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(1) JACOB MINEWEASER, who was one of the sterling and honored pioneers of Jefferson county, where his industry and ability were so applied as to gain to him independence and substantial prosperity, is specially entitled to a tribute to his memory, which can not fail of general interest in the county that represented his home for more than sixty years.

Mr. Mineweaser was born in Kingdom of Bavaria, Germany, on the 2d of November, 1824, and died at Brookville on the 3d of February, 1916, so that he attained to the patriarchal age of somewhat more than ninety-one years. He survived his venerable wife by only twelve hours, so that in death they were not long divided, even as their loving companionship had continued until death severed the gracious ties. Mr. Mineweaser was reared and educated in his Fatherland and was about twenty years of age when he came to America and settled at St. Marys, Elk Co., Pa. Soon after his arrival the ambitious young German wedded a young German girl who had come to America on the same vessel, and who died in 1844, being survived by one of her two children, Mary having died in infancy and Joseph having lived to the age of about fifty years. After a short period of residence at St. Marys Mr. Mineweaser removed to Helen Furnace, Clarion county, where for several years he was employed in the iron furnace. He then came to Jefferson county and established his home on a pioneer farm in Eldred township, about the year 1852. There he reclaimed and developed one of the fine farms of the county, and his intense industry and good management were fruitful in returns. On his homestead he erected eventually the substantial house and barn which still adorn the place, and he continued his active association with the work and management of his farm, besides having been prominently identified with the mining of coal and with the lumbering operations that necessarily accompanied farm development until 1890, when he removed to Brookville, there passing the rest of his life in well earned retirement. Of his activities as a farmer and man of affairs further mention is made in the sketch of the career of his son Peter, on other pages of this volume, this son being now the owner and occupant of the old homestead. As will be noted by reference to the general historical department of this publication, the coal bank which Mr. Mineweaser opened on his farm was by him operated in connection with the first railroad that was established in Jefferson county.

At Brookville, on the 1st of May, 1851, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Mineweaser to Mrs. Scholastica (Van Milders) Angles, a young widow who was a native of Belgium and who, like himself, was a devout communicant of the Catholic Church. Of this union were born four children: Annie is a member of the Catholic sisterhood of the Order of the Good Shepherd, and is in a convent in the city of Philadelphia; Mary Magdalene died on the 6th of March, 1886, at the age of thirty-two years, the wife of Peter Songer; Peter Mineweaser remains on the old homestead; Michael is a resident of Brookville. Mrs. Scholastica Mineweaser was summoned to the life eternal on the 18th of December, 1888, secure in the affectionate regard of all who knew her, and her remains rest beside those of her husband in the Catholic cemetery at Brookville.

On the 20th of May, 1890, Mr. Mineweaser contracted a third marriage, when Mrs. Catherine Conger became his wife, she having been the mother of three daughters by her first marriage: Mrs. Charles Arnold and Mrs. Michael Mineweaser, of Brookville, and Mrs. John Walton, of Punxsutawney. She died only twelve hours prior to the demise of her husband and the funeral of both was held Saturday morning, Feb. 5, 1916. No children were born of this marriage.

From an obituary notice that appeared in a Brookville paper are taken the following extracts: “In religion Mr. Mineweaser was a devout Catholic, and he died in that faith. He was of social and friendly disposition, always having a kind word to say to those he met. In business he was strictly honest and exact in all his transactions. He was careful and prudent in investments, but just as careful to see that his fellow man received his just dues. He was successful in the affairs of the world and accumulated a comfortable fortune. In the passing of Jacob Mineweaser one of the old pioneers of Jefferson county disappears. He was a man of wonderful vitality, physical and mental, for, notwithstanding his age, of more than ninety-one years, he was up and about looking after business affairs until only a few days prior to his death.”

Source :  “Jefferson County, Pennsylvania - Her Pioneers and People,” Vol. II, by Dr. William James McKnight, published in 1917 by J.H. Beers & Company, Chicago, page 470