From "History of Wheeling City and Ohio County, West Virginia and 
Representative Citizens," by Hon. Gibson Lamb Cranmer, 1902. 

Typed by Polly Oliver.

Pages 793-794


A. RIDGLEY JACOB. That every profession in life is brilliant or other- 
wise, according to the man, must be admitted by every one familiar 
with the life work of the gentleman named above.  A consensus of 
opinion would pronounce farming and stock raising a field of labor, to 
which great honors and brilliancy are foreign, but the life and success 
of Mr. Jacob would disprove the truth of the assertion.  As a farmer 
his success can not be doubted after viewing his farm in its highly 
cultivated state, and improved with neat and substantial buildings, and 
as a grower of wool sheep he has attained the highest degree of 
success, receiving awards at various fairs and expositions over 
competitors form all over the world.  Mr. Jacob was born in Ohio county 
July 4, 1840, on the farm on which he now lives, and is a son of John 
J. and Mahala W. (Ridgley) Jacob.

Zachariah Jacob, or subject's great-grandfather, was probably of Jewish 
descent.  He was born in England and came to America some time between 
1740 and 1760, location at Annapolis, Maryland.  He and his wife, 
Susannah, reared the following children: Samuel Ezekiel; William; 
Susannah: John J; and Gabriel. 

Gabriel Jacob, Grandfather of our subject, who was born July 1, 1759, 
and died March 20, 1822, married Ruth Hurst, of Washington County, 
Maryland, and they had the following children: John J.; Joseph; 
Zachariah and Susan (twins); Ezekiel; and Samuel.

John J. Jacob was born December 26, 1790 and died October 15, 1848.  He 
married Elizbeth Mitchell, a daughter of Alexander Mitchell, a well-to-
do farmer.  After her death in 1832, he married Mahala W. Ridgley, and 
they had the following children: Samuel Sprigg, whose sketch appears on 
another page of this work; A. Ridgley; John J.; and Drusilla R., who 
married Abram McColloch. 

A. Ridgley Jacob secured his elementary knowledge in a subscription 
school, and after the removal of his mother to wheeling, attended 
Linsly Institute.  He was then a student at West Liberty Academy, which 
subsequently was changed to a state normal school.  After graduation at 
Duff's Commercial College, Pittsburg, in 1862, he returned to the 
farm, where he has since lived.  He built himself a beautiful two-story 
home of 10 rooms, which is equipped with most of the modern conveniences 
afforded to the city houses, such as gas for fuel and lighting.  In 
addition to following general farming, he has devoted much attention to 
raising a fine grade of stock, making a specialty of fine wool sheep, 
in which line his success has been unusual and phenomenal.  He received 
the prize diploma and medal at the Columbian Exposition held in 
Chicago; also the first award at the American Wool and Cotton Reporter 
Exposition in Boston, in which he competed with the world's product in 
wool.  When the Paris Exposition was announced, our government selected 
his clp as on out of a few to make and exhibit of this country's wool, 
which the government sent to Paris as an exhibit of the wool grown in 
America.  In competition with the products of all nations, it was 
awarded the gold medal, an emblem his prizes most highly.  He owns 330 
acres of land which has been in the family for more than one hundred 
years, and in that time, by judicious management, has been kept under a 
hight state of cultivation, always producing more than the average 
crop.  In addition to the house above mentioned, he has built barns and 
out-houses sufficient to care for his stock and crops, and grows a fine 
selection of early garden vegetables and fine fruits. 

December 22, 1868, Mr. Jacob married Margaret E Hammond, a daughter of 
George Hammond, and they have five children: Annie M.; Wilma H.; Hallie 
H.; Margureite; and Guy R.; all of them receiving a normal school 
education.  He has been a member of the Presbyterian Church for more 
than thirty years.  He is a Democrat and was appointed a member of the 
executive committee of the West Liberty State Normal School, serving 
some sixteen years.  His is president of the Panhandle Farmers Mutual 
Insurance Company of West Virginia, which under his administration has 
been very successful.  He has also bee trustee of his school district 
for thirty years.