Early
Memories of
Author: Heath, May Francis
Publisher: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company;
JACOB S.
ALIBER
While Saugatuck boasts
of the longevity of its people, there being many in the eighties but only one
nonagenarian, Jacob S. Aliber, who first saw the
light of day in May of 1829 in a little settlement on the border between New
York and Pennsylvania, which the natives called in those days, "Johny-cake Hollow." His father named him Jacob Smith for
a neighbor who promised to give the boy two sheep on his sixth birthday, but
alas! he is still waiting for those sheep!
The father was a
blacksmith and from a little boy Jacob had a passion for fine horses, which has
lived with him all the years. He recalls when at the age of twelve he became the
proud possessor of a horse by swapping for it a yoke of steers, which he had
raised from calves, and says that was his launching into business.
When a young man he came
to Saugatuck seeing it pass through the lumbering days-also has seen the
sailing vessels replaced by steamboats; the interurban line built and abandoned,
and now the bus lines and airplanes.
He was ambitious and
always active until the last four years, when his years bid for a more quiet life
in the comfort of his home.
Mr. Aliber
has twice married, a daughter of the first marriage living in