John Jeremiah Jacob (1829-1893)

John Jeremiah Jacob was born on December 9, 1829 in Hampshire County, Virginia (presently West Virginia) to Captain John J. Jacob and Susan (McDavitt) Jacob. From his early childhood, John Jeremiah Jacob was well-educated. In his youth, he attended the Romney Academy in Hampshire County and the classical institute in Hampshire. He later matriculated to Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. While at Dickinson, he was a member of the Union Philosophical Society. He was also co-editor with Moncure Conway and Marcus Parrott of the pioneering student publication at the College, the Collegian. He graduated with his class in 1849. Upon graduation, John Jeremiah Jacob returned home where he taught at a local Hampshire school and practiced law. His next three years passed in this manner until in 1853, he was offered and accepted a position at the University of Missouri. While at Missouri, he served as the professor of logic and political economy. He remained in this position until the outbreak of the Civil War when he opened a law practice in Missouri.

At the conclusion of the Civil War in 1865, John Jeremiah returned home to Hampshire County, West Virginia. He opened a new law practice and quickly established a reputation for himself as an intelligent and skillful lawyer. In 1868, the Democratic Party ran him for the West Virginia House of Delegates. He won the position and within his first year earned the Democratic nomination for the governorship of West Virginia. In 1870, John Jeremiah Jacob became the first Democratic Governor to preside over the nascent state of West Virginia. In 1872, he lost the Democratic nomination and ran as an Independent. He won with the support from the Republican Party and elements of a fractured Democratic Party. His major accomplishments as governor were the crafting a new Constitution and moving the state capitol from Charleston to Wheeling. In 1877, at the completion of his second term, John Jeremiah Jacob returned to his law practice only to be involved in politics in 1878, as a member of the House of Delegates and again, from 1881-1888, when he served as a the Honorable John Jeremiah Jacob of the First Judicial Circuit of West Virginia.

In 1888, he retired from politics and lived the remainder of his life in Wheeling, West Virginia with his wife Nancy (Baird) Jacob whom he had married in 1853. He died in his home in Wheeling, West Virginia on November 24, 1893.