Jacob GEIGER, one of the oldest and best known farmers and landowners of Jay county, now living retired at his comfortable farm home in Greene township, rural mail route No. 1 out of Dunkirk, has been a resident of this county for nearly eighty years, ever since the days of his childhood and thus has been a witness to and a participant in the amazing development that has marked this region during that period. Mr. Geiger was born on a farm in Licking county, Ohio, February 3, 1836, and is a son of John and Ruth (KELSO) GEIGER, the latter of whom also was horn in Ohio, a member of one of the pioneer families of that state. John GEIGER was a Virginian by birth but was but a child when his parents moved from the Old Dominion to Ohio and he grew to manhood in Licking county, where he was married and where he made his home on a farm for several years, or until 1842 when he traded his Ohio land for 1,860 acres of land in Greene township, this county, and moved over here and established his home at the point now occupied by his son Jacob. Upon coming here he put up a sawmill and a grist mill on his place and entered heartily into the pioneer activities of this region, early becoming accounted one of the most energetic and influential members of the community in which he had settled. As his affairs prospered he added to his land holdings until he at one time had 3,140 acres of land in this county. Before his death he made a division of his farm lands among his children, dividing something more than three sections of land. His death occurred in 1880. He and his wife had six children, Sarah, who married Edwin HUDSON, Jacob, Joseph, John, Abraham and William H., all of whom lived to maturity save the last named, who died at the age of ten years. Of these, Jacob GEIGER, now in his eighty-seventh year, alone survives. Jacob GEIGER was six years of age when he came with his parents from Ohio to Jay county and he grew to manhood on the home place in Greene township, early taking an active part in farm work, helping to clear and cultivate the land, and in the work of his father's mills. When twenty-one years of age he took a trip South and remained there for three years, at the end of which time he returned home and not long afterward was married, he then being twenty-six years of age. Upon his marriage his father gave him an "eighty" of the home place, the place on which he is still living, and there he established his home. In 1889 Mr. GEIGER erected there a substantial new dwelling house and the other improvements on the farm have been in keeping with the same. For almost sixty years Mr. GEIGER has had that place and he regards his well kept farm plant with proper pride. His land holdings comprise 172 acres in Greene and Knox townships. When seventy-five years of age, in 1911, Mr. GEIGER retired from active participation in the labors of the farm and has since been content to see the work carried on by other hands. It was on March 27, 1862, that Jacob GEIGER was united in marriage to Phoebe Emily WHITACRE, daughter of Joseph and Ann (GAUNT) WHITACRE, the former of whom, a veteran of the Civil war, was born in Columbiana county, Ohio, and became a substantial farmer of Jay county, and to this union were born four children, Joseph Gaunt, Phoebe Ann, Jacob M. and one who died in childhood. Joseph Gaunt GEIGER married Emma ORENDORF and moved to Starke county, this state. Phoebe Ann GEIGER married \William F. WINGET, of Knox township, this county, and has four children; Ruth, who is married and has two children; Ula, also married and the mother of two children, and Grace and Dorothy. Jacob M. GEIGER has been twice married. His first wife, Sarah MALONEY, died leaving one child, a son, Jacob M. By his second wife, Pearl HEPPE, he has two children, Charles and George