Jacob Kibler, one of the representative and prominent farmers of Eagle township, Hancock county, is a native of Ohio, his birth having occurred eight miles east of Wooster in Wayne county, on the 17th of January, 1834. In 1837 he was brought to Hancock county by his parents, George and Emeline (Hays) Kibler, who were married in Wayne county. The father was a native of Virginia and the mother of Arkansas, she being born in that state while her father was stationed there as an American officer in the war of 1812. Our subject's paternal grandfather served all through the Revolutionary war. Both he and his wife were born in the Old Dominion of German ancestry and the latter lived to be over one hundred years of age.
On coming to Hancock county in 1837 George Kibler had to cut his own road for a distance of ten miles from Findlay, and owing to high water and other obstacles he was three days in making the journey. He settled near Arlington, in Madison township, where he entered land and at once turned his attention to its improvement and cultivation. His brother John, who had accompanied him on his removal to this county, also entered a tract of government land, where he lived until his death, dying of cholera during the epidemic of that dread disease. The father of our subject died at the age forty-five years when Jacob was only fourteen years of age. His other children were Luther, who died in Hancock county at the age of thirty. Mary Ann became the wife of Adam Wagner and died at the age of fifty years the result of an accident. Isabel married Nels Westcott and died at the age of thirty-five. Washington, who now lives in Colfax county, Nebraska served through the Civil war and was captured at Harper's Ferry after being wounded. After his exchange he rejoined his command and remained at the front until hostilities ceased. After the death of her first husband the mother of these children married Thomas Wheeler, who took charge of the home farm but spent his last days in retirement from labor in Arlington, where both he and his wife died, both being about seventy-three years of age at the time of their deaths. By this union there were also five children: Holmes, now a resident of Arlington; Emeline, the widow of John Tombaugh and a resident of Findlay; Millie, wife of Noah Hindle, of Arlington; Joseph, a farmer of Madison township; and Milton, who died in childhood.
After the death of his father Jacob Kibler worked for three years by the month as a farm hand, giving his mother his wages to aid in the support the family. At that time he only received from five to seven dollars per month for chopping wood and farm work. From the age of seventeen until twenty he managed to save all of his earnings by living very economically, it being his intention to purchase forty acres of land. His first purchase, however, consisted of an eighty acre tract and he earned the money to make his first payment of thirty dollars by clearing ten acres of land. This tract cost him three hundred dollars and was a heavily timbered place situated east of Arlington, in Madison township.
Mr. Kibler was married February 23, 1854. to Miss Rebecca McClelland, who was then eighteen years of age and whom he had known from childhood. Her parents were David and Rebecca (Mercer) McClelland, of Eagle township, and came to Hancock county in the fall of 1836 and settled on land in that township, where they continued to make their home until late in life, but their last days were spent in Findlay. There the father died when over eighty years of age, and the mother at the age of seventy-nine. By trade Mr. McClelland was a shoemaker and while engaged in farming he followed that occupation through the winter months. On coming to this county he was accompanied by his father, Robert McClelland, and his brothers, John, Thomas, James, Alexander and George, all of whom took up land. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Kibler were born seven children who reached years of maturity: Emza Jane is now the wife of Theodore Powell, a farmer of Eagle township; Charlotte is the wife of Frank Steinman, also of Eagle township; Flora is the widow of Philip Wilch and is now teaching school in Arlington; Etta is the wife of Robert Baughman, of Van Buren township. Thomas, who now carries on the home farm for his father, married Jennie Creighton, who died leaving one son, Waldo, and for his second wife he married Amanda Hays, by whom he has three children: Florence, Mabel and Gertrude. He is a well known breeder of Hereford cattle, having one of the best herds in the county, and his stock always commands the highest market price. Raleigh, an attorney at law, was educated at Ada, Ohio, and is now engaged in practice at Findlay. Benton is also a graduate of the college at Ada and is now a druggist of Alliance, Ohio. All the children have at some time engaged in teaching school and all have been given better educational advantages than the home schools afforded. The youngest passed the county teachers' examination at the age of fifteen years with only home advantages. His own education being limited, Mr. Kibler has provided his children with the best opportunities along that line so as to fit them for any position in life which they might be called upon to fill. He has assisted each as they have needed it and all are now doing well, being a credit to their parents. He now has sixteen grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Mr. and Mrs. Kibler began their married life amid primitive surroundings, he having built a cabin on rented land and furnished it with the simplest of furniture. Later he sold his eighty acre tract and about four years after his marriage bought the old homestead of his mother. Within a few years this was all paid for and he built thereon a good house and made many other useful improvements. After residing upon that place for four or five years he bought his present farm of eighty acres in Eagle township in 1864, only forty acres of which had been cleared at that time, while a cabin constituted the only improvement, there being no ditches or tiling upon the place. This property cost him twenty-six hundred dollars and in buying it he went fifteen hundred dollars in debt, but this was all paid off at the end of five years. He cleared and tiled the land, at the same time placing it under excellent cultivation, and in 1874 he replaced his cabin home by his present substantial brick residence, so that he now has one of the best improved and most desirable farms in the locality. He bought more land but has since sold a tract of forty acres, and now has one hundred and twenty acres of rich and arable land. Starting out in life with scarcely any advantages and no capital, he deserves great credit for the success he has achieved in life, his prosperity being due entirely to his own industry, perseverance and good management.
Politically Mr. Kibler is a stanch Democrat and has served as a delegate to the county conventions of his party. He and his wife are members of the English Lutheran church in Eagle township, in which he has served for years in an official capacity, and he has given liberally to its support. Public-spirited and progressive, he never withholds his aid from any enterprise calculated to advance the moral, social or educational interests of his community, and well does he deserve mention in the history of his adopted county.
Although a young man and only a member of the Findlay bar about ten years, the gentleman whose life is herein outlined has made a creditable record both as a practitioner and man of affairs. He has been sufficiently successful in practice to steadily increase his patronage and has risen to prominence in politics on the Democratic side, which he espoused at an early age and has always supported zealously. His father, Jacob Kibler, was born in Wayne county, Ohio, in 1831, and has devoted practically all his life to agricultural pursuits. He removed to Hancock county in later years and located on a farm in Eagle township, which afterward continued his place of residence.
On this Eagle township homestead R. J. Kibler was born January 20, 1868, and there he was reared while being educated in the country schools. In 1884 he began teaching school in Hancock county, and continued this occupation during the five succeeding winters, while in summer he took advantage of the vacation season to pursue his own studies. In 1888 he secured a position as instructor in the high school at Ada, Ohio, and discharged the duties of this place until 1890, when he began devoting his time to the study of the law. In December, 1891, he was licensed to practice by the supreme court at Columbus, and shortly thereafter took up his residence at Findlay, since which time he has been one of the busy attorneys at the bar of that city. As previously stated, Mr. Kibler is Democratic in his politics and has always shown a warm interest in its campaigns for supremacy. As one of the recognized leaders of his locality he was appointed state supervisor of elections, and is at present holding that position. In 1896 Mr. Kibler was married to Miss Carrie, daughter of Captain William B. Richards, the ceremony being performed at the residence of the bride's parents at Bluffton, Ohio. Mr. Kibler's only fraternal connections are with the Knights of Pythias, of which popular order he has long been an enthusiastic member.