Born in Kassel, Germany, Jacob Maentel is believed to have trained as a physician and worked as a farmer and mercenary and served in Napoleon's army as his Secretary in Westphalia. By 1797, he was a portrait painter living near the harbor in Baltimore, but his earliest portrait is dated 1807. However, little is known of the actualities of his life. His birth date is allegedly 1763, but nowhere is it mentioned that he who died in 1863 was a centenarian.

Between 1800 and 1840, it has been documented that he was active in Lancaster and Lebanon Counties, Pennsylvania. But the fact there are no legal documents such as tax records, wills, deeds or birth certificates in those areas is just part of the many mysterious aspec...