Jacob Tome Preston, attorney at law, was born in Port Deposit, Cecil County, Maryland, February 3, 1861, the son of Joseph Brown Preston and Malissa (Trump) Preston. After attending the public school at Darlington, Md., he attended Maplewood Institute near Philadelphia, Pa., Pennsylvania State College and the University of Michigan, graduating from the last in the law class of 1884. He located the same year in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and has been engaged ever since in the practice of law, for twenty-five years in the Wonderly building on Monroe avenue, and for the last twelve years in the Porter Block on Monroe avenue.

The Prestons of Yorkshire, England, were Friends or Quakers, as early as 1600 and William, the immigrant to Pennsylvania in 1718, was born in Rastrich, Parish of Yealand, West Riding of Yorkshire, April 4, 1667, son of Jonas and grandson of Jonas Preston, members of Brighouse Monthly Meeting of Friends. The family settled in Buckingham township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and in 1783 Joseph Preston, the grandson of the immigrant, sold the homestead farm inherited from his father, William, Jr., and purchased and moved to a fine farm near West Grove, Chester County, Pennsylvania. He married Rebecca Bills at Buckingham Meeting in 1770 and their son Jonas married Elizabeth Brown, great granddaughter of Thomas Browne, one of the first settlers in Plumstead township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Jonas and Elizabeth Preston lived on a farm near Conowingo, Cecil County, Maryland, where on December 14, 1814, Joseph Brown Preston was born. Before and during the Civil war Joseph B. Preston owned and operated the Rock Run Mills at Port Deposit, Maryland, shipping much flour to Baltimore, Maryland, via the Susquehanna River and Chesapeake Bay. He died January 31, 1879. His wife died in 1919 in Grand Rapids, Michigan where she had resided thirty years. On the maternal side she was descended from William Clayton, Judge of the First Provincial Court of Pennsylvania, who came to Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1677, after having been imprisoned in York Castle, England, for his Quaker opinions. She was also descended from John Hallowell from Hucknal, England, who settled near Philadelphia in 1683, from Robert Heaton, who settled at Langhorne, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in 1683, from Joseph Haines and Henry Reynolds, who settled at Nottingham, Cecil County, Maryland about 1710, and from Hans Michael Trump, who came from the Rhine River, near Worms, Germany, and settled north of Germantown, Pennsylvania in Upper Dublin township in 1709.

On March 3, 1898, J. T. Preston was married to Miss Minnie Hicks, daughter of Stephen F. and Rhoda Spencer (Truman) Hicks of Plainfield township, near Rockford, Kent County, Michigan. He was a native of Cayuga County, New York, but he and his wife lived for many years in Ypsilanti, Michigan, prior to coming to Kent County. Both are now deceased.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Preston reside at 901 Innes street N. E., Grand Rapids. He is by birthright a Friend, and for nearly thirty years has been a member of the B. P. O. Elks and Modern Woodmen of America.