Jacob Haish was one of the first inventors of barbed wire. His type of barbed wire was in direct competition with the other barbed wire manufacturers in DeKalb, Illinois. He was a known carpenter and architect in DeKalb County and designed several prominent DeKalb homes. Wikipedia
The definitive Wikipedia entry for Jacob Haish. Wikipedia is the biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Haish
Location: Corner of Third Street and Pine, DeKalb Erected: 1884 Demolished: 1961 This mansion, home of DeKalb entrepreneur Jacob Haish, featured a distinctive gingerbread style exterior design. dig.lib.niu.edu/dekalb/hist-haishhome.html
Another DeKalb inventor, Jacob Haish, who had applied for a patent on a similar "S barb" design earlier in 1874, undertook a protracted legal battle that failed to halt the progress of the Glidden design. www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/BB/aob1.html