Washington Michael Jacobs

Who was Washington Michael Jacobs?

Washington Michael Jacobs was born in Balford, South Carolina to Ann Baldwin Jacobs and Cornelius Jacobs in the United States of America. Both of his parents were natives of South Carolina and his mother was a native of Charleston.

In 1849 Jacobs moved to San Francisco, California traveling aboard ship by way of Cape Horn. He spent about six years, from 1850 to 1856, in California and western Arizona. At Ajo, Arizona he worked as an assayer in the mines near Yuma and Arizona City. He then lived in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada and later made his way to South America, living in Chile, Bolivia, and Peru, where he was engaged in mining also.

In 1874 Jacobs married Miss Rosa Mulet, the accomplished French-Chilean daughter of a merchant in Valparaíso, Chile. They moved to Lima, Peru where he began interests in mines and politics and, published a semi-weekly newspaper, El Tumbes, and the Imprenta Americana. For a time he served as the American Vice-consul at Lima, Peru. Four of their eight children were born in Peru: Elizardo Antonio Jacobs, Leyendo, Laura, and Ricardo Benjamin Jacobs.