BIOGRAPHY: Jacob FEND, Cambria County, PA 

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From Wiley, Samuel T., ed. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria 
County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Union Publishing Co., 1896, p. 53-4
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JACOB FEND, a highly respected citizen and one of the oldest and most successful 
business men of the city of Johnstown, is a son of John and Mary (Gerhardt) 
Fend, and was born at Funkstown, a village in the vicinity of Hagerstown, 
Maryland, June 10, 1823.
     His parents were both natives of Germany, and in 1821, settled near 
Hagerstown, Maryland, but soon removed to Berlin, Somerset county, this State, 
where the father died, 1824, and his mother passed away, 1848, when in the 
fifty-second year of her age. They were an honest, frugal and industrious couple 
who well deserved the respect which was accorded them in the community where 
they resided.
     Jacob Fend was brought, when but a mere child, by his parents to Somerset 
county, where in 1837 he commenced work in the Kantner woolen factory, one mile 
east of Stoyestown, at fifty cents per week and boarding himself. He worked two 
years in the woolen mill, and a year more on a farm, and then learned the trade 
of millwright with E. M. Smitley, who gave him the only opportunity he ever 
enjoyed in youth of attending school for three months. Stonycreek township, 
where he formerly resided, had refused to adopt the free-school system. With Mr. 
Smitley he also learned the lessons of economy and self-reliance. He worked for 
eleven years at his trade, and when not contracting received $2.50 per day. 
Completing Benshoff's mill at Johnstown, in 1851, his physicians urged him to 
find lighter employment if he wished to live. Reluctantly accepting their advice 
he purchased for $1260, of John Geis, the site of his present building on Main 
street, Johnstown, and opened a confectionery establishment and cracker bakery 
in 1852. His payments were light, only $200 per year without interest, and he 
prospered fairly well in his new line until the war came, when such a demand 
came for his goods that he could hardly fill the orders that poured in on him. 
This increase of business remained permanent with him after the war, and up to 
1882, when he retired from business. He then spent his winters at New Orleans 
and in California until the great flood came and swept away so much of his 
property that he was compelled to again engage in business. He had his wrecked 
residence repaired and opened as a hotel, and it was the leading hotel for 
several years. From the scattered remnants of his property properly managed and 
income of the hotel he was enabled, on November 1, 1893, a second time to retire 
from active business with a sufficient competency to provide him with the 
comforts of life.
     On November 4, 1845, Mr. Fend married Harrah Probst, a member of the 
English Lutheran church, and a grand-daughter of John Probst, the first iron 
manufacturer west of the Allegheny mountains in the Ligonier valley. Mrs. Fend 
was of French descent and died August 5, 1878, aged fifty-six years, leaving 
four daughters: Matilda, wife of Major James H. Gageby, United States army; 
Mary, who died May 9, 1887, at Los Angeles, California; Emma, who passed away, 
July 25, 1888; and Ettie, who is her father's devoted companion.
     Jacob Fend is a republican in politics, and has served the city council for 
a number of years, but being a modest and retiring disposition he has never 
desired a public office, although serving in obedience to the will of the voters 
whenever elected to any municipal position. For years he has been among the 
foremost business men of the city, and has always identified himself with any 
movement for the advancement of Johnstown's material interests. As one instance 
illustrating his devotion to the development of his city may be cited the great 
effort of Mr. Fend, in connection with G. W. Osborn, to obtain the necessary 
amount of subscription that secured the erection of the Johnstown water works. 
In a score of other ways more or less prominent, he has been a potent factor to 
secure additional advantages for his city or bring to it new enterprises.
     Jacob Fend has been an industrious and persistent worker, and an excellent 
manager, and by prudence and economy has acquired a handsome competency. From a 
boy without a dollar and but little schooling he has not only achieved success 
in a business point of view, but in the maintenance of a character for 
integrity. His charities, however, have not been ostentatious, and few persons 
outside of his own family and intimate friends have knowledge of them. A fine 
example of a self-made man, his kindly nature, his thoughtfulness and 
consideration have won him friends wherever he has gone.