Jacob Elias and Cecelia McBride Jacobson

Jacob Elias and Cecelia McBride Jacobson moved from Utah to eastern Idaho on Sept. 1, 1900 and were among the first pioneers to settle in the Swan Valley area. Jacob & Cecelia had nine sons and three daughters. One son died prior to the move and a daughter died immediately after arriving in the valley. Today many descendents of the remaining sons and daughters have settled in eastern Idaho and western Wyoming, and some are scattered throughout the U.S. and even overseas.

Jacob Elias laid out the streets in the small town of Irwin in the center of the valley directly opposite Mt. Baldy, the dominant geographical feature of the valley. Irwin was the first town established in the valley. The little town called Swan Valley, in Swan Valley, came later where the road to Idaho Falls intersected with the road to the Teton Basin. The small town of Palisades came later still, when construction on the Palisades Dam started.

Jacob Elias also built the first school and the first church in the valley, both in Irwin, and served as the first bishop of the Palisades Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was a generous and helping man, usually taking care of other's needs before his own. Only two years after moving to Swan Valley Jacob Elias became ill and died, leaving Cecelia with a large family of small children. Times were hard but the Jacobson family worked and grew close together. Cecelia served many years as Relief Society president of the Palisades Ward.

During the summer of 1976, Oran Jacobson, seventh son of Jacob Elias, and Blaine's grandfather, dictated a history of Jacob Elias and Cecelia McBride Jacobson and their family, at the request of Blaine. Oran Jacobson was eighty-six years old at the time. A typed copy of the manuscript can be obtained by sending an e-mail request to info@jacobsonfamily.com. A simplified, illustrated Jacob Elias & Cecelia McBride Jacobson coloring book can be displayed by clicking here.