John J. Jacob (Kentucky)


John Jeremiah Jacob was an American businessman, financier, real estate developer, and philanthropist active in Kentucky. He was involved in banking, as well as in commerce, real estate and infrastructure: railroads, canal, bridge, and utilities.
John J. Jacob was born in Baltimore, Maryland,. As a young man he met Thomas Prather in Philadelphia, and became inspired by his talk of the frontier. He left with him for Kentucky in 1800 at the age of 22. With his new-found partner, he established Prather and Jacob. A successful businessman, he became the largest landowner and the richest resident of the city, its first millionaire.
Jacob organized and was the first president of the Louisville branch of the Bank of the United States and its successor, the Bank of Kentucky. He organized and was a member of the board of directors for the Galt House. He was president of the Lexington and Ohio Railroad and a member of the board of directors of the Louisville and Frankfort Railroad. He was also treasurer of the Louisville and Portland Canal and involved in the Ohio Bridge Commission in 1827. He was among the founders of the Louisville Gas and Water Company in 1838.
Jacob's residence was built on the block bounded by Third and Fourth streets, and Chestnut and Walnut Streets. His land holdings included much of the eventual central business district and Jacob's Woods, the area presently bounded by Fifth, Preston, Broadway, and Breckinridge streets.
Together with George Keats, in 1841 Jacob was elected to Louisville's City Council for the Fourth Ward. He was a major contributor to Louisville's Blind Asylum and the City Hospital. In 1842, he erected Lyndon Hall, now part of the Hurstbourne Country Club's clubhouse, on his estate in what is now Hurstbourne.
His papers are held by the Filson Historical Society's Special Collections in Louisville.

Marriage and family

In 1811 John J. Jacob married Anne Overton Fontaine, sister-in-law of his partner Thomas Prather in 1811. She bore three children before dying in 1819.
In 1822 Jacob married again, to Lucy Donald Robertson granddaughter of Cdre. Richard Taylor and distant cousin of Capt. Zachary Taylor. She bore eight children before dying in 1842.
Children: