I've written here several times about pioneers Allen and Minerva (Ballard) Jacobs, but always in the context of their relationship to John and Hannah Ballard, Lucas County's first EuroAmerican settlers way back in 1846. Minerva was their daughter; Allen, their son-in-law.
Allen wrote letters from the Jacobs family's new home at Athol in Smith County, Kansas, at the turn of the 20th century --- some now in the Lucas County Historical Society collection --- that provide much of the information we have about the Ballards' move to Lucas County and what they found upon arrival here.
Collector, historian and blogger Will Adams approached Allen and Minerva from another direction some time ago --- after he purchased a small group of Jacobs family images and set out to discover more about them.
His focus initially was on Allen's Civil War record --- Allen served as a private in Companies K and A, 34th Iowa Volunteer Infantry, after enlistment in Lucas County. One of the images shows Allen in uniform.
Investigating further, he happened upon the Lucas Countyan blog posts about Allen and, as we correspended, I was able to provide a few additional links and more information.
Will now has completed a detailed blog post of his own about Allen and Minerva that incorporates his findings --- and I'm going to refer you to that post this morning rather than attempting a summary. It is extraordinarily well done and provides a great deal of new information --- some of it quite sad --- about this couple who were among Lucas County's earliest settlers and who began their married life here.
You'll find it by following this link to a post entitled simply, "Allen Jacobs, 34th Iowa Infantry, Company A."
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