Jacob Weller, B.S.

Nancy Ogden Westerdahl’s GGG Grandfather

Hannah and Haylee Loughner’s and

Cooper Hebert’s GGGGGG Grandfather

Ivy Myrtle Sefton Ogden

This is a favorite photograph in our genealogical records. She is Ivy Myrtle Sefton Ogden, born in 1873 and died in 1939 when Nancy Ogden was 9 years old.

Ivy Myrtle’s grandfather, Andrew Sefton, married Elizabeth Weller and Elizabeth’s father was Jacob Weller, B.S., a native of Mechanicstown, Maryland, now called Thurmont.

Jacob Weller, B.S. was an entrepreneur, and several sources credit him with manufacturing the first friction matches in America. In the process of creating the “sulfer” or lucifer” matches as they were called, Jacob and his brother twice started major fires in the Match House which still stands in Thurmont.

While Jacob and his brother were successful inventors, their marketing skills left much to be desired for when word got out that the new fire sticks might blow a man and his family and possessions to Kingdom Come, the business was doomed to fail.

Jacob Weller, B.S. also built the first hotel in Mechanicstown, and he was a licensed medicine man who sold his elixirs from a traveling wagon.

One fun part of the Jacob Weller, B.S. story is B.S. stands for Blacksmith!

Link to a page from Hobby History with more information about the Match King

http://matchpro.org/Archives/Hobby%20History/Lucifers.pdf