads is a trustee.  He served one term of two years (1866 and 1867) as 
treasurer of Adams County.  In politics he is a Prohibitionist, but is not an 
active politician.  The ancestors of Mr. Sheads were representatives of the 
first-class of pioneers of this section of the State.  His paternal grandfather, 
John Melchoir Sheads, a native of Germany, became a pioneer of this county, and 
his maternal grandfather, John Troxwel, assisted in laying out the town of 
Gettysburg, his name being recorded on the first plat of the village.  He is an 
extensive cattle dealer.