Westmoreland County PA Archives Biographies.....Gress, Jacob September 27, 1825 

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JACOB GRESS, an old and well-known citizen and a prominent and successful farmer
of Unity township and now a resident of Pleasant Unity, was born in Washington
township, Westmoreland county, Pa., September 27, 1825, and is a son of Jacob
and Mary (Lauffer) Gress. The Gress family of this county is a branch of the
Gress family of eastern Pennsylvania. Capt. Valentine Gress (grandfather) came
from that part of the State and settled in Mt. Pleasant township. One of his
sons was the late Jacob Gress, Sr. He was one of the most substantial citizens
and remarkably successful business men who ever lived in Westmoreland county. He
was born March 11, 1793, and died February 13, 1883, at the advanced age of
eighty-nine years, eleven months and two days. By trade he was a cooper but
early in life he and his brother John purchased three hundred acres of timber
land near Apollo and lived in a little log cabin with puncheon floor while they
cleared and farmed this land. He next bought one hundred and sixty acres of land
in Ohio and prospered so wadi that in 1832 he purchased a splendid farm of one
hundred and eighty-six acres in Unity township, on which he moved in 1837 and
afterwards built a large brick house in which he lived until his death.

 He served as a soldier in the war of 1812, was a democrat in politics and held
membership in the Reformed church, of which he had been deacon and elder. He was
a man of unusual business ability and was a prominent and influential citizen of
the community in which he lived. He was a large land-holder and gave a good farm
to each of his four sons and two daughters. His wife was Mary Lauffer who bore
him eight children, four sons and four daughters, and died September 2, 1880
aged eighty-one years, one month and sixteen days.

    Jacob Gress received his education in the schools of his neighborhood. He
came to Unity township in 1837 and remained until 1856 when he moved to a farm
of his father’s in Mt. Pleasant township. In 1866 he returned to the home farm
where he remained until 1886, when he retired from farming and active business
life and removed to his present residence at Pleasant Unity in 1889. He owns his
father’s fine Unity township farm of one hundred and eighty-six acres besides an
adjoining farm of one hundred and eighteen acres and four acres of land and some
valuable property at Pleasant Unity. Jacob Gress is a good business man, a
“dyed-in-the-wool“ democrat and one of the old and substantial members of St.
Paul Reformed church, in which he has been deacon and elder.

    On 20th March, 1856, lie married Catharine Rumbaugh, who was a daughter of
Peter Rumbaugh, of Mt. Pleasant township, and died in 1859 leaving two children:
Franklin L., who is preparing to go west, and Mary C., wife of J. K. Poorman.
Mr. Gress remarried 9th June, 1870, to Maria Zimmerman, who was a daughter of
Reuben Zimmerman, of Hempfield township, and died May 10, 1879, leaving one
child: John R. E. For his third and present wife Mr. Gress united in marriage,
on 15th March, 1881, with Julia Ann Hess, daughter of Jacob Hess, of Donegal
township, this county.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from
Biographical and Historical Cyclopedia of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania
Compiled and Published by John M. Gresham & Co.
Samuel T. Wiley, Chief Assistant
1890


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