Known for inventive genius, eccentric personality, and generous philanthropy, Jacob Haish is best remembered as an inventor of barbed wire. Born in Germany, he immigrated to this country in 1832 and came to DeKalb County in the 1840s. As a lumber merchant and builder, he learned about the West’s need for cheap, durable fencing to protect crops from freely roaming livestock. At the DeKalb County Fair in 1873, he noticed a patented wood fence designed with sharp metal barbs, and from this design got the idea to make wire barbs and place them on wire stretched between fence posts. A patent was issued on August 31, 1875 for his design, called “S” barbed wire. He began manufacturing S barbed wire in 1874, and in 1881 erected a two-story factory where 100 men produced 30 tons of barbed wire a day; later, automatic machinery was used to manufacture the wire. His other ventures included manufacturing woven fencing, manure spreaders, cream separators, and other farm implements. Between 1892 and 1895, he partnered with barbed-wire rivals Isaac Ellwood and Joseph Glidden to bring Northern Illinois State Normal School to DeKalb, donating $14,000 for the school’s library. His will directed much of his estate to the betterment of the community he loved, including $150,000 for construction of the DeKalb (Haish Memorial) Library, a building placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.