Bedford County PA Archives Biographies.....Longenecker, Hon. Jacob H.   
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HON. JACOB H. LONGENECKER, of Bedford, Pa., President Judge 
of the Sixteenth Judicial District, was born in Huston 
township, Blair County, on September 17, 1839, son of John 
and Elizabeth Longenecker.  His paternal grandfather, David 
Longenecker, was a native of Lancaster County.  Removing to 
what is now Blair County, he there engaged in farming during 
the remainder of his life.
  John Longenecker, who was born in Blair County on May 21, 
1804, and died on July 29, 1876, in Johnson County, 
Missouri, was, like his father, a lifelong agriculturalist.  
About 1844 he took up his residence in Woodbury township, 
Bedford County.  He served for some time as a school 
director and in other township offices.  Elizabeth 
Longenecker, who was his second wife, was the daughter of 
George Holsinger, of Bloomfield township, this county.  She 
bore him five children, as follows: Daniel, who is a 
resident of Paola, Kan.; Jacob H., Mary, who is the wife of 
Henry Albaugh, of Kingman, Kan.; George, who resides in 
Nelson, Butte County, Cal.; and Nancy, who is the wife of 
Samuel Longaker, of Kansas City.
  Judge Longenecker received his education in the common 
schools and in what was then Allegheny Seminary at 
Rainsburg, Pa.  During the latter part of his course he 
taught school in winter and went to school as a student in 
summer.  Shortly after the Civil War broke out he left 
everything and enlisted in Company D of the One Hundred and 
First Pennsylvania Regiment.  Upon the organization of the 
regiment he was made Sergeant-major.  After a considerable 
period of service in that capacity, he was made Second 
Lieutenant, and still later Adjutant of the regiment.  He 
fought at Williamsburg and Fair Oaks, in the seven days' 
campaign with McClellan, in the retreat across the 
Peninsula, and in skirmishes in the neighborhood of Suffolk, 
Va.  He was subsequently in the campaign of General Foster 
into the interior of North Carolina; also in the battles of 
Kinston and Goldsboro, and in a number of minor engagements 
in the eastern part of the State.  Taken prisoner with his 
command at the siege of Plymouth on April 20, 1864, he was 
sent successively to Andersonville, Ga., Macon, Ga., 
Savannah, Ga., Charleston, Columbia, S.C., and Charlotte, 
N.C.  At the last-named place he managed to escape, but his 
liberty was of short duration.  He was recaptured, and was 
sent to Wilmington, N.C., where, on March 1, 1865, he was 
exchanged.  Coming to Annapolis he there received, on March 
14, an honorable discharge, under an order of the War 
Department, owing to the reduction in numbers of the 
command.
  Shortly after his return home he became a student in the 
law office of the Hon. Samuel Steele Blair, of 
Hollidaysburg, and after some time spent there he entered 
the Albany Law School, from which he was graduated in 1866, 
and was admitted to the bar of New York State.  Returning to 
Pennsylvania, he formed a partnership with Hon. Samuel L. 
Russell, at Bedford, under the firm name of Russell & 
Longenecker, that continued from April 1, 1867, to 
September, 1891, when the death of the senior partner caused 
its dissolution.  This firm had an extensive practice and 
did a large amount of important business.
  Judge Longenecker was elected to his present official 
position on November 6, 1891, and his term began on the 
first Monday in January of the succeeding year.  He had 
previously held a number of important political offices. 
  In 1869 and 1870 he occupied a seat in the legislature, 
where he served on the judiciary and other committees.  For 
some years he was a member of the Town Council and School 
Director.  In 1882 he was elected to the Pennsylvania 
Senate, and served on the Judiciary Committee of that body 
and on other important committees.  From February, 1877, to 
November, 1890, he filled the position of Deputy Secretary 
of the Commonwealth; and from the last-named date to January 
20, 1891, he was Secretary of the Commonwealth.  The Judge 
was one of the organizers and the first vice-president of 
the First National Bank of Bedford.  He is a member of the 
Masonic fraternity.
  Judge Longenecker married Nannie Rebecca, daughter of Hon. 
Samuel L. Russell, and has three sons - Samuel R., Ralph, 
and Charles.  The two elder sons entered Yale University in 
September, 1890.  Samuel left in his Sophomore year, and in 
1893 was admitted to the bar.  Ralph was graduated in the 
class of 1894.  He then read law for a time in Bedford, 
subsequently took a course of study in the Pittsburg Law 
School, and was admitted to the bar in March, 1897.  He is 
now a practicing lawyer in Pittsburg, and is also an 
instructor in the Pittsburg Law School.  Charles, the 
youngest son, is a student in his Junior year at State 
College, Pennsylvania.  Judge Longenecker and his family are 
members of the Presbyterian church.  The Judge is a member 
of William Watson Post G.A.R., and of the Loyal Legion.  For 
the year 1885-86 he was President of the National 
Association of ex-Union Prisoners of War, having been 
elected at the annual meeting in Philadelphia.



Source: Bedford Biographical Review, 1899, Bedford Co., Pa