The Family of Thomas Kimsey Jackson
THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of Union
County, Georgia
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
The Family
of Thomas Kimsey Jackson
Thomas Kimsey
Jackson
Teacher,
Merchant, Farmer, Minister
(1867-1951)
Two weeks ago this column
presented the
family of early Union settler William Jackson and his wife, Nancy Owenby
Stanley Jackson. Many avenues can be
pursued on the Jackson
families and how
they spread from Union
County to many
states. This column will focus on Thomas
Kimsey Jackson, grandson of William and Nancy Jackson, and son of their
son
William Marion Jackson (05/09/1829-03/12/1912) and Rebecca Goforth
Jackson
(03/03/1833-06/05/1901).
Marion Jackson and his wife
Rebecca lived
on Town Creek, Choestoe District, where he farmed.
They lived near his parents, William and
Nancy Jackson. Marion joined the Union Army during
the War
Between the States and served as a private in Company H, 2nd
Regiment, North Carolina Mounted Infantry from October 3, 1863 through August 16, 1865. He saw action in the Cumberland Gap
Campaign. He received a medical
discharge for severe rheumatism. His
pension application stated that he was unable to perform manual labor
because
of his disability.
Thomas Kimsey Jackson was one of
eleven
children born to Marion and Nancy Jackson.
Three of T. K.’s siblings died young.
Eight of them lived to adulthood, married and had families. Thomas Kimsey Jackson was born December 17, 1867
and died
February 2, 1951.
In an account of his life and
family, T. K.
Jackson wrote: “I was educated for a school teacher and for seventeen
years I
taught school.” He does not say
where
he received his education, but perhaps he went through the Gap to the Hiawassee Academy where he received as
good an
education as was available for aspiring teachers in the late nineteenth
century.
He taught at the country schools
at New and
Old Liberty Churches. Among his famous pupils was his nephew,
Mauney Douglas Collins, son of T. K.’s sister, Mary Louise Jackson who
married
Archibald Benjamin Collins. A letter
dated October 9,
1936
from T. K. Jackson, Young Harris, Georgia, and written to a niece (name
not
specified) states: “Yes, we are all proud of M. D.’s success and his
ability to
do things. I hope others of our people
will make high marks.” By this time,
that nephew whom T. K. Jackson probably taught to read was Georgia’s
School Superintendent.
Thomas Kimsey Jackson married
twice. His first wife was Mary Jane
Collins
(11/26/1869-01/17/1887), daughter of John P. and Fronia Duckworth
Collins. T. K. and Mary Jane had one
child, Thurman
Sylvester (known as Vester, born 01/15/1887 - 01/19/1922).
Mary
Jane evidently died with complications following childbirth, for her
death
occurred two days after her baby boy, Vester, was born.
Mary Jane was buried in the Six Oaks
Cemetery near Old Liberty Baptist
Church
about which I wrote last week. Jumping
forward in time, this first-born son of T. K. Jackson married Lola
Souther,
daughter of William Albert and Caroline “Hon” Dyer Souther. Vester and Lola had five children: Elma
Clara, Donald Clifford, Worth Oliver, Adele Marie and Ruth Lavesta. Vester Jackson
met a tragic death on January 19, 1922 from a gasoline explosion at his
store and filling station
at Town Creek, Choestoe. His last child,
Ruth, was born August
31, 1922, seven months after her father’s death.
Thomas Kimsey Jackson married
his second
wife, Mary Caroline Collins (04/09/1872-07/03/1952) on January 13, 1889. She was a daughter of Elijah Kimsey and
Rosetta Sullivan Collins. To T. K. and
Mary Caroline were born fifteen children.
They were:
Iowa Rosetta Jackson who married
Bluford
Vasco Dyer
Sarah Christine Jackson who
married Frank
Calloway Duckworth
Thomas Watson Jackson
(10/21/1893-01/19/1910)
Elma Jackson
(08/01/1895-10/01/1895)
Martha Nevada Jackson who
married Robert
(Bob) L. Jackson
Fannie Jane Jackson who married
Earl
Penland
Ollie Mae Jackson who married
Benjamin
Frank Sargent
Lillie Bell Jackson
(08/22-1902 - 08/30/1921)
Mary Leona Jackson who married
McKinley
Pruitt
Margaret Viola Jackson who
married Anson
Ray Geckler
Pat Marion Jackson who married
Louise D.
Macon
Pearl Jackson, a twin to Pat
(03/23/1909-06-?-1909)
Annie Maude Jackson who married
Roscoe
McGaha
Thomas J. Jackson who married
Lucy Inez
Aderhold
Hugh Dorsey Jackson
(03/12/1917-04/26/1917)
The Thomas
Kimsey Jackson House and Store at Town
Creek, Choestoe
In addition to his seventeen
years of
public school teaching, Thomas Kimsey Jackson operated a country store
at Town
Creek, Choestoe. The store was in
the
front ell of the house, accessible by steps from the front. The large family lived in the back wing of
the house.
The family moved from Town Creek
to Young
Harris in 1907 where he also continued his work as a merchant. The twins, Pat and Pearl were born there.
Pearl,
one of the twins, was buried at Old Union
Cemetery,
Young Harris in 1909, as were the other children who died young. His reason for relocating to Young Harris was
to give his children better educational opportunities at Young Harris Academy
and College. Both Thomas Kimsey Jackson
and his wife Mary
Caroline Collins Jackson were interred at Old Union
Baptist Church Cemetery,
Young
Harris. Jacksonville, the village near Young
Harris
on Highway 76/APD 515 was
named
for the Jackson
family.
Thomas Kimsey Jackson was
ordained to the
ministry. This writer does not have
information on where he might have been a pastor, but surmises that he
probably
preached at Old
Liberty Baptist Church
(Union County)
and at Old
Union Baptist
Church (Towns County).
Descendants which are many of
Thomas Kimsey
Jackson and his sixteen children, fourteen of whom married and had
families of
their own, can be proud of the legacy left by this
teacher/merchant/preacher.
c2004 by
Ethelene Dyer
Jones; published Apr. 15. 2004 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville,
GA.
Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
[Ethelene
Dyer Jones is a retired educator, freelance writer, poet, and historian.
She may be reached at e-mail edj0513@windstream.net;
phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708
Cedarwood Road,
Milledgeville,
GA
31061-2411.]
Updated August 31,
2009
Back To Union County, Georgia GenWeb Site