Jacob Haish was a German-born American inventor and businessman. His invention of barbed wire changed the history of the United States, making settlement in the frontier regions possible.
Background
Jacob Haish was born on March 9, 1826, near Karlsruhe, in the Duchy of Baden, Germany (nowadays Baden-Württemberg), the son of Christian and Qiristina (Layman) Haish. When ten years old he came with his parents to the United States. After living about ten years on a farm in Pennsylvania the family removed to De Kalb County.
Education
In De Kalb County Haish obtained a public school education, while helping with the farm work, and also learned carpentry from his father.
Career
At twenty Jacob Haish struck out for himself and after working for three years for several farmers he purchased a farm for himself at Pierce. Poor health, however, forced him to give up his farm in 1851, and to earn a living he turned to carpentry. For two years he worked at his trade in Kaneville, Illinois and then moved to De Kalb, Illinois, where he remained for the rest of his life. He was extremely successful here and in the course of twenty years built up a commanding business as a building contractor and lumber dealer.
Around 1873 Haish became interested in improving barbed wire and applied for his first patent on December 22, 1873, only to discover that a fellow townsman, Joseph F. Glidden, had applied for a similar patent two months earlier. Haish unsuccessfully challenged Glidden’s claim through interference proceedings but obtained three other barbed-wire patents before a decision was rendered late in 1874. He then invented the so-called “S” barbed wire, patented on August 31, 1875, and proceeded to manufacture it in De Kalb. It was popular, had a wide sale, and a reissue of the patent was made January 6, 1880.
In 1876 the Washburn & Moen Manufacturing Company of Worcester, Massachusetts, bought Glidden’s patents and then proceeded to obtain control of the entire barbed-wire production of the United States.
Haish, backed by the Farmers’ Protective Association, refused to sell and precipitated a legal contest which continued from 1876 to 1892. Infringement cases were tried in several federal districts and were carried from lower to higher courts until February 29, 1892, when a decision by the United States Supreme Court was rendered in favor of the Washburn & Moen Company. While Haish failed to establish a legal right to the independent manufacture and sale of barbed wire, he continued to derive a large income from his barbed wire manufacturing machines which he himself used and leased to other manufacturers, including the Washburn & Moen Manufacturing Company. His later activities included the manufacture of plain wire, nails, and staples, woven-wire fencing, and agricultural implements of various kinds. In the course of his life he acquired much real estate both in De Kalb and Chicago.
Achievements
Connections
His wife was Sophia Ann Brown, daughter of Thomas C. Brown, a farmer of Napersville, whom Jacob Haish married on May 24, 1847.