My Genealogy Hound

Judge Jacob Linzee, originally Lindsay, was born in Athens, Ohio, January 16, 1811, and is the son of William and Elizabeth (Powell) Linzee, both natives of Virginia from near Morgantown. William Linzee was a farmer by occupation, and served in the War of 1812. He grew to manhood in Athens, and while a lad began and completed a thorough knowledge of the trade of saddlery. At the age of nineteen he left his home and spent some time at work as a journeyman in leading establishments of Wheeling, W. Va., Logansport, Ind., and when Peru, Ind., was made a city he went there and opened a shop at that place. He was elected sheriff of Miami County, Ind., and spent five years there as sheriff and collector, and also carried on the saddlery business. He then went to Beloit, Wis., remained there from 1839 to 1840, and was then for some time at Janesville. He had meantime invested in mining lands in Green County, Wis., and in 1842 he laid out and established Exeter in company with Hon. Ezra Durham. He spent eight years in California engaged in gold mining and trading. From 1852 to 1860 he operated successfully in mining and trading, and at the last named date he returned home and removed with his family to Macon County, Mo., where he remained four years. In the spring of 1864 he went to Nebraska City, and in the following year took a contract with the builders of the Union Pacific Railway. He had meantime sold his farm in Macon County, and in 1867 he sold out his effects in Nebraska and came to Carthage, Mo. Here he made a home and engaged in the stock business, remaining there, however, but a year or so when he resolved to go to Texas, but gave this up and moved to Peirce City, which was then rapidly increasing in population. Here he has lived ever since. He was engaged in the livery business for some time, but upon the organization of the Lawrence County Bank he was elected president of the same and controlled its management for a few years. While in California he served as supervisor or judge of Amador County, a title which he has honorably earned, and one by which he has since been familiarly known. While in Peru, Ind., he married Miss Susan C. Durgan, a native of Maine, but was reared in Vermont, and the daughter of Joseph Durgan, of Ohio, who passed the latter part of his life in Oregon, near Fort Vancouver. She passed away August 12, 1887, in full communion with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and is buried in Peirce City Cemetery. They had lived happily together for nearly fifty-two years and reared five sons and one daughter: Edwin M. (an able attorney at Eureka Springs, Ark.), Capt. E. P. and J. P. (twins, and both at Peirce City), William T. (a prominent business man at Peirce City), M. C. (wife of Dr. J. Gates, of LaPlata, Mo., a leading physician at that place); Hiram J., their youngest son, died in the army. Edwin M. and E. P. rendered honorable and active service in the Confederate army.