[E.A. Schwartz] [Ancestors Main Page]

Jacob Schwartz was born August 28, 1760, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and died in July 6, 1842 in Salisbury, Pennsylvania.

He married Catherine Kimmel in 1790, probably in Stoystown, Pennsylvania, and they apparently had ten children: Edward (1800-1843), Juliana (1794-1853), Catherine (1802-1820), Lydia (1807-1880), Benton (1810-1814), George (1796-1867), William (1798-1814), Jacob (1804-1885), John (1808-1814), and Henry (1812-1836). Note that two died in childhood and two in their teens, and five had died before Catherine Kimmel died. Two sons died in 1814.


Notes by W.A. Schwartz: The name Jacob Schwartz appears on the government roles in the War of the Revolution. In June 27, 1781, he resided within the district of the eighth battalion, Lancaster County militia, subject to militia law, second company, eighth class ["class" referring to the order of being called to service] (Pennsylvania Archives, 5th Ser. V1,830).

After the war he was a merchant in Salisbury, Pennsylvania, where he died in July 26, 1842. [Another source gives the date of his death as 1852.]

Catherine Kimmel moved to Illinois in 1812. It is not clear if he ever moved to Illinois with his family.

The family were members of the Lancaster Congregation of the Moravian Church.


Jacob Schwartz was fourteen years old when the Revolution began and twenty when Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown in 1781.

The Pennsylvania militia generally saw little combat. See the state website Revolutionary War Militia Battalions and Companies, Arranged by County.

Some other events of which Jacob Schwartz most likely heard:

On September 17, 1787, when he was twenty-seven years old, the United States constitution was adopted.

Eight days short of his thirty-fourth birthday, troops under Anthony Wayne defeated an indigenous confederation at "Fallen Timbers" in Indiana on August 20, 1794, after two earlier U.S. expeditions has been turned back with heavy losses.

The British burned Washington during the War of 1812 on August 24, 1814, four days short of his fifty-fourth birthday. On January 8, 1815, troops under Andrew Jackson defeated the British at New Orleans.

Andrew Jackson won his first election to the presidency in November 1828, when Jacob Schwartz was sixty-eight.

When he was seventy-six, the Panic of 1837 struck. Wikipedia describes the Panic as "a major recession that lasted until the mid-1840s. Profits, prices and wages went down while unemployment went up. Pessimism abounded during the time. The panic had both domestic and foreign origins. Speculative lending practices in western states, a sharp decline in cotton prices, a collapsing land bubble, international specie flows, and restrictive lending policies in Great Britain were all to blame.... Banks collapsed, businesses failed, prices declined, and thousands of workers lost their jobs. Unemployment may have been as high as 25% in some locales. The years 1837 to 1844 were, generally speaking, years of deflation in wages and prices."