It is with pleasure that we essay the task of outlining the career of this estimable gentleman, since he has demonstrated in the face of overwhelming odds, his integrity, determination, and ability to endure hardships and win success in spite of the greatest opposition and obstacles to overcome.
Jacob H. Mowry was born in Miami County, Ohio, on May 11. i860, being the son of Phillip and Sarah ( Sheilenbarger) Mowry, natives of Pennsylvania. The mother died when our subject was eight years old. His father is now aged seventy-eight and is living a retired life at Covington, Ohio. Our subject was reared on a farm which his father rented from the noted patent medicine man, Dr. Harter. He was educated in the high school and when twenty-one went to Arkansas to raise cotton. Later he removed to Iowa, and in various places in that state he wrought at farming and in the starch works until the opening of the reservation when he came hither and bought the relinquishment to his present place. He was rather depleted as to finances, and his wife was very poorly from consumption.
Mr. Mowry was forced to leave the family and go to Walla Walla and work in the harvest fields to secure food for them. On November 10, 1897, Mrs. Mowry died and left four children, the youngest four years old. Mr. Mowry remained at home and cared for his little ones as best he could and little by little improved the ranch. He worked out and one day earned a little pig, which he brought home under his arm. He now has one hundred and twenty-five descendants of that animal on his place and is being prospered exceedingly in raising hogs, being very skillful in that line. Mr. Mowry has his place improved well, has platted twenty acres and sold some lots and is one of the leading and respected men of the County. His children are bright and showing great talent in the line of music and there is great credit due our subject for his faithful and wise manner in which he has met the adversities of life and has wrought.
On January 6, 1884, Mr. Mowry married Miss Millie A., daughter of Charles and Mary (Thomas) Walker, now deceased. Mrs. Mowry was born in Illinois in 1869. She had the following brothers and sisters, Lester. Fred, Charles and Milton, all residents in Iowa; Allie, wife of Seth Smith, in Racine, Wisconsin: Lula, single and on the home farm in Marshall County Iowa. The four children of our subject are named as follows: Roy, born May 15, 1885; Fred, born January 7, 1887; Hazel G., born December 30, 1891; Pearl, born January 3, 1893. Mr. Mowry has two brothers, Samuel and John, both farmers near Covington. Ohio.
He is a Republican and is often seen at the conventions. Mr. Mowry is one of those worthy men whose example and walk and business enterprise are worth much for the up building of the country and it is gratifying that we are able to record that he is now enjoying the reward of the wise effort that he has bestowed.
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Source: An Illustrated History of Northern Idaho, Embracing Nez Perce, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone Counties, Western Historical Publishing Company, 1903