Jacob S. Winans was born on March 15, 1838, in Limaville, Ohio, to Isaac and Ann Winans. His father was a physician who owned $1,800 of real estate and $5,000 of personal property by 1860. They moved to New Brighton, Pennsylvania, in the 1840s, and Winans attended school there.
He enlisted in the Union army on May 24, 1861, and he mustered in as a private in Company H of the 38th Pennsylvania Infantry. The regiment took part in the Seven Days’ Battles, the Second Battle of Manassas, the Battle of Antietam, the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Gettysburg, and the Overland Campaign. He was promoted to sergeant and then to 1st lieutenant in 1861, then to captain on February 28, 1863. He was wounded at Antietam, but he eventually recovered and rejoined the regiment. In November 1863, he celebrated Republican governor Andrew Curtin's reelection and added that the "feeling in the army is very bitter against the Copperheads." He mustered out on May 12, 1864.
Winans returned to New Brighton after leaving the army, and he married a woman named Elizabeth around 1864. They had no children. He worked as a hardware merchant, and by 1870, he owned $4,000 of real estate and $4,000 of personal property. They moved to Ottawa, Kansas, in the 1870s, and he earned a living as a farmer. He also served as a local postmaster for several years. He applied for a federal pension in August 1890 and eventually secured one.
They moved to Flora, Kansas, in the late 1800s and then to Council Grove, Kansas, around 1902. He played an active role in veterans’ affairs. He was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and he reportedly “made quite an effort to have a statue, to the memory of the Civil War Veterans, placed in the court house yard or the cemetery.” He died in Council Grove on May 1, 1914.