Clay Co., KS AHGP-Portrait and Biographical Album of Washington, Clay and Riley Counties-Jacob H. Stoneback
Portrait and Biographical Album of Washington, Clay and Riley Counties Chapman Brothers, Chicago, 1890
JACOB H. STONEBACK The prosperous farming community of Bloom Township, Clay County, recognizes the subject of this notice as one of its most substantial men. He has a snug homestead on section 17, comprising 160 acres of well-cultivated land, improved with substantial buildings. He purchased the property in 1877 and took possession of it the following year. It lies on the second bottom of the Republican River, and is amply watered by that stream. It is devoted to general farming and stock-raising and yields a comfortable income to its proprietor.
A gentleman in the prime of life, Mr. Stoneback was born Oct. 21, 1842, and is a native of Warwick Township, Chester Co., Pa. His father, George Stoneback, likewise a native of Pennsylvania and supposed to have been of German ancestry, was farmer and blacksmith combined and possessed unusual mechanical skill. He spent his entire life in his native county of Chester, dying at his home in Warwick Township in February, 1881, after having nearly reached his threescore years and ten. He was a kind man in his family, a good neighbor, respected by all who knew him and after the organization of the Republican party, gave to it his unqualified support.
The mother of our subject was in her girlhood Miss Ann Houck. She likewise was a native of Chester County, Pa., and the daughter of Jacob Houck who was born there and was of German descent. Grandfather Houck was a farmer by occupation and spent his entire life in the Keystone State. The daughter Ann, like her brothers and sisters, was well reared and trained in the doctrines of the Dunkard religion; she is still living in Chester County Pa., making her home with her daughters and has arrived at the advanced age of seventy-five years.
The subject of this sketch was the fifth in a family of eight children born to his parents, all of whom lived to mature years and seven of whom survive and have families of their own. Three sons emigrated to Kansas and are residents of Bloom Township, Clay County. Jacob H. learned blacksmithing of his father which he followed one year in his native county and thirteen years in Montgomery County, Pa. He was married in Chester County, at Pleasant Retreat, to Miss Mary Shaner, on the 9th of February 1867. Mrs. Stoneback is a native of the same township as her husband and was born Sept. 10, 1840. Her parents were Jacob and Susan (Mounshour) Shaner, likewise natives of Chester County, Pa., and descended from Holland-Dutch stock. Jacob Shaner was a cabinet-maker by trade, which he followed manv years in Warwick Township, Pa. He died in North Coventry, that State, in 1884 at the advanced age of eighty-two years. He was a member of the German Reformed Church and in politics a Republican. His wife survived him about four years, dying in February, 1888, aged eighty years. She was a member of the same church as her husband.
Mrs. Stoneback was one of a family of four sons and two daughters, all of whom are living and with one exception, all married. Her childhood and youth passed in acomparatively uneventful manner under the home roof until her marriage. Of her union with our subject there have been born eight children, three of whom are deceased: George, Jacob and Lillie, all of whom died young. The survivors are William G., Susan L., Harry W., Celia M. and Cora M., all at home with their parents. Mr. Stoneback, politically, is a sound Republican and has held some of the minor offices of his township. As a soldier, he belongs to George B. McClellan Post, No. 368, at Morganville.
On the 17th of August, 1862, during the progress of the Civil War. Mr. Stoneback enlisted in his native county in Company I, 124th Pennsylvania Infantry under command of Capt. Hinkson and Col. Hawley. The regiment was assigned to the Army of the Potomac and Mr. Slonebaek with his comrades participated in many of the important battles of the war and endured the hardships and privations common to a soldier's life. Although frequently being in the thickest of the fight and engaging in the battle of Antietam and Chancellorsville, he escaped without a wound, although contracting a disease from which he has never fully recovered. His army record was one reflecting credit upon him and at the close he received an honorable discharge.