JACOB CASSEL, a highly respected retired farmer, residing in a comfortable home at Bloomer, Miami County, was born in Concord Township, Miami County, Ohio, one and one-half miles west of Troy, November 18, 1840, and is a son of John and Lydia (Hittle) Cassel.

John Cassel was born in Pennsylvania, but he married in Ohio. He was a farmer, and during the boyhood of his son Jacob moved to Illinois and bought a farm in Schuvier County. He died there three years later, and in 1850 his widow returned to Ohio with her children, settling near Greenville, in Darke County, where she passed the remainder of her life.

A fatherless boy often has a youth filled with many hardships, and in this case Jacob Cassel was no exception. When thirteen years of age he was bound out to his half-brother, who was a farmer in Darke County, and Jacob worked there for seven years for the sum of $150. When his term of bondage was over he started out for himself and soon was independent, working for many different farmers all over the township and even in other counties. On March 5, 1861, he was married to Miss Hester Moist, who was born in Montgomery County, Ohio, where she lived until she was twelve years old. At that time her parents, Abram and Rachel (Ziegler) Moist, moved on a farm situated southwest of Covington, and later retired to Pleasant Hill, where his death took place some years later. Mr. and Mrs. Cassel have two children: Angeline and Charles. Angeline married Charles Hill, and they live in Washington Township, Miami County. They have two children: Edith and Sylvia. Charles is the overseer of 590 acres of farm land belonging to the Shaker settlement, east of Dayton. He married Martha Hile, now deceased, and their one daughter, Mabel, lives with her grandparents. Formerly Mr. Cassel owned eighty acres of farm land on the separating line between Shelby and Miami Counties, on which he lived for twenty years. He sold that farm in February, 1898, and then retired to Bloomer, purchasing the place there formerly owned by his son-in-law. Subsequently Mr. Cassel bought thirty acres, located north of Bloomer, and this he retains. He and his wife are members of the Progressive Brethren Church, a branch of the Dunkard body.