Biography - Jacob Rausch
Jacob RAUSCH, grocer, Litchfield, was born in Province Coblenz, Prussia, on the River Rhine, in September, 1832. At the age of sixteen years, he began to learn the hardware and grocery business, and served five years' apprenticeship. In November, 1854, he came to the United States, and first located in Philadelphia, Penn., where for five years he clerked in a wholesale French confectionery store; the next five years he spent in the State of New York, acting as clerk in hardware stores of Lockport and Buffalo. He went to California in 1862, by the way of New York, Aspinwall and San Francisco, and lived in Marysville, doing hardware business one year, after which, for a period of four years, he engaged in the drug business in San Francisco. He returned to New York by water in 1867, and located in Oswego, where he remained until 1872, acting as clerk in a book store. In May, 1872, he came to Litchfield, Ill., and was at that time broken down in health; in July of the same year, he purchased his present site and erected storeroom and dwelling, and opened a grocery and provision store on Jackson and Martin streets, where he has since done a prosperous business. In Oswego, N. Y., he married Miss Marian COLLYS, a native of Alsace, France, their union occurring in 1867; they have two daughters.
Extracted 19 Nov 2016 by Norma Hass from 1882 History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois, Part 2 Biographical Department, page 167.
