BIOGRAPHY: Jacob JACOBY, Cambria County, PA 

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From Wiley, Samuel T., ed. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria 
County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Union Publishing Co., 1896, p. 341-2
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JACOB JACOBY, of Walnut Grove, is one of those who have won success because they 
have deserved it, and have made environment but opportunity for achievement. He 
is a son of Peter and Mary (Loup) Jacoby, and first saw the light of day on the 
old "homestead," at Locust Grove, Cambria county, March 20, 1836. Peter Jacoby, 
whose father came from Germany, was born in Lehigh county in 1791, and lived to 
be eighty-eight years of age, dying in 1879. He received the education imparted 
by the schools of his neighborhood, and made himself thorough in the trades of 
shoemaker and stonemason, being a natural mechanic. He then built several houses 
in Philadelphia, that are still weathering well the frosts and rains of nearly a 
century, and afterwards came to Locust Grove, where he followed shoemaking for 
several years. Always having a taste and inclination towards agricultural 
pursuits, he left the shoemaker's bench to purchase at Locust Grove a farm, 
which, by successive additions, eventually grew to a four-hundred acre tract. As 
a farmer he was a success, stamping on everything around him the evidence of his 
mechanical individuality. He was an old-line whig, and a member of the Lutheran 
church, and in politics and religion manifested the same active interest that 
characterized him in business. Peter Jacoby married Mary Loup, who lacked but 
six years of reaching the century mark, dying January 1, 1886, when well 
advanced in the ninety-fourth year of her age. The family consisted of twelve 
children, of whom two sons and four daughters are still living.
     Jacob Jacoby was reared on the homestead farm, attended the common schools, 
and at an early age gave evidence of the mechanical ability which he possessed. 
At the age of sixteen years he built by hand a saw and grist mill; the next year 
erected a house which he now owns, and four years later commenced life for 
himself as a millwright, without one cent in his pocket. He came to Johnstown 
where he built the flouring-mill now operated by McDermot, Wertz & Co., of 
Johnstown, still standing, and soon found all the work that be could do. He 
remained in Johnstown from 1857, when he commenced contracting, and followed it 
until 1880, and then removed to his present home at Walnut Grove, where he built 
and still operates a large saw mill, besides doing some building on his own 
account. He also superintends Maple Grove park, so popular for pleasant pastimes 
and sports and Sunday school picnics. In this grove is located his modern steam 
merry-go-round and panorama, one of the finest of its kind in the State.
     In 1859 Mr. Jacoby wedded Julia Horner, a daughter of Eli B. Horner, then a 
well-known resident of Cambria county. Of the eight children born to their 
union, two daughters are dead, and those living are: John, Margaret (now Mrs. 
George A. Markley), William, Henry, Jacob, Jr., and Edward.
     In politics Mr. Jacoby supports the Republican party. He is a member of 
Conemaugh Lodge, No. 17, I.0.0.F., and the English Evangelical Lutheran church 
of Johnstown, on whose present building committee he is serving.
     Inheriting rare mechanical skill, and perfecting himself in all the modern 
improvements in his line of building, he ranks as a skilled builder. To 
mechanical skill, Mr. Jacoby adds energy, and to energy that masterful quality, 
decision, and that rare endowment, good common sense. Thus intellectually 
equipped he could not fail to win the success that he has achieved, and to write 
his name, where it now stands, on the roll of the self-made men of Cambria 
county.