Ebey, Jacob

Born: 1793-10-22 Pennsylvania

Died: 1862-02-21 Coupeville, Washington

Flourished: Sangamon County, Illinois

Alternate name: Eby

Ebey moved with his parents to Franklin County, Ohio, in 1805. In Ohio, Ebey married Sarah Blue, and they moved to Sangamon County, Illinois, in 1831. In April 1832, Ebey led a company of mounted volunteers who were "detached for foot purposes" in the brigade commanded by Brigadier General Samuel Whiteside in the Black Hawk War. Captain Ebey's company was mustered into U.S. service at Beardstown at the end of April. One month later, like fellow Captain Abraham Lincoln, Ebey joined, as a private, Captain Elijah Iles' company at Ottawa, with which he served until it was mustered out on June 16. Again like Lincoln, Ebey reenlisted, though as a sergeant, on June 20, in Captain Jacob Early's company. Ebey served until released on furlough on June 29, 1832. Early's company was mustered out of service eleven days later. In 1840, Ebey moved to Adair County, Missouri, where he still lived as a farmer ten years later. In 1850, the Ebeys took the Oregon Trail west and settled in the Puget Sound area of the Washington Territory. In 1860, he was a farmer on Whidby's Island in Washington Territory with $8,000 in real property and $300 in personal property.

U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Adair County, MO, 23; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Island County, WA, 7; Ellen M. Whitney, comp., The Black Hawk War, 1831-1832: Illinois Volunteers, vol. 35 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1970), 1:220-21, 227-29, 544-46; John Carroll Power and S. A. Power, History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois (Springfield, IL: Edwin A. Wilson, 1876), 277-78; Gravestone, Sunnyside Cemetery, Coupeville, WA.