ROADS, Jacob - Putnam

Jacob Roads, farmer, Covington, was born in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, March 1, 1798. In 1810 he removed with his parents to Warren county, Ohio. On July 7, 1814, his father, Samuel Roads, was accidentally killed while repairing a saw-mill. At the age of twenty-one years the subject of this sketch went to Pennsylvania, where he served an apprenticeship at the blacksmith trade. In 1839 he came west and settled in Fountain county, and bought property in Wabash township and began farming. He has been a hard worker, and is the owner of 247 acres of finely improved land, on which he has resided for thirty-one years. In 1870 Mr. Roads sold his farm at $65 per acre, since which time he has resided on a small property which he owns, and which is located about one mile southeast of Covington. Mr. Roads has served the county as commissioner for three years. He is a democrat, though he was formerly a whig, and afterward a republican. In 1820 he was married to Miss Mary Fox, a native of Maryland, who was born in 1799; she died September 24, 1822. In 1832 he was again married, to Miss Amanda Robinson, a native of New Jersey, she being born January 28, 1814. Mr. Roads has reared a family of eight children, two sons and one daughter by his first wife, and three sons and two daughters by his present wife.