Degear, Jacob Cicero

  • From “The Loyalists – Pioneers and Settlers of the West”: See full biography at:
  • UELAC Biography: https://uelac.org/education/WesternResource/407-DeGear2.pdf
    • Jacob Cicero DeGear was born in Glanford Township, Ontario, 19 December 1862. Jacob was only ten months old when his father died. At his father’s request, he was raised by his grandfather. It has been suggested that although his mother wanted to raise him, he would probably have had to take his stepfather’s name should she remarry. (Young widows usually did.)
    • Family lore has the grandfather, Michael Degear, born in France in 1786. He then appears in Barton (Hamilton) about 1811. He married twice: (1) Charity Crisp, (2) Julia De La Hentley. He served in the Lincoln County Militia #1853 and fought in the Battle of Queenston Heights. He died in 1868.
    • Jacob Degear was born in 1813 in Glanford Township, Ontario. Over time he owned several different lots, one being next to his father’s. He married Catherine Smith about 1822. She was related to Loyalists Vandecar and Smith. She died in 1880 and was buried in the Bowman Cemetery. Jacob died in November of 1878 while visiting friends in Michigan, USA. He too, was buried in the Bowman Cemetery. There are no tombstones for either of them.
    • Their son Cicero Degear was born 28 April 1840, the son of Jacob Degear and Catherine (Gage) Smith, the great granddaughter of Jacob Smith Sr. He married Barbara Young in 1861 in Seneca Ontario. (She is related to Christian Riselay, Hannah Schauer, Daniel Young, Windecker, and Adam Young – all Loyalists.)
    • Jacob Cicero DeGear joined the North West Mounted Police at Winnipeg 13 May 1882 as Constable No. 813 “K” Division. He spent the first few years in the Force at the following posts: Moose Jaw, Fort Qu’Appelle and Regina. While in Regina he was a four-in-hand teamster and drove Governor Dewdney and the Police Commissioner when they were on trips.
    • He was transferred to Battleford where he took part in the Poundmaker trouble in 1884 and the Rebellion at Cut Knife Hill. As the close of his time in the force in May 1887 he married Jessie, the youngest daughter of P.G. Laurie, the founder and publisher of the Saskatchewan Herald. They went back to Hamilton but after about a year they returned to Battleford. They settled there, apart from a few years he spent as a farm instructor on the Whitefish and Poundmaker Reserves. From 1912 to the closing of the office in 1918 he was the Immigration Agent. Members of the Canadian Expeditionary Force were quartered in the Immigration Hall during World War I. He was awarded the North West Medal and Clasp. He died in July of 1923.
  • Fourth Great Granddaughter of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=7760
  • Find A Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/73435105/jacob_cicero-degear