Barbed-Wire Fence Inventor Succumbs

Jacob Haish died at 99 years old on February 19, 1926. On February 26, the Los Angeles Daily Times published "Barbed-Wire Fence Inventor Succumbs"

From the article:

"Within a few days of his one-hundredth birthday, Jacob Haish, millionaire inventor of barbed wire and said to be the oldest bank president in the country, died at his home at DeKalb, Ill., recently of pneumonia. He would have been 100 years old March 9.

Mr. Haish conceived the idea of barbed wire while building fences for his farm. He at first wove osage into wire so that the hardened thorns on the plant would keep the cattle from breaking through. From this developed the idea of sharp protruding spikes of wire and in 1873 he had produced a finished product.

Mr. Haish also developed many farm devices, including milk separators, manure spreaders, gas engines, disc plows and the like. He was born in Cilsul, Baden, Germany, in 1826, and came to America with his parents when he was 9 years of age."