The Jacobs were beset a number of difficulties during their marriage: major fires to two stores, the OK Clothing Store in Denver went out of business in 1885 and the early death of one of their sons. The April 19, 1863 "great fire" of Denver was one of the fires. Frances' brother, Jacob was the fifth mayor of Central City. The store he ran with his brother-in-law Abraham Jacobs, called the Wisebart store, succumbed to fire after the Denver 1863 fire, with $50,000 in damages. In 1866 Frances' sister, Mollie, married Philip Trounstine in Cincinnati, Ohio. They moved to Denver where Trounstine became a volunteer firefighter in March 1866, the first leader of Denver's firefighters and managed Abraham Jacob's Denver clothing store.