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- JACOB LOUIS SPELLMAN, a wholesale and retail dealer in
- tobacco and manufacturer of cigars in Janesville, Rock County,
is a capable business man, a thorough workman, and a man of pronounced
integrity. Those who know him best speak most highly of his many
commendable qualities, and at home and abroad he is much respected.
- Mr. SPELLMAN was born in Rotterdam, Holland, July 24, 1844,
- a son of Louis and Sophia (HARPMAN) SPELLMAN, both also natives
of Holland. To them were born six sons and two daughters, seven
living, viz: Henrietta, the widow of Mr. HEILAGES; Annie; Samuel,
of Columbus, Ohio; Jacob Louis, whose name appears above; Emanuel,
of the city of New York; and Anthony and Andrew, of Rotterdam,
Holland. The father was a surgical dentist in Holland, and was
a man of much medical erudition. In 1852 he came to this country
and located at Syracuse, N.Y., where
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- he did not remain long, however, being successively established
at Cincinnati and Memphis, and again at Cincinnati, where he
lived until 1865, when he returned to Holland. He died in 1892,
at the age of eighty-three. His first wife died in 1850, and
he married her sister, Florence, by whom he had a family of six
children, Isaac, Sophia, Annie, Mary, Rachel and Mitchell. Louis
SPELLMAN was a soldier during the Civil war, and helped to drive
Morgan out of Ohio.
- Jacob L. SPELLMAN was eight years old when his parents came
to this country, and had
- already made some progress in school in Holland. He attended
school at Syracuse, and in that city began learning the trade
of cigar making with an uncle, when about ten years old. When
the Rebellion broke out he was residing in Jackson, Miss., and
yielding to the war fever that overswept the country, he enlisted
in Company C, of the Jeff. Davis Legion, Hampton's Brigade, and
served the lost cause well and faithfully for four long years.
He was a courier on Gen. Hampton's staff, and took part in many
of the bloodiest scenes of the great war, being in the seven
days' fight before Richmond, the battles of the Wilderness, Antietam,
Second Bull Run and many other fierce and bloody combats. He
was wounded in the nose and the right thigh at Antietam. During
the war he was assigned with his company from the Jeff. Davis
Legion to the 10th Kentucky, under the command of Gen. Basil
Duke, together with nine other companies, selected from other
regiments, to join Gen. Morgan. The day before the death of that
distinguished officer Mr. SPELLMAN was taken prisoner at Paris,
Tenn., and sent to Camp Douglas, Chicago. In April, 1865, he
took the oath of allegiance to the United States, in company
with twenty-six others, and was at once set at liberty. He resumed
his trade of cigar maker, and was engaged in various cities.
In 1885 he came to Janesville, and opened a cigar manufactory
and a tobacco jobbing house for plug and smoking tobaccos, which
he still owns and operates.
- Mr. SPELLMAN and Miss Melinda MINNEY, a daughter of Peter
and Susan (MARTIN)
- MINNEY, were married Nov. 27, 1873, and they have two daughters,
Jessie and Florence. Mrs. SPELLMAN belongs to the Episcopal Church
while her husband is welcomed in many fraternal societies. He
is a Mason of high degree, belonging to Janesville Lodge, No.
55, A.F. & A.M.; Janesville Chapter, No. 5; Janesville Commandery,
No. 2, K.T.; and the Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Consistory; he also
belongs to the Janesville Lodge, No. 14, I.O.O.F., and the Knights
of the Maccabees. He is a Republican, though never a politician.
His home is at No. 308 South Jackson street, and he has been
a resident of Janesville for fourteen years. Mr. SPELLMAN has
had an eventful and varied career, and is an interesting conversationalist.
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-
- Taken from "Commemorative Biographical Record of
the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin"
(c) 1901, p. 584; lithograph from same book.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
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