Jacob Axe, BiographyPorter County biographical sketches . . . .
Transcribed biography of Jacob Axe
JACOB AXE (deceased), one of the pioneers of Porter County, was a native of Virginia, and in 1828, his mother, Christina (Kesecker) Axe, widow of William Axe, moved with her family to Wayne Co., Ohio where she died in March, 1836. Jacob Axe there married Miss Agnes C. Cornell, and in 1836 they, in company of William Dye and family, and Elias Axe, a younger brother, started into Indiana with teams and wagons, and after a trip of eighteen days through swamps, with no road and an almost incessant rain-falling, arrived in Porter County. The first home of Jacob Axe was on College Hill, in Valparaiso, where he remained about three months, afterward moving one and one-half miles east of the village (which then comprised about six houses), into a log cabin erected by some squatter. The spring of 1836, he returned to the village and engaged in work at his trade - carpenter and joiner. He then bought the Sager mill property, but sold it at the end of about a year, and engaged in farming east of town some six or seven years. Succeeding which he moved to the farm now owned by his son, Cyrus. He was then engaged in a number of different movements, principally farming, working at his trad and merchandising in Valparaiso. He was an active and energetic citizen, and a man who commanded universal respect. He was a Democrat, and he and wife were members of the Christian Church. He died August 5, 1853, and his widow married James Bundy, who died some few months after their marriage. Mrs. Bundy then moved to Delaware County, Iowa, where she married William Cates, and where both are still living. To the marriage of Jacob Axe there were born eight children, of whom six are still living. Cyrus, a son of Jacob and Agnes Axe, was born in Wayne County, Ohio, June 4, 1834, and was reared to manhood in Porter County. His occupation has been stock dealing, and for the past few years he has been operating a meat market in conjunction with his other business. He spend the summer of 1861 in Colorado, where he went in pursuit of health and on a mining expedition. In 1864, he was in Montana, where he and others were engaged in freighting goods across the plains. The summers of 1865 and 1866, he fitted out wagons and sent them loaded across the plains in charge of his younger brother, Nathaniel. In 1870, he went to Salt Lake Valley, where he engaged in shipping stock. He was married in 1865, to Miss Harriet L. Finney, whose parents were old settlers of Porter County. To them have been born four children - Addison C., Hattie B., Lida M. and Pearl. Mrs. Axe is a member of the Baptist Church and Mr. Axe is a Democrat and an Odd Fellow. He owns 155 acres of good land in Centre Township, besides valuable town property. The spring of 1880, a part of his land lying between the college grounds and the N. Y., C & St. L. R. R. depot was annexed to the corporate city limits and is known as Axe's Sub-Division.
Source: Goodspeed, Weston A., and Charles Blanchard. 1882. Counties of Porter and Lake, Indiana: Historical and Biographical, Illustrated. Chicago, Illinois: F. A. Battey & Company. 771 p.
Page(s) in Source: 231-232
This biography has been transcribed exactly as it was originally published in the source. Please note that we do not provide photocopies or digital scans of biographies appearing on this website.
Biography transcribed by Steven R. Shook