William Jacot
Among the intelligent, progressive and enterprising men who have successfully directed their attention and labors to the noble work of husbandry in Wayne county and whose prosperity has come as the result of personal effort, is Mr. Jacot, one of the substantial and honored agriculturists of East Union township, and aside from his position as a sterling husbandman, he also has the honor of being the present treasurer of his township, the duties of which position he is discharging to the entire satisfaction of his fellow citizens.
Mr. Jacot was born in the township in which he now resides on the 2nd day of March, 1868, and is a son of Julius and Sophia (Reichenbach) Jacot. These parents were both born in Switzerland, the former on March 24, 1841, and the latter on February 5, 1839. Her death occurred in East Union Township July 2, 1896. After her death, her husband felt an irresistible longing for his old home in Switzerland and thither he went, and is still living there. This worthy couple were the parents of sixteen children, twelve of whom are living, namely: Fannie, the wife of John Dunham; John L., of Medina; Henry, deputy clerk of probate court at Wooster; William T. the subject of this sketch; J. C. E. principal of the public schools at Smithville, Ohio; George W., a student at Wooster University; Charles A., also a student at the same institution; Albert, of Wooster; Alexander; Joseph, a teacher in the reformatoryscool at Mansfield, Ohio; David, a teacher in the industrial school at Lancaster, Ohio; Mary E., unmarried.
William Jacot was reared on the home farm and has always devoted his attention to agricultural pursuits. He received a fair education in the common schools of his neighborhood, and supplemented this training by attendance at the Ada Normal School. When twenty-one years of age he started out for himself, working by the month at farm labor. After his marriage in 1898 he farmed rented land for a while, and by dint of the most rigid economy, combined with wise discrimination and sound judgment in his business affairs, he was eventually enabled to purchase a splendid farm of fifty-five acres in section 22, East Union township, which he has continued to operate to the present time. He has made many good improvements on the place and has maintained it at a high standard of excellence, so that now it is considered one of the best farms in the township. Mr. Jacot carries on general farming, combined with which he also gives some attention to the raising of livestock, in both of which lines he is achieving a distinctive success.
On December 25, 1898, Mr. Jacot was married to Hannah Litsinger of Franklin township, Wayne county. She was born on September 21, 1870, and received a good common school education. They have become the parents of two daughters, Mabel S. and Ella M.
In religion Mr. and Mrs. Jacot are faithful members of the Presbyterian church at Apple Creek, to which they give a generous support and of which Mr. Jacot is one of the trustees. In politics he is a stanch Democrat and was honored by his party by the nomination for the position of township treasurer, to which his fellow citizens elected him and he has now given four years of efficient and satisfactory service in this responsible position. The subject has been a hard-working man, but has seen the reward for his labor, his prosperity having come to him as the direct result of energy and perseverance, his career thus illustrating most forcibly the power of patient and persistent effort and self-reliance.
From The History of Wayne County, Ohio, B. E. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis, 1910