The son of John Jacob & Hannah (Herman/Harman/Hummer) Wittle or Whittle, he married Mary Catherine Kyle/Kile/Kiel March 13, 1857, and fathered James M. (b. 12/13/56, d. 10/30/61), Mary Ellen (b. 11/08/60 - married Charles Jehu De Haven), Frances Matilda "Fannie" (b. 01/11/65 per her death certificate but is nine in the 1870 census - married William H. Stuckey), John (b. 08/10/66 per his death certificate but is seven in the 1870 census), Harvey Jacob (b. 08/31/67), Adam (b. @1869), Catherine Minerva (b. 01/22/70 - married a Weirich), Harriett Elizabeth (b. 08/07/74 - married Matthew Frederick Wenerick), George Joseph (b. 10/08/76), and Hilda Mae (b. 06/06/79, d. 06/21/01). Children Amy Jane and Jonas Edwin are also reported but not otherwise found. In 1860, he was living with his young family in Lower Paxton Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. The family is in the 1860 census as "Wittel" and the 1870 census as "Whittle."

A Civil War veteran, he enlisted at the stated age of thirty-three in Harrisburg August 22, 1864, mustered into federal service there August 23 as a private with Co. C, 201st Pennsylvania Infantry, and honorably discharged with his company June 23, 1865. He is in the company register as "Wittle."

No obituary was found for Jacob in any online newspaper archive by any spelling, suggesting his death was neither violent nor otherwise especially newsworthy, while the absence of a disability pension application suggests his death was unexpected. On November 29, 1879, his family ordered a federal issue tombstone for his grave and received it.

On September 9, 1887, Catherine applied for a widow's pension as "Wittle" and received it, although why she waited nearly eight years is as yet unknown.