Jacob Krontz - Bishop Post, G.A.R.

Jacob Krontz was a Defiance Township resident as early as 1850, when he lived with his father and mother, Jacob and Elizabeth.  Jacob was the second oldest, following John, and preceeding Belista/Valista, Abrase (?), William, Elizabeth and George.  

Just before the war, in 1860, the census enumerator was a little mixed up, noting that Jacob was only 12.  Actually, he would have been about 16. (His age and his sister's were reversed.) So he was just the minimum age when he enlisted into the 111th Ohio Infantry, Company E, on August 11, 1862.  Off he headed to Kentucky and Tennessee, at least for his first year of service.


Apparently, he had a leave at home, just enough time to marry Mary Jane Conkright in 1863.  Then it was back to Tennessee and eventually the march to Atlanta and beyond where he was wounded.  He was discharged on May 24, 1864, having served 2 years, 3 months and 25 days.  

 He was a farmer, but hardly a wealthy one.  In 1870, he had real estate worth $125.  His two small children - Iva, 2, and Martha A., 1 - and two other relatives - Andrew Krontz, 21, and Martha Krontz, 17 - completed the household on the census.  Andrew stated he was a farm laborer.  By 1880, he reported on the agricultural census that he was renting land and sharing in the production profits.  Only 26 acres were tilled and he had 1 horse, 2 cows, and 20 poultry.  

At some point, Jacob and Mary moved to Defiance and by 1910, the last census on which Jacob appeared, they lived at 1212 Clinton Street.  Jacob was 65 and Mary, 61, and with them was William, 38, a bachelor who lived at home for his whole life, a laborer at odd jobs. The youngest son was also enumerated at home. Jessie, 22, was a tool dresser on the oil fields. Mary had 8 children, but only 7 were living at that time.

Jacob Krontz died on May 6, 1915, and he was buried at Riverside Cemetery.
His obituary appeared in the Defiance Democrat on that day:

 Iva was over 97 years old when she died on November 8, 1946, at the home of her daughter, Iva Krontz Clark in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  She suffered from senility at the end of her very long life.