Jacob, who was eighteen at the time of his arrival in Virginia, shortly thereafter married Elizabeth, the daughter of Michael Kerns (Carns). Kerns was a native of Holland who had lived in the Morgantown area since about 1772.  The 1793, Jacob, with Elizabeth and their year-old son, left John to run their tannery in Morgantown and moved to Clarksburg. Tradition has it that they arrived in an oxcart with a cracked iron pot to cook in and ironwood chips hewn by a neighbor to eat from. Slaves of Elizabeth’s father brought them a spinning wheel.

Two years after Jacob came to Clarksburg he paid George Jackson the sum of 300 pounds for land known as the “tanyard mill,” with the stipulation that he (Stealey) would have the right to use the water “running through the tanyard.” The tannery was located in the general area of the present day State Liquor Store on Water Street.
The Stealeys, whose family eventually included six more children, lived in a log house near the tanyard at this time.

Jacob’s tannery was a county landmark for nearly 100 years. He dumped his used tanbark over the bank of elk Creek between his mill and the area where the bridge was built later. Years of accumulation formed a steep slide down the bank. For generations of mischievous Clarksburg boys the term “over tanbark” referred to the mysterious disappearance into the waters of the Elk of carts, wheelbarrows, and any other vehicles carelessly left by their owners on the street overnight.  The tanyard furnished another bit of amusement, much tamer than the first, for early Clarksburg residents. Jacob kept over 100 cats to catch the rats and mice that would ruin his tanned leather and people would come to watch when he fed all of them milk from his long trough.

Randolph Academy, situated on the present site of Towers Elementary School, was chartered by the Virginia legislature in 1787. The first academy west of the Appalachians, it was intended to be to the territory west of the mountains and north of the Little Kanawha River what William and Mary College was to the Tide-water. Unfortunately, poor transportation caused the academy to serve only students from Clarksburg and nearby areas and to have on its board of trustees only outstanding citizens from the county seat rather than any who lived at a distance. The first recorded minutes of the trustees, dated Sept 10, 1803, bear the name of Jacob Stealey who was present at every meeting after that date until 1821 when he apparently missed a session. He was present again for the meeting of June 3, 1822, but his name ceases to appear after that date.

Jacob bought additional land, this time on Main Street, from George Jackson in 1807. On it he built a home of handmade brick in the Federal style, unusual in the area in that the brick in the front is laid in Flemish bond. The original building is said to have had a T or L-shaped wing in the back which at some point was replaced by a two-story frame section. 

One more daughter, Elizabeth and a son, Edmund Kerns, were born after the house on Main Street was completed.  A list of taxable property in Clarksburg, valued at $84,115 by Assessor David Hewes and dated April 3, 1810, shows Jacob to be one of the town’s 31 taxpayers.

Childhood Years

Moves to Clarksburg

Buys the land for the tannery