Jacob W. Abbott, retired, one of the best known and most highly respected citizens of Merrick county, Nebraska, has been a resident of this section over thirty-one years, where he has given the best years of his lifetime to the progression of this state.

Mr. Abbott was born in Miami county, Ohio, February 14, 1845, and is the son of Aaron and Elizabeth (Collins) Abbott, being the eldest of seven children. He has one brother residing in Lincoln county, Nebraska, one in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; one sister in Washington county, Iowa, one in Tingley, Iowa, and another in Kansas, the others being deceased. The father died in the army in March, 1863, he having enlisted in Company C, Nineteenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry. The mother died in Merrick county, in 1885.

When about two years old, Mr. Abbott went with his parents to Indiana and about 1855 went on into Iowa where our subject received his education and later engaged in farming. On August 18, 1862, he enlisted in Company C, Nineteenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, serving until close of the war and received his discharge July 10, 1865, in Davenport, Iowa. Decisive battles participated in were Prairie Grove, Arkansas, December 7, 1862; on Van Buren raid, Arkansas, in December, 1862; all through the Siege of Vicksburg; and capture of Yazoo City, July, 1863, and the Siege of Spanish Fort, Alabama, in March and April, 1865. After the war, Mr. Abbott returned to Iowa and engaged in farming, and on January 1, 1873, was married to Miss Elizabeth Taylor of Iowa.

In the fall of 1877, Mr. Abbott came with his wife and three children to Chapman, Nebraska, remaining several months when they drove into Kansas where they homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres in Jewell county. In the fall of 1880 they returned to Merrick county and have since resided in Chapman. In 1907 Mr. Abbott purchased a fine farm which he sold recently. For many years Mr. Abbott ran a threshing machine and was indirectly interested in meat market business.

Mr. and Mrs. Abbott have had eleven children born to them, ten of whom are living: Ida, who is the wife of Wilson Bishop, has three children and lives in Sutton, Nebraska; Allan, who is married, has two children and lives in Merrick county; Kizzie, wife of Mr. W. Scott, has four children, and lives in Hamilton county, Nebraska; Platte, who resides in Merrick county; David, living in Hamilton county; Blanchard C., married and lives near Chapman; Melbourn, resides in Merrick county; John, in the same county; Iva, who is married to Professor John R. Stevenson, lives in Chapman; Juanita, who resides at home; and an infant deceased.

Mrs. Abbott has one brother residing in Arkansas, one in Brighton, Iowa, another in Red Cloud, Nebraska; one sister in Washington county, Iowa, another in Rogers, Arkansas, and one in Iowa. The mother died in 1905 in Chapman, Nebraska, at the mature age of ninety-four years, and the father, James Taylor, died July 13, 1903, in Iowa, also at the age of ninety-four years.

Mr. and Mrs. Abbott are among the early settlers of their county, and have passed through all the hardships and discouragements incidental to frontier life. They are widely and favorably known.

Source: Compendium of History Reminiscence and Biography