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Jacob "Ross" Firestone was born in 1853 or 1855 in Lower Turkeyfoot Township, Somerset County, PA, the son of George and Catherine "Katie" (Younkin) Firestone. Some sources erroneously give his birth year as 1848, which is not corroborated in the corresponding federal census of 1850. A bachelor at the age of about 25, in 1880, he resided with his parents on their farm in Lower Turkeyfoot. He entered into the rite of marriage with Jane "Jennie" Hartzell (1864-1951), a native of Kingwood and the daughter of Melchior and Anna "Annie" (Johnson) Hartzell. She was 16 years younger than her spouse. The couple produced three known children -- George Russell Firestone, Samuel Melchi Firestone and Mary Firestone. When Ross's father was dying in the summer of 1886 and wrote a last will, he stipulated that Jane was to receive the upper half of the "old home farm" which contained a building, even if she were to remarry after Ross's death. Ross also was to receive $5 cash from the estate. The terms spelled out that in the event Ross died first, Jane was to pay Ross's sister Harriet the sum of $100, made in four installments of $25 annually. Sadly, Ross passed away at the age of 44 on April 6, 1897. Jane survived him by more than half a century. She married again to J. Wesley Burkholder (1850-1915), the widower of her dead husband's sister Harriet. See their bio for more.
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