Jacob Link, BiographyPorter County biographical sketches . . . .
Transcribed biography of Jacob Link
JACOB LINK.
The career of the gentleman whose name heads this sketch, is but another evidence of what can be accomplished by those of foreign birth who seek a home and fortune on the free soil of America. He possesses the push, enterprise and energy for which his countrymen are noted, and as a natural consequence he has been successful in the accumulation of means, and has won a reputation for honesty and fair dealing that is in every respect justly merited. He was born in the kingdom of Wurtemburg, Germany, November 23, 1823, his parents being Jacob and Mary Link. In the family there were three sons and three daughters, the eldest a daughter by a former marriage, named Mary. The children of the second marriage were as follows: Jacob; Christian, who was born October 21, 1825; Agnes, born November 11, 1827; Barbara, born December 5, 1829; J. W., born September 8, 1832, in mid-ocean. On the second of October the family arrived in Baltimore, Md., and at once made their way to Columbiana County, Ohio, where they made their home until September 16, 1837, when they started for Attica, Seneca County, Ohio, which place they reached October 2, 1837. During the stay of the family in Columbiana County, Mr. Link leased a three-acre tract of land, and built thereon a log house in which he and his family lived. While there he labored by the day for the farmers of the vicinity; also doing some carpenter work, a trade which he had learned in Germany. Upon his removal to Seneca County he bought 240 acres of woodland, and this land he and his son cleared and improved with excellent buildings. Mr. Link remained on this farm until his death which occurred on August 20, 1840, in the 51st year of his age. His widow continued to make her home on this farm until 1879, when she passed away at the age of eighty-seven years. Jacob Link, the subject of this sketch, in company with his brother Christian, took charge of the old home farm after the death of their father, and by industry and economy they paid off what debt there was on the place. Of his brothers and sisters, only himself, John and Barbara are living. In 1856 Jacob Link was married to Catherine Zimmerman, a daughter of Michael and Koegane Zimmerman, who came from Wurtemburg, Germany. Mrs. Link was one of four children, and bore Mr. Link nine children: Ella, born June 7, 1852, married Levi J. Wolf, March 14, 1872, and has five sons and one daughter; William N., born February 23, 1857, married Sarah Jardine, and has four children; Michael, born November 24, 1858, married Emma Hill, and has two children; Frank, born April 3, 1860, married Rinnie Burroughs, in 1880, and has four children; Mary, born January 2, 1862, married Frank Olds, February 25, 1886; Charles, born March 25, 1866, married Clara Beach; Emma, born April 28, 1864, married A. T. Rogers and has two children; Elvin, born April 23, 1868; Edwin C., born June 17, 1870. The mother of these children was called from life in 1872, at the age of forty-five years, and in 1873 Mr. Link took for his second wife Margery Kelso, daughter of John and Agnes (Stuart) Kelso, she being one of their eight children. Her marriage with Mr. Link has resulted in the birth of two children, one of whom died in infancy; the other, Florence, was born October 16, 1882. Mr. Link came to Porter County, Indiana, in 1853, from Terre Haute, where he worked as a mill-wright and carpenter, and followed the latter occupation in this section until 1854; but during a portion of 1855 gave his attention to mill-wrighting and also to contracting on Door prairie. In the spring of 1856 he built two houses in Green County, Wisconsin, but since that time has not gone out of Porter County to labor. In 1857 he and his brother Christian built a saw-mill in partnership, and this Jacob operated until 1863. Prior to this, in 1854, he and his brother had built a saw-mill on the old home farm in Ohio, which is there now, owned by John, the youngest brother. Jacob and Christian Link, in 1860, built a grist-mill at Attica, Ohio, which they operated over three years, but then traded it, and in 1863 built a mill at Van Wert, which they sold after operating it about a year. The land which they purchased here soon after comprised 550 acres, and was slightly improved. In this respect Mr. Link has greatly increased it in value, and has one of the finest barns in his section of the country. He has now 384 acres of as good land as lies in the county, and everything about it indicates that he is a man of great thrift and energy. In his youthful days he received only about one year's schooling; but since that time he has made such good use of his advantages that to-day he is an intelligent citizen, whose conversation is of the most pleasing and instructive character. He is a Republican in politics, and in 1886 was elected Commissioner of Porter County, receiving a re-election in 1890. He also served for a short time as justice of the peace. Mr. Link was reared in the Lutheran faith, but at the present time is not a communicant. He is a patron of law and order, believes in the education of the masses, and is wide-awake and progressive in all his views. The Kelso family are residents of Michigan, in which State the father and mother died in 1876 and 1888, at the age of sixty-six and seventy-five years, respectively.
Source: Goodspeed Brothers. 1894. Pictorial and Biographical Record of La Porte, Porter, Lake and Starke Counties, Indiana. Chicago, Illinois: Goodspeed Brothers. 569 p.
Page(s) in Source: 291-293
This biography has been transcribed exactly as it was originally published in the source. Please note that we do not provide photocopies or digital scans of biographies appearing on this website.
Biography transcribed by Steven R. Shook