Jacob Nist
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Jacob Michael Nist (March 28, 1839–1907) was born in Louisville, Kentucky to Catherine Minich Nist and Joseph Nist. He moved to St. Marys, Elk County, Pennsylvania as a member of the "Colony of St. Marys". Jacob married Mary Anna Wagner on October 15, 1860 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where he took up farming. While in Pittsburgh, Jacob and Mary had seven children: Michael J., George Jacob, Jacob John, Aloysius, John J., Joseph F. and Anna Margaret. Jacob and his family left Pittsburgh in 1878 for Holyrood, Kansas where he was engaged in the merchantile business.
In 1889, he moved to Seattle, Washington with his first wife and their seven children. Shortly after he started working at the Seattle Lumber and Commercial Company, it was destroyed in the Great Seattle Fire on June 6, 1889. Jobless he started the Queen City Manufacturing Company next to his home on the Northeast corner of Thomas and Rollin (later renamed Westlake Avenue N.). The telephone number was 738. In 1905, his eldest son Michael took over the company moving it to the southeast corner of 4th Avenue S. and S. Spokane Street in the Industrial District and renamed it the Seattle Box Company. It is currently called the Seattle-Tacoma Box Company and located in Kent, Washington.
After the death of his first wife, Jacob married Josephine Webber Clavadetscher on August 22, 1900. His grandson from his second marriage, John Hopcroft, is a former dean of the College of Engineering at Cornell University and a renowned theoretical computer scientist.
In 1906 Jacob's new house at 221 6th Avenue N. had both gas and electric lighting as electricity was too new to be trusted. The house was demolished for the second Denny Regrade.
Jacob is buried between his two wives (Mary on his left and Josephine on his right as inscribed on the tombstone) at Calvary Cemetery in the Ravenna neighborhood of Seattle, Washington.
Jacob's genealogy is as follows: Theobald Nist (1688–1768) married Margaret Neufeld (1706–) in Niederotterbach, Bavaria. The youngest of their five children Nicholas Nist (1745–1813) married Catherine Uhl (1748–1813) in Niederotterbach. Their son Johann George Nist (1788–) from Niederotterbach married Elisabeth Mueller (circa 1791–) from Oberotterbach on May 6, 1811. Around 1832, the parents and their seven children came to the United States and settled in Louisville, Kentucky. Their oldest son Joseph Nist (1812–1893) married Catherine Minick (circa 1823–1900) in Louisville, Kentucky. Their oldest child was Jacob Michael Nist (1839–1907).