John Gabriel Jacob Biography Brooke County, WV submitted by Valerie Forren Crook ********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ********************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III ***************** ***************** pg. 73 Brooke County JOHN GABRIEL JACOB. In that unlimited usefulness exercised by a newspaper publisher and editor, and only less as a business man, John Gabriel Jacob was one of the most prominent members of the Jacob family at Wellsburg. The pioneer settlement and achievements of the family group as a whole are described in other sketches in this publication. The American ancestor of the family was John Jacob, Sr., who came from the Isle of Wight to Maryland about 1665, and who died October 26, 1702. John Gabriel Jacob, who was born at Wellsburg, October 1, 1826, was the oldest son of Samuel and Mary Ann (Shryer) Jacob. His father was a farmer, a noted raiser of fine sheep and cattle, owning a large farm one half mile east of Wells- burg. He was cashier of the Wellsburg National Bank for over forty years. John G. Jacob was educated in Washington College at Washington, Pennsylvania. He graduated with the class of 1847, a class somewhat famous on account of the number of its members who afterward became prominent, one of them being James G. Blaine. Soon after graduation John G. Jacob made a trip to New Orleans, floating down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers by flat boat loaded with goods produced in this section. On reaching New Orleans he sold his stock and the flat boat at a good profit and returned by steamboat to Wellsburg, after resisting a strong temptation to continue his trip to the gold fields of California, where the first discoveries had been made and which were attracting nearly every young man of adventuresome disposition who could get away from the routine of the East. With the pro- ceeds of his flat boat venture John G. Jacob purchased a half interest in the Wellsburg Transcript, a newspaper then owned by Metcalf & Smith. Only a short time later, in 1849, Mr. Jacob, with the aid of his father, bought the remainder, chang- ing the name to the Wellsburg Herald, under which name he edited and published it for nearly fifty years. He was an able and fearless writer, and in the period immediately pre- ceding the Civil war his editorials had a far reaching influence. He was an ardent abolitionist, and his editorials in a news- paper published in slave territory were widely copied. Through his newspaper he had much to do with molding sentiment and holding the people of his section loyal to the Union. John G. Jacob as an editor warmly espoused the cause of Abraham Lincoln as candidate for the President, and was a delegate to the convention at Chicago which nominated the great emancipator in 1860. He served on the committee on credentials as the representative of the Virginia delega- tion. He was a supporter of all public improvements, especially of the substantial sort, and could always be found on the right side on all moral questions. He was an early advocate of prohibition of the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors, and for many years his paper bore at the head of its editorial column the inscription "An Inde- pendent Republican Newspaper favoring prohibition." In 1895 Mr. Jacob relinquished active control of the Herald, turning it over to his son and retiring to his suburban home, but still retaining his active interest in local affairs as well as in the broader affairs of the state and nation. In October, 1903, at the age of seventy-seven, Mr. Jacob died from an attack of pneumonia, and two days later his remains were laid beside those of his beloved wife, who had preceded him in death just ten days before.