JACOB GIESY.
Jacob Giesy, now living at Aurora, and keeping the old hotel, is a native of Pennsylvania, having been born at Pittsburg in 1827. In 1845, with his father's people, who had been persuaded by Doctor Keil's people, he went to the colony at Bethel, Missouri, and in 1855 came with the party by water by way of the Isthmus to Oregon, and joined the settlement on the Willapa. Among the members of this portion of the colony that came by the Panama route, he remembers Henry Finck, Jacob Findlay, Adolph Pflug and Peter Quintel.
Mr. Giesy thinks that about half the Bethel colony came first or last to the Pacific Coast, making about three hundred or four hundred that came, and about the same that remained. As to Doctor Keil's character Mr. Giesy says, "There were very few like him. He was straightforward and honest and did not seek. riches or benefits for himself, but was always looking out for the people of the community to see that they had all they needed.' As to the communal feature at Bethel or Aurora, Mr. Giesy says that the wants of the people were all easily and abundantly supplied, and he recalls with special approbation the fact that there were never lawsuits between the neighbors.
Mr. Giesy is still in good health, although somewhat bent with age, but his face indicates his still strong vitality and his sagacity. He is of medium height and rather slender build. He was married in 1852 to Caroline Fere, and they have one child, a daughter, Sarah, who was married in 1879 to Emmanuel Keil, a son of Doctor Keil.
