BIOGRAPHIES:  Jacob S. McCOURTIE, Arkansaw, Pepin Co., WI

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Submitted by Nance Sampson, Pepin Co. Archives File Manager on 19 November 2004
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**Posted for informational purposes only - submitter is not related to the
subject of this biography and has no further information.

JACOB S. McCOURTIE, merchant and farmer, Arkansaw. Came to Pepin
County with his family in October, 1854, and settled on the lower end
of Dead Lake Prairie in the present town of Frankfort, where he built a
dwelling and store, on Sec. 2, Township 24, Range 14 west, which be
bought when it came into market. The next year a post-office was
established here called Frankfort, and he was appointed Postmaster, a
position which he held continuously until 1878, when he moved to
Arkansaw, where he still resides. Grant and Elisha Stevens were the
only settlers on the prairie when he came, they having settled here
some six months before. He was born in Saratoga Co., N. Y., May 31,
1813. His father, William, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, came to
Saratoga County, where he lived a few years, he then went to Cayuga
County in 1816, where he died in September, 1822. The next year, when
only ten years old, Jacob left home and worked for $3 per month until
he saved money enough to attend school a year, when his school year was
up he clerked in a store in Onondaga, N. Y., a year, then went to Port
Byron, where he clerked for Smith & Draper some time, then to Galena,
Ill., three years; then returned to New York and was married in August,
1839, to Miss Sophia M. Bushman, of Westbury, Cayuga Co., bought a farm
there and went to farming. In 1844, sold out and went to Carroll Co.,
Ill., and farmed there eight years, then sold farm, moved to Savannah,
Ill., and started a general stock store, thence to Pepin County in
1854, bringing his stock of goods with him. They have had nine
children, five of whom are still living-Charles, now in business in
Zumbrota; David B. now in business in Arkansaw; Eugenia, now Mrs.
Ganse, of Frankfort; Alvira, in Arkansaw; William, in Frankfort. His
sons Charles and David were in the Army.

-Transcribed from the "History of Northern Wisconsin, 1881," page 706


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