Sheriff Jacob H. Wolf

JACOB H. WOLF
1868 - 1923

Jacob H. Wolf, born in 1845, was the son of William Wolf and grandson of Major Jacob Wolf and Maldred Meredith. When he and his siblings were orphaned about 1852 he was taken into the home of his grandfather Jacob Wolf, who raised him. His siblings were raised in other Wolf family households. He was a blacksmith by trade, with a shop at one time in Iuka, Izard, and later in Norfork right beside the Wolf House.

The Wolf House had been sold out of the family, but Jacob bought it back and lived there. The last Wolf to be born in the house was his granddaughter, Gwen Wolf. In one of the pictures she can be seen, as a young child sitting in one of the upstairs windows with her legs dandling out.

Jacob was elected as the second sheriff of Baxter County and served three terms. About 1917 he sold the old family home here in Norfork and moved to Oklahoma.

Jacob H. was a redheaded man and taught school at Trevine (at the Sheid Bridge). He and his family were charter members of the Methodist Church. He lived in the Wolf House at the time and the Church met in his lower south room about 1910 while the church house was being built. The benches for the churches were built by Dave Torrance.

(Above submitted by Dolan Acklin)

The following is Sheriff Wolf's biography according to Goodspeed's Reminiscent History of the Ozark Region:

There is not a more popular citizen and official in Baxter County, Arkansas, than Jacob H. Wolf, who has several times served in the capacity of sheriff of the county, and whose conduct of the affairs of that office has been such as to commend him to the good opinion of the general public, irrespective of party affiliation.

He was born in what is now Baxter (but was then Izard) County, Arkansas, March 31, 1845, a son of William M. and Phoebe E. (Kellow) Wolf, the former of whom was born in Kentucky, but was only a child when his father, Jacob Wolf, brought him to Arkansas. They located near the mouth of North Fork on White River, and there made their home for over fifty years, Jacob Wolf being a farmer, merchant, trader and blacksmith, in which duties he was assisted by his sons, and these energetic men did much to develop the resources of northern Arkansas and make the present advanced state of civilization possible.

Jacob Wolf received the appointment of Indian agent from the United States Government, with the rank of major, and held this position many years. He also held other official positions of trust and honor. He was a Democrat, a member of the Missionary Baptist Church, and was a man well known and highly honored in his day. William M. Wolf, his son, was also a merchant and trader, and became prominent in the political affairs of his time, serving several terms as a member of the General Assembly of the State from Izard County. He became the owner of a valuable farm on White River, and for his many worthy traits of character was highly honored throughout the section in which he resided. He died in 1852, when about forty-two years of age, and his widow in 1863, at the age of thirty-eight. She was born in Kentucky, and came with her people to Arkansas many years ago.

Jacob H. Wolf, the immediate subject of this sketch, was the third of seven children born to his parents, and his scholastic education was obtained in the public schools of Mountain Home (then known as Rapp's Barrens), and his vacations were spent in assisting his grandfather. In 1862 he became a soldier of the Confederate Army, but saw no active service until 1863, when he joined the Fourteenth Arkansas Infantry, which was afterward changed to Craven's regiment or the First Consolidated Regiment. He was in the service until his command surrendered at Marshall, Tex., in the spring of 1865. He was a participant in the engagements at Prairie De Han, Marks' Mill, and various skirmishes, but was neither wounded nor taken prisoner during his service. Prior to the war he had partly learned the blacksmith's trade, and upon the opening of the war he was working as a tanner on White River, at Livingston's Point.

After the war he worked at blacksmithing at Salado, Bell County, Tex., and returned to Mountain Home and attended school one year. He also worked at blacksmithing in Baxter County from 1871 to 1884, when he was elected sheriff of the county, but prior to this had served one term as county coroner. After serving in the capacity of sheriff three terms he turned his attention to farming on White River, in Buck Horn Township, but later located in Mountain Home, and began working at his trade, from which he was once more called by the voice of the public to serve in the capacity of county sheriff and collector, to fill the unexpired term of Mr. Livingston (deceased), and ably did he discharge his duties. In Waco, Tex., he was married in 1877 to Miss Jennie Patterson, by whom he has two sons and two daughters living: Thella, Jacob Cleave, Willie Clyde and Phoebe Lois, and Tandy, Milas and an infant are deceased. Mr. Wolf is a Royal Arch Mason, has filled important offices in the Blue Lodge and chapter, and politically is a Democrat.

(Source: Reminiscent History Of The Ozark Region, pub. Goodspeed Brothers, Publishers, Chicago 1894; also Baxter County History, Vol. 32, No. 1.)