My Genealogy Hound

JACOB F. WARE, farmer; P. O. German. Mr. Ware is another of the early settlers and prominent citizens of German Township; he is paternally of German and maternally of English descent, and comes of Revolutionary stock; he was born Dec. 13, 1819, in Preble Co., Ohio, and is the son of John Ware, who was a native of Tennessee, being born there Feb. 11, 1785; he emigrated to Ohio in 1810 and located in Montgomery County, on Stillwater; from there he shortly moved to Preble County, locating near West Alexandria, in the vicinity of which he remained till his death’ a period of sixty-two years; he was a soldier of the war of 1812, and shared in the privations and hardships of that struggle; he was under Gen. Harrison’s command, and was present at the celebrated treaty of Ft. Greenville, in 1814; his father was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and served for seven years in that great struggle for freedom. John Ware, by his services in the war of 1812, was entitled to a land-warrant of 160 acres, which he located where our subject now resides; this warrant was given under James Monroe. Mr. Ware, the subject of this sketch, was reared a farmer boy, and remained at home assisting in duties of the farm till he was 21 years of age; at this time, he engaged at the carpenter trade, which he followed about six years, when he moved to the place where he now resides and turned his attention to farming; he celebrated his marriage in 1844, with Miss M. Catherine Rittenour; she was born in Virginia, and emigrated to Ohio with her parents when only 7 years old, settling near New Madison Harrison Township; on the 16th of February, 1879, the messenger of death entered Mr. Ware’s home and took from it his devoted wife; her life’s work ended, her duties done, she passed peacefully away, leaving a kind and affectionate husband and four loving children to mourn her departure and revere her memory; Mrs. Ware was a faithful member of the church for twenty-two years before she died and in her death the church lost a useful member and the community a valuable citizen. Mr. Ware is one of the self-made men of this county; when he moved to the place where he now resides, in 1848, he found it all in the woods, the underbrush so thick that he had to grub a place for the horses to lie down the first night; here he began in a log cabin, surrounded on every side by dense forests on a small piece of land bequeathed him by his father; the outlook was by no means flattering, but with that indomitable energy which served him well then, and has been his guiding genius ever since, being ably assisted by his noble wife he soon carved for himself a farm and beautiful home out of the wilderness; by habits of industry and economy he has added to the first possession till he now has a fine fertile farm of 244 acres under excellent improvement; he made and used perhaps the first jumping-shovel plow anywhere in that vicinity; with this plow he has prepared ground in the green upon which he has raised sixty bushels of corn per acre. Mr. and Mrs. Ware are the parents of five children, one of whom has died; three of the others are married, and one, a son, still remains at home. Mr. Ware is no aspirant for office; having been repeatedly tendered important offices of trust, he has always refused to accept; he lives an exemplary life, and formerly held his connections with the United Brethren denomination.