Jacob Eisenhardt, the popular young real-estate and insurance agent and ex-alderman of the Fourth ward of the city of Grand Rapids, is a native of Wurtemburg, Germany, and was born October 12, 1854. He received a common-school education, which is generally a thorough one, in his native town, and in 1870 came to America, having no relish for service in the imperial army, to which he was amenable, and less relish for monarchical government. On arriving in this country, he worked hard to gain himself an education, in the city of Baltimore, Md., whence he went to Chicago, Ill., where he worked in the Palmer house barber shop until 1876, when he came to Grand Rapids, and has here owned several finely equipped tonsorial parlors, and conducted, through his consummate skill and affable address, the most prosperous business in his line ever carried on in the city until 1888, when he entered into his present business.

In the meantime, in 1886, he was elected alderman of the Fourth ward as a republican, and his election was due entirely to his personal popularity, as the ward was strongly democratic. His aldermanic career was most creditable to himself as well as of vast benefit to his constituents and to the city in general, as it was chiefly through his firmness and incorruptibility that the street railway company’s monopoly was overthrown and the field opened to less avaricious competitors.

In 1889, Mr. Eisenhardt was appointed inspector of internal revenue, a position he held until October 15, 1890. In every position, Mr. Eisenhardt has been faithful, conscientious and competent.

For many years Mr. Eisenhardt has been a member of the German Lutheran church and his course through life manifests the sincerity of his religious convictions, and his wife and three children enjoy the blessings of a beautiful home.

In 1898, Mr. Eisenhardt was made chairman of the republican county committee, in 1892 was the republican candidate for county treasurer of Kent, fought a brilliant campaign, but met with defeat. He is as popular with his party and with the public as he ever was, and but a slight revolution in politics will place him well to the front s one of the leaders of the republican party in Kent county.