Jacob S. Loffer

  General Notes:

Jacob S. Loffer enlisted in company E. of the 45th OVI on August 8, 1862 at the age of twenty. On July 1, 1863, he was appointed Corporal, a rank he held until the end of the war. He was captured and spent nearly thirteen months in Confederate prisons, including Bell Isle, Andersonville and Florence. He survived and was mustered out on May 22, 1865 at Camp Chase, Ohio by order of the War Department. During his imprisonment, Loffer messed with Company E comrade William Rea, whom he had known since they were both boys in DeGraff Ohio. Loffer later wrote in an affadavit for Rea's pension that his friend :laid at they very point of death for months after his discharge and I waitaed on him for months." Loffer later attended Rea's' wedding and frequently visited him at his farm in DeGraff until Rea's death in 1901.

After the war, Jacob worked as a stock dealer in DeGraff. In August 1903 he died at Quincy, Ohio in a tragic poisoning accident. The following notice of his death appeared in the August 14, 1903 edition of the "Bellefontaine Republican."

Death from Poison! Jacob Loffer Swallows Carbolic Acid!

Mr. Jacob Loffer of DeGraff died suddenly Thursday morning at Quincy, from taking carbolic acid. He was seen by several driving around town, and at fist nothing unusual in his actions was observed. Later, he was observed driving frantically and urging his horse with the all the force he could command until he reached Dr. Hubell's drug store, where he jumped out and running in, cried out to the Doctor that he had by mistake taken carbolic acid. He died in about two minutes after entering the store. He said that he thought he was drinking gin, but an examination showed that he had but one bottle in his pocket and that was labled "Poison! Carbolic Acid."

Upon his wife's arrival, she was sorely stricken with grief. She said her husband had requested an early dinner, as he would return for it.

In the death of Jacob S. Loffer, Degraff has lost one who for more than a quarter of a century has been identified with the progress and growth of our village. Jake was no rainbow chaser, he belonged to the old school rather than the new, in an acquaintance covering more than twenty -five years of business life, we have yet twenty -five hear of a dishonest business transaction laid to the charge of Jacob S. Loffer. To the farming community within a radius of ten miles of DeGraff, Jake Loffer will be missed as no other man. He had bought their stock ever since the war, and to say that stock men had full confidence in him and his judgment, is but to repeat what is said by one and all. Such confidence was placed in all his fair dealings that a farmer would say, when asked by his neighbor what price he was getting or expecting to get, "Oh, I don't know, I will take them down and Jake will give what the market will afford>" And he would, and did, never taking advantage of the seller because he had his stock in town without a fixed price, and so beat him down for that reason. All had confidence that he would do the right thing by them, and this reputation Jacob S. Loffer maintained to the day of his death. It is a legacy worth bequeathing to his children in these days of sharp practices and deceit. We say yes, a thousand times better legacy than millions made by the trusts and so called squelchers of fair dealing, which requires that all may have a chance in life to win its prizes.

Jacob S. Loffer was not in any sense a great man, he was better, a safe one. That he was the right kind of man to make a patriotic citizen is evidence by his prompt response to his country's call. Like thousands, Jake gave more than life to his country. Unfortunate in being captured by the enemy in honorable battle, he was kept in prisons pens - starved, ill treated, his system so filled with poison that for 39 years he has lived a tortured life. Not living as a patriot deserves to live - free from pain, except as caused by wounds on the battlefield. Andersonville, Bell Isle and Libby Confederate prisons were not war, they were hell invented by humans. Jake served his time in them. Let us throw a Christians's mantle over him and hope he is at rest.

For twenty -four years trouble has haunted and well dethroned at times his reason and drown the sunshine in a large measure out of his life. To a man less firs, a wreck would have resulted long ago. To his faithful brother Solomon E. Loffer, the removing of much of the strain by his helpfulness, is his due. As a patriot, citizen, honest man, husband and faithful friend, the community is a loser His creed was the Golden Rule.

Jacob married Samantha Elizabeth Rea, daughter of Rea and Unknown, on 15 Mar 1866 in Logan County, Ohio. (Samantha Elizabeth Rea died on 1 Aug 1912 in Ohio City, Ohio and was buried in Greenwood Cem, Degraff, Logan Co., Ohio.)

Jacob next married Minnie Alice Idle, daughter of Jeremiah Idle and Priscilla J. Stephenson, on 15 Mar 1866 in Logan County, Ohio. (Minnie Alice Idle was born on 16 Feb 1866 in Ohio and died on 30 Aug 1908 in Ohio.)