Haish at the 2021 Sandwich Fair

I attended the 2021 Sandwich Fair last weekend and was so excited to see some Jacob Haish gas engines on display. Although I was unable to track down the owner of the engines, I took some photos.

Collection of Haish engines on display at the 2021 Sandwich Fair | Photo by Jessi LaRue

1 HP Jacob Haish Co. gas engine | Photo by Jessi LaRue

2 HP Jacob Haish Co. gas engine | Photo by Jessi LaRue

5 HP Jacob Haish Co. gas engine | Photo by Jessi LaRue

7 HP Jacob Haish Co. gas engine | Photo by Jessi LaRue

Backside of the Haish gas engines | Photo by Jessi LaRue

The barbed wire traveling trailer, a Sandwich Fair regular, was also at this year's event. The trailer features a variety of barbed wire tools as well as a sampling of various wires. Haish's "Ripple Wire" is featured.

Barbed wire traveling trailer features wire tools. | Photo by Jessi LaRue

"Wire that Fenced the Western Frontier" barbed wire display | Photo by Jessi LaRue

Haish's "Ripple Wire" was featured on the wire display board. | Photo by Jessi LaRue

Barbed wire traveling trailer features wire tools. | Photo by Jessi LaRue

Commemorative Haish envelope

This commemorative envelope, distributed by the Land of Lincoln Barbed Wire Collectors Association, celebrates Jacob Haish's barb wire creation.

The front of the envelope illustrates a spool and a single piece of Haish's "thick set 'S' barb." The envelope is postmarked 1975 and details the Land of Lincoln Barbed Wire Collectors Association Convention in September of that year.

The card inside reads:

"Jacob Haish, of DeKalb, Illinois, patented this wire Aug. 31, 1875. This invention consists of this double-pointed wire-fence barb, made from a single piece of wire, bent at its center laterally so that all its parts lie in the same plane in the form of the letter S, forming two loops adapted to clasp both strands of the twisted wire.

This first invention was manufactured and pieces are still found, but good wire of this first S barb is really scarce.

Haish soon made a slight change or improvement that took place in the barb construction. The barb wires were made a little longer so that each of the two ends of the barbs could make another quarter turn or wrap around the two twisted strand-wire, and made the barb more stable on the wire.

Still another change was made in the "S" by adding more and still another quarter wrap or bend was given the barb ends. There are at least four or five variations in this wire.

The Kishwaukee Valley Stamp Club of Sycamore & DeKalb area thanks the Barb Wire Collectors Club for their cooperation in producing and in the sale of this special envelope." 

Thanks to Danny Wright (editor of The Devil's Rope Museum's newsletter) for sharing this with me. 

Detail of the envelope

Detail of the envelope

The card provided inside the envelope.

Haish mansion fountain

Pieces of Jacob Haish's life can be found scattered throughout the county...even in a DeKalb warehouse.

Jim Hovis, of DeKalb, is a collector of various historical and unique items, and he is the owner of this fountain, now deconstructed, which he says was once on the property of Jacob Haish's mansion.

Jim Hovis, of DeKalb, sits on a piece of a fountain that was owned by Jacob Haish. | Photo by Jessi LaRue

Hovis purchased the fountain from the auction of a home that once sat at 315 N. Third St. in DeKalb. Hovis said he was unsure of how the fountain came to the Third Street home, other than its proximity to Haish's former mansion. The auction was for the house and its contents, which Hovis purchased.
 
Hovis said he put a lot of money into the Third Street home to try to restore it, only to find out it could not be saved. Hovis then sold the house so the property could be used for the expansion of the library: the DeKalb Public Library, or as some know it, the Haish Memorial Library. 

Jacob Haish's fountain features barbed wire. | Photo by Jessi LaRue

The fountain's pieces currently sit in a DeKalb warehouse, but Hovis said he is interested in donating it to the library to be a part of its previous owner's legacy. 

The picture below shows the fountain in use at Jacob Haish's home. The image is part of a postcard that featured the First Evangelical Lutheran Church.  

Postcard image shows the fountain in use at the Haish mansion. Image used with permission from Susan White Pieroth. Larger versions, as well as more DeKalb postcards, can be seen on her page
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~scwhite/postcards/DeKalb_Sycamore/

Interview With: Arthur "Artie" Haish

This Jacob Haish project was jumpstarted in April by a trip to Lanton, Missouri to visit my great grandfather, Arthur "Artie" Haish. Artie lived in northern Illinois before he retired in Missouri, and I wanted to see if he knew anything about the barbed wire baron. 

Arthur "Artie" Haish, 85, of Lanton, MO, riding his lawn mower with "no hands" in April 2016. | Photo by Jessi LaRue

Visiting him to see what he knew seemed like a shot in the dark; I wasn't sure what would come of it, but I figured he had to know something. Although he never knew Jacob Haish (Jacob died in 1926 and my great grandfather was born in 1930,) he shared with me the few stories he had heard.

He started by pulling out his small but interesting collection of Jacob Haish-related news articles. When he showed me an image of Jacob Haish he said, "God, he's handsome! He looks just like me!" (To give you some context, my great grandpa is a funny, laidback guy.) 

Although Artie didn't get a chance to meet his great uncle Jacob Haish, he said his brothers had known him. Artie recalled hearing a story about Jacob Haish coming to see his brother Calvin "Kelly" Haish when he was born in 1925. He said Jacob Haish held the baby and visited with the family. Artie's siblings have since passed on.

Great grandpa Artie showing me how to draw a cowboy hat. | Photo by Jessi LaRue

Parts of our interview are below.

Jessi: Did you ever hear stories about Jacob Haish?
Artie: I heard my mother tell stories for years about him. He wanted to give my mother a farm and she was too proud. She said, when you're dead, that'll be the time for that. And of course when he died, nobody got nothing. 

Jessi: Did you ever hear stories about his personality?
Artie: No, not really. I know that his main maid, he gave her the right to the house as long as she lived [after Haish died.] He had feelings for people. And as far as I know, he had feelings for a lot of people. He used to come out to our house, of course I wasn't born yet. We had a big concrete slab there, and his chauffeur would drive the horses right up along that slab. They could step out of that buggy and on to the slab to step onto the ground.

Jessi: Did you ever have people ask you about being a Haish?
Artie: Kind of. I even run into people down here [near West Plains, MO] that went to college up there. They'd hear my name and want to know why the hospital and streets were named after him, and all that stuff. They had gone to college up there and never knew why it was that way.

Artie told me that Jacob Haish (who immigrated to the United States from Germany when he was nine years old,) spoke German. Artie said his own mother could speak German, but his father couldn't understand it.

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Do you have Jacob Haish stories you'd like to share? Please contact the author of this blog, Jessi Haish-LaRue, at JHaish09@gmail.com. Thanks!