Author: Larry D. Smith
Jacob Schmitt, Sr was born between 1730 and 1750, probably in Germany. His exact date and place of birth are not known at this time. Although his parents’ names are not known for certain, it is assumed that Jacob was a son of Heinrich Schmitt of Lebanon Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
Jacob Schmitt married Rosana -------. Rosana’s name appears in Jacob’s will, but that is the sole reference to her in any public papers. The couple bore three children: Jacob Jr. (born 1770), Agnes Elizabeth (born 1782) and Jacob Peter (born 1784).
Jacob Schmitt moved his wife and firstborn son into the frontier of the Province of Pennsylvania at some time close to the spring of 1775. In the 1775 tax assessment, Jacob was listed as an inmate, meaning he had not yet built his own house At that time, the lands to the east of the Blue Knob mountain fell under the jurisdiction of Frankstown Township, Bedford County. During that year the township of Frankstown was separated from Bedford Township within Bedford County. There were only about sixty other families residing in the newly formed township, which encompassed what is now the entire of Blair County.
Farming was the basic occupation of Jacob, although he might have done some trapping of fox and wolves to obtain the currency needed to purchase items which he and his wife could not produce themselves. His farmstead would have been fairly self-sufficient for the first ten years. It would have had to have been self-sufficient because other settlers did not appear in the immediate area until the 1780s and following the end of the War in 1783. An inventory of Jacob Schmitt’s estate after his death in 1797 revealed farm tools, such as plows, harrows, grindstones, saws and other implements which bespoke his ability to be self-reliant in the frontier. The inventory recorded spinning wheels and other supplies which revealed that Rosana Schmitt handled her share of the homestead’s required work duties equally with her husband.
Jacob Schmitt, Sr took the oath of allegiance to the county of Bedford and the (newly declared) state of Pennsylvania on 11 April 1778. During the American Revolutionary War, Jacob Schmitt, Sr., served as a private in Captain William Clark’s Company of the Bedford County Militia as a Ranger on the Frontier. Whether Jacob was involved in any active fighting or not may never be truly known due to the scarcity of Bedford County records.
Jacob Schmitt, Sr died circa July 1797. His Will was probated in the Bedford County Court House on 01 July 1797. Jacob was buried in a small plot on his homestead property just to the west of his log house. Besides Jacob and his wife, Rosana, this gravesite would eventually become the final resting place of thirty individuals and become known as the Smith Cemetery. The vicinity of his property became known as Smith Corner.