Biography of Jacob N. Olinger, pages 681/682/683.  History 
of DeKalb County, Indiana; B. F. Bowen & Company, Inc., 
Indianapolis, 1914.



To write the personal record of men who raised themselves 
from humble circumstances to a position of responsibility 
and trust in a community is no ordinary pleasure. Self-made 
men, men who have achieved success by reason of their 
personal qualities, and left the impress of their 
individuality upon the business and growth of their place 
of residence and affect of good such institutions as are 
embraced in the sphere of their usefulness, unwittingly, 
perhaps, built monuments more enduring than marble obelisk 
or granite shaft.  Of such we have the unquestionable right 
to say belonged the gentleman whose name appears above.  
Jacob N. Olinger, who during his lifetime was one of the 
respected and influential citizens of Keyser township, 
DeKalb county, Indiana, was born on November 18, 1839, in 
Stark county, Ohio, the son of John and Annie (Nicodemus) 
Olinger, the father a native of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. 
Jacob  N. Olinger was reared in his Ohio home, securing his 
education in its public schools, and at about the time he 
attained his majority in 1861, he came to DeKalb county, 
Indiana, where he obtains employment at farm work. In 1863 
he began farming operations for himself about a mile north 
of where the town of Garrett is now located, where he 
bought twenty acres, the ground on which Garrett now stands 
being then a dense woodland.  When this now prosperous town 
was started Mr. Olinger had an old shanty of a house there, 
in which he kept boarders, caring for the workmen engaged 
in the building of the young town. By persistent and sturdy 
industry and rigid economy Mr. Olinger was enabled to get a 
start, and, though intent on the acquisition of material 
means on his own account, he was generous in his assistance 
to others equally limited in their resources.  He first 
bought twenty acres of land on the south side of the road, 
thus making forty acres of good land, and eventually he 
bought forty acres more adjoining the former tract, thus 
making sixty acres at the cross roads where the Keyser 
centralized school is now located. Here he lived during the 
remainder of his life and by his intelligently directed 
efforts he was enabled to live comfortably during his later 
years. He was a man of stanch integrity of character, whose 
actions were governed by right motives and among those who 
knew him best he was held in high regard because of his 
sterling qualities and his evident desire to live right 
among his fellow men. In 1863 Jacob N. Olinger married 
Lovina Shull, and to them were born a daughter, Addie, who 
became the wife of Peter Kandal, and they now live three 
miles north of Butler. Mrs. Lovina Olinger died on December 
7, 1884, and on August 31, 1886, Mr. Olinger married Sarah 
Deihl, who was born in Indiana county, Pennsylvania, and is 
a sister of John Deihl, who is represented by a personal 
sketch elsewhere in this work. Mrs. Olinger was reared in 
Pennsylvania and came to Indiana on a visit to relatives, 
with whom she spent two years. She then returned to 
Pennsylvania, and was there married to Mr. Olinger. To them 
was born one son, Jay F., who first saw the of day on 
January 22, 1889, and after attending the common schools, 
graduated from the Garrett high school in 1908, and 
subsequently attended the Tri-State Normal School at 
Angola. In the fall of 1909 Mr. Olinger began teaching, 
being engaged in the work one year at Dutchtown, and ever 
since has taught in the schools of Keyser township, being 
numbered among the successful educators of this county. He 
is still making his home with his mother, for whom he bears 
the closest affection and for whom he is caring with the 
utmost solicitude.  Intelligent and well educated, Jay F. 
Olinger has an agreeable and companionable manner that wins 
for him friends, and throughout the community where he is 
known he is held in high regard.  Jacob N. Olinger died on 
May 21 , 1910, in the seventy-first year of his age, and 
his death was sincerely mourned throughout the community, 
where his loss was deeply felt.  He was a faithful and 
earnest member of the Methodist Episcopal church of 
Garrett, to the support of which he contributed freely of 
his means. Mrs. Olinger and her son, Jay, are also members 
of the Methodist church. The family have for many years 
been numbered among the best citizens of the section of the 
county in which they live, and are highly esteemed because 
of their honorable record and the active part they have 
taken in the advancement of the community along legitimate 
lines.

Submitted by:

Arlene Goodwin

Auburn, Indiana

Agoodwin@ctlnet.com