Jacob Need Sr.
Jacob Need first appears in Washington County, in the southwest corner of Pennsylvania. On 15 October 1781 he was enrolled in Captain Andrew Farley's company of the county militia. Pennsylvania's militia law of 1777 put every able-bodied man from eighteen to fifty-three on a company roll and divided each company into eight classes, which were called out in turn. Jacob stood in the second class, beside a Frederick Arnold. The roll of 22 April 1782 has the two of them together again. Solomon Grooms, whose land would later adjoin his, served in the same company, and so did a Peter Benham.
On 23 December 1785 he took out a warrant for land on the waters of Ten Mile Creek. In Pennsylvania a warrant was the order to survey a tract, and the patent was the final title from the state. His survey came to 318 1/4 acres, adjoining Robert Benham, Samuel Thomas, Myles Harden, Solomon Grooms, Phineas M. Gray and Jesse Leonard. The patent was issued on 8 November 1787.
The tract was named "Arnold." A Pennsylvania patent carried a name for the land, usually chosen by the settler, and a deed of 1825 for part of it still recites "a parcel of land called 'Arnold' granted by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to Jacob Need by Patent and bearing date of November 8, 1787." Three Arnolds served in his militia company, Frederick, Daniel and Daniel Senior. The name probably came from his wife's family.
On 25 March 1791 "Jacob Need of the County of Washington ... and Mary his wife" sold that land to Daniel Amos. A wife joined in such a deed to give up her dower, her right to a life share in her husband's land. Yet on 14 April 1796 he conveyed part of "Arnold" to Jacob Hedge. The deeds do not explain how he still held part of a tract he had sold.
By 27 August 1795 he had bought land on the South Branch of Ten Mile Creek, in what became Morgan Township, Greene County. He held it ten years. On 29 April 1805 "Jacob Need and Mary his wife of Morgan township Green County" sold it to Eleazer Luse for $334, the patent having been issued that January. In 1810 there were two males aged 16 to 25 in his household in Morgan Township.
Then he went west into Ohio. On 15 December 1818 Jacob Need and Mary his wife acknowledged the sale of 196 acres to Samuel Houlsworth before Williamson Carothers, a justice of the peace of Harrison County. A John Need witnessed it.
On 26 June 1820 the federal government patented to him the northeast quarter of section 31, township 15, range 6, one of the tracts sold through the land office at Steubenville. A quarter section was 160 acres. The land lay in Stark County, and later in Carroll.
On Christmas Day 1824 he gave that quarter to his son. The deed runs "between Jacob Need of Stark County, State of Ohio, of the one part and Jacob Need Junior, son of said Jacob ... for and in consideration of the natural love and affection which he has toward his said son, and for the further consideration of the sum of three hundred and twenty dollars ... all that the north east quarter of section number thirty one in township fifteen of range six of the lands directed to be sold at Steubenville, being the same quarter which was granted to the said Jacob Need by Patent dated in the City of Washington the 26th day of June 1820." David Alexander, a justice of the peace, witnessed it, and so did a "Jane Need," who signed by mark. It was recorded on 15 June 1825.
Nothing later has been found. His death, and any probate in Stark County, are still to find. His son Jacob kept the quarter section for fifteen years and sold it in 1839 for $2,200.
A family sheet typed in 1983 gives him the dates "c1745-c1820," calls his wife Mary Arnold, and says a brother, George Need, "said to be German," applied for the section 31 land. The compiler later crossed the whole sheet out, and none of its claims has been tested. The tract name and the Arnolds of his militia company give the sheet's Mary Arnold some support. A George Need, a carpenter born in Pennsylvania who settled in Harrison County, Ohio, and died in 1856, was probably a son rather than a brother.
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Cite: Heirology, "Jacob Need Sr.", https://heirology.com/ancestors/jacob-need-sr-c34241.