George W. Jacobs was born on October 29, 1832, near Middlesex, Pennsylvania, to Henry Jacobs. His father was a farmer who owned $9,000 of real estate in 1850. Jacobs grew up in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, and by 1850, he was working as a farmer.
He married Phoebe Wetzel on December 25, 1855, and they had at least eight children: Elmira, born on January 22, 1858; Anna, born on March 22, 1860; Willis, born around 1864; Charles, born around 1866; Sallie, born around 1868; Susan, born around 1870; George, born around 1877; and John, born around 1880. They lived in Middlesex, and by 1870, he owned $18,000 of real estate and $1,000 of personal property.
The family moved to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in the late 1800s, and by 1900, he was working as a driver for the Beetem Lumber & Manufacturing Company. Jacobs joined the Carlisle Springs Lutheran Church, and a local resident remembered him as a “man of strict integrity, of kindly disposition, [and] a loving husband and father.” On June 9, 1903, he was thrown from a wagon and landed on his head. He died at his home in Carlisle the following day without regaining consciousness.