JACOB HAISH CELEBRATES

The below article was published in the March 9, 1922, edition of the DeKalb Daily Chronicle. Although Jacob Haish looked forward to his 100th birthday, he would die just a few weeks before he could celebrate it. This article celebrates Haish's 96th birthday.

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JACOB HAISH CELEBRATES
Veteran Manufacturer Banker Spends 96th Birthday at the Bank
IS FEELING FINE

"Ninety-six years young! I don't feel any older today than a year ago, and I believe I feel younger than I did when I celebrated my 86th birthday."

Such was the answer to the inquiry made by Jacob Haish, DeKalb's veteran manufacturer, as he sat in his usual chair at the Jacob Haish State Bank this afternoon, when, after congratulations, he was asked how he felt.

Mr. Haish, with just a slight moisture in his eyes, told how many people had remembered him on his birthday, friends in New York remembering that today marked his 96th year of a most successful life. Ninety-six beautiful rosebuds, with an extra one "to grow on," were sent to his home during the day, and everyone knows how Jacob Haish admires flowers. He spoke feelingly of the donors of the flowers, expressing the wish that he might live to receive 101 of such roses.

"Today is a beautiful day, and I wish that I might walk home, but I begin to get tired after I walk a block, so I save shoe leather and ride back and forth in my car."

Mr. Haish stated that he was feeling as well as he had ever felt in years past, in fact better than ten years ago. His physician tells him that he is sound and in unusually good health for a man that is starting out on his 97th year of life. 

"You know," concluded Mr. Haish, "I have been around this country, this state and this city so many years I like it, and I have no great desire to go anywhere else for many years yet. I hope to live to celebrate my 100th anniversary and it will be a most enjoyable celebration, too."

Jacob Haish's improvements for lighting railway coaches

Jacob Haish had the creative, working mind of an inventor. If he thought there was a better, more efficient way of doing something, he was going to create it. 

And then patent it. 

The patent below is for "new and useful Improvements in Lighting Railway Coaches." The application was filed October 14, 1886, and the patent was awarded April 12, 1887. Click the below images to enlarge.

Image via Google Patents

Image via Google Patents

Image via Google Patents

An excerpt from the patent papers is below: 

"This invention relates to improvements in simultaneously lighting the interior of the railway-coach and the platform, also in using the same light for a train-signal, all as will now be fully set out and described, reference being had to the accompanying drawings." 

To read more from the patent description, click here.