Jacob Mitts

Jacob Mitts, the older brother of Adam Mitts, was born in Hampshire County, Virginia circa 1776, and came to Kentucky as a teenager with his parents. In Harrison County on February 7, 1805, he married Mary/Polly Conyers, daughter of Dennis Conyers. The young couple removed to present-day Grant County in 1806 and settled near the village of Dry Ridge, where they continued to reside until the fall of 1829. At that time they sold 98 acres of their farm to Kavanaugh Williams for $800. The remaining 2-1/2 acres was conveyed to Jacob's sister and borther-in-law, Margaret and Simon Nichols for $12.50. The Jacob Mitts family migrated to Illinois and settled in Ball Township, Sangamon County. The family survived the winter of 1829-30, known "as the winter of the great snow." Jacob Mitts and ten of his eleven children remained in Sangamon County, where Jacob died July 2, 1835, ag circa 60 years. Discouraged by the heavy snows and extreme cold, John Mitts, Jacob's eldest son, his wife Ann, and their infant daughter returned to Grant County, where they settled on a farm near Heekin. Here ten more children were born. In 1853 John Mitts and his entire family left Grant County to settle on a farm in Jackson Township, Clark County, Missouri, where John and Ann spent their last years. She died November 27, 1889. He died April 19, 1894, age 88. Both lie buried in the Mitts Farm Cemetery near Antioch, Missouri.

From the files of James R. Glacking
Published in Footsteps of the Past, June 25, 1998

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