Helen Jacobs, pictured here from her senior yearbook, graduated from Blume High School in Wapakoneta in 1918.
Photo courtesy of Blume High School yearbook
“Helen Jacobs New Auglaize Court Clerk,” announced The Lima Morning Star and Republican Gazette. “County’s First Woman to Hold Office Succeeds Robert C. Howell.” In a special meeting, county commissioners Frank Springer, George Sheipline and Emil Thieman unanimously elected Helen Louella Jacobs to be the Auglaize County clerk of courts on August 5, 1931.
Attorneys considered Jacobs to be knowledgeable and accommodating and supported her advancement. The executive committee of Democrats in the county also backed her as clerk of courts. Judge Wilbert Thaddeus Copeland swore in Jacobs. Her salary was $175 per month.
Jacobs’ career in Auglaize County began on the first day of 1919. She worked as a stenographer in the combined offices of the Farm Bureau, County School Board and County Normal School and then as a secretary to superintendents John Henke, Glen Drummond and Joseph Hixon. After six years, she moved to the auditor’s office to work as a clerk. Jacobs only worked in the auditor’s office for a couple of weeks when Robert Howell appointed her to be deputy clerk of courts on August 9, 1925.
Howell died on August 2, 1931, due to an extended illness while serving his third term as clerk of courts. He was the second Auglaize County clerk of courts — the first being his predecessor John J. Kenney — to die in office, leaving the county 10 days to appoint a successor.
Jacobs then ran for clerk of courts in 1932. In May’s primary, she won over fellow Democrats Charles A. Koehl and William Zint, both of Wapakoneta, and Joseph Simons of St. Marys. Koehl, the closest candidate, had 980 votes to her 1,562. In November, Jacobs received almost double the number of votes as Republican candidate Fred Bubp of St. Marys, winning by 3,512 votes.
Ultimately, Helen Jacobs won three consecutive elections against male candidates for clerk of courts. Jacobs, the sole Democratic candidate, won by over 2,000 votes against the only Republican candidate, John H. Harvey, Jr., of Wapakoneta in 1934. Two years later Jacobs barely won against fellow Democrats in the primary. John Fredricks of Wapakoneta had six fewer votes than she. Other candidates were Joseph A. Simons of St. Marys and Joseph M. Weis of Wapakoneta. In November, Jacobs won with 8,475 votes to Republican Merle L. Kerst’s 5,250 votes. The Auglaize County clerk of courts term extended to four years in 1936.
The Court of Common Pleas and Appeals Court saw anywhere from 100 to over 250 civil and criminal cases each year during Jacobs’ tenure with divorce and foreclosure suits being the most common in the Court of Common Pleas. Thousands of papers crossed Jacobs’ desk each month. As clerk of courts for Auglaize County, she kept track of the types of cases heard by the Court of Common Pleas and that court’s expenditures. She drew for jurors and kept track of rulings, opinions and petitions filed with her office. As clerk of courts, Jacobs also served as registrar of titles, issuing titles to cars and trucks. Local newspapers summarized her annual reports each year.
Despite the busy nature of the office, Jacobs did not have a constant full-time deputy. She named Paul Boesel as deputy clerk of courts in 1931. After Boesel resigned his position to work in the state banking department in February 1932, Jacobs appointed Clara Rose Ganther, court bailiff since 1928 and secretary to Judge W. T. Copeland, as part-time deputy. When Ganther became bailiff at the beginning of her long career with the Auglaize County Courts, local newspapers stated that she was one of three known female bailiffs in the United States. Ganther became the court stenographer in November 1936.
In the beginning of Jacobs’ last term as clerk of courts in 1937, she elected Armilda Shuler to be her full-time deputy clerk of courts.
By 1940 political tides in Auglaize County were changing. The typically Democrat-led county during Jacobs’ tenure turned Republican. The majority of citizens voted for almost all of the Republican candidates for local, state and national elections. The Journal Herald of Dayton reported that Jacobs was “described by members of both parties as efficient and popular. But – the conjunction crops up whenever her name is mentioned … Partly, at least, on theory that she has held office long enough.” In the primaries, Jacobs won over fellow Democrats Gilbert J. Kreitzer of Wapakoneta and Thomas C. Reynolds of St. Marys. However, she ultimately lost to Republican Charles E. Christler of Wapakoneta by 2,420 votes.
Jacobs moved to Dayton and began her new career at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in 1942. Working as an office secretary at Wright Field, she witnessed the growth of the base and women entering positions typically reserved for men. The year that Jacobs began, a large influx of workers came to Wright Patterson Air Force Base. Dayton newspapers stated that 250 people took exams for stenography and typing and that clerks were being hired to fill vacancies in February 1942. By November and December, articles in Dayton newspapers requested over 2,000 women to make sacrifices and come immediately to work as mechanics for the base as part of the World War II war effort. Jacobs’ tenure lasted far beyond that war. She continued to work at Wright Patterson Air Force Base until her retirement in 1970.
Helen Jacobs was born to Lizzie Freyer Jacobs and Otto Heinrich Jacobs, a barber, on August 15, 1900, in Dayton, Ohio. Lizzie died in March 1903. Otto and Helen later moved to Wapakoneta.
In 1909, Otto married Flora (Metzger) Vossler, a widow and mother to Iva, who was several months older than Helen. Helen’s other siblings included Marjorie, Lois, Paul, Frederick and Frances. Their family lived on East Mechanic Street in Wapakoneta, where Helen continued to live while in Auglaize County.
Helen Jacobs graduated from Blume High School in 1918. She was known as fun-loving and was well-liked among her classmates. According to her senior yearbook, “she knows how to combine fun with her lessons for she usually has both.” Jacobs worked for the office of the Red Cross at the end of World War I.
Jacobs died on January 11, 1982, in Dayton, Ohio. She was buried in Greenlawn Cemetery in Wapakoneta.
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SOURCE
This feature is a cooperative effort between the newspaper and the Allen County Museum and Historical Society.
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Reach Brittany Venturella at [email protected].
