Jakob was born on July 9th, 1903 and raised in Orsholz, Germany. He had eleven siblings, although four of whom died as infants or children. When he was eighteen he and a couple of friends were at a bar in Germany and one of his companions informed them that he was going to America. A few drinks later, Jakobs friend had convinced him to come along. They came to Canada on the CPR Montcalm Steamship. They landed in Quebec City and Jakob eventually made his way West settling in Vancouver.
In Vancouver on May 26th, 1932, he was married to Ida Bossert and they soon had their first two children, Rosemary and Juliann Spanier. During the war, they were forced to leave the coast because Jakob was an immigrant from Germany, so they moved to Calgary. While living there they had their third and final child, John Spanier. Shortly after the end of the second world war, they moved back to the coast, settling on a farm in abbotsford. He was a very hardworking man, and took little time for leisure. Life was very busy as Jakob not only worked as a gardener for the municipality of Abbotsford but the whole family worked together in running the ten acre strawberry and raspberry farm. The farm was quite successful, in fact Jakob was crowned the 1956 strawberry king by the growers co-op for his high quality berries. When he retired Jakob and Ida sold the farm to their son and moved into the township of Abbottsford where they lived until 1991. At that time their daughter, Juliann moved them to a care home in Nakusp. Ida died in 1994 at the age of 82. Jakob died not long after, in the fall or early winter of 1996.