Peter J. “P.J.” Jacobs
Hardware dealer who moved Hardware Dealers Mutual (later Sentry) to Stevens Point in 1912
Net worth
$250,000
1936
About
Peter J.
“P.J.” Jacobs was the Stevens Point hardware dealer who packed a mutual-insurance office out of Berlin, Wisconsin, in 1912 and made Hardware Dealers Mutual—later Sentry Insurance—a Point company. The junior high on Main Street still carries his name.
Born and raised in Stevens Point (1869–1936), he ran Gross & Jacobs Hardware with Nick Gross in the old post-office building on Main and served as secretary of the state hardware dealers association. The mutual had been writing small fire policies out of Berlin since 1904; Jacobs moved the typewriters, desks, files, and roughly ninety thousand dollars in assets home to Stevens Point and anchored the company there. In the 1920s he traveled to Indiana more than once to hire stone carvers and choose stone for the Strongs Avenue door frames. He was a Rotary charter member and a St. Stephen’s parishioner.
He died in April 1936. His son Carl took the chair, and for a stretch grandson James sat in it too; the family ran the firm through 1966. Two years after the funeral the city put his name on a new high school, dedicated June 1, 1938; when SPASH took the seniors in 1972, the Main Street building remained P.J. Jacobs Junior High. Sentry is still headquartered in Stevens Point, and the restaurant at SentryWorld is called PJ’s because a granddaughter remembered that he liked a family table.
Notable facts
In 1912 he moved Hardware Dealers Mutual Fire Insurance from Berlin, Wisconsin, to Stevens Point; the company became Sentry Insurance.
Two years after his April 1936 death, the city dedicated a high school in his name on June 1, 1938; the Main Street building is still P.J. Jacobs Junior High.
The Jacobs family ran the company through 1966—P.J., then Carl N., briefly James P.—before John Joanis became CEO.
What questions can this profile answer
- What makes Peter J. “P.J.” Jacobs notable?
- Peter J. “P.J.” Jacobs was the Stevens Point hardware dealer who packed a mutual-insurance office out of Berlin, Wisconsin, in 1912 and made Hardware Dealers Mutual—later Sentry Insurance—a Point company. The junior high on Main Street still carries his name.
- What is Peter J. “P.J.” Jacobs's estimated net worth?
- Peter J. “P.J.” Jacobs's estimated net worth is $250,000 as of 1936.