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
A
Jackson family story
When the first census of Union
County, Ga.,
was taken in 1834, two years after the county was formed, three Jackson
families were listed. William Jackson was head of one household, with
four
males and five females in his home. The other two Jackson
heads-of-households
were Joseph, with two males and two females; and the third was Samuel,
with one
male and two females. It is likely that William, Joseph and Samuel were
brothers. Joseph and Samuel Jackson were not in Union's 1840 or 1850
census.
But William Marion Jackson remained in Union, and it was from him that
many of
the present-day Jackson descendants came.
A shipboard romance bound
William Marion
Jackson's grandparents. The year was 1748. John Jackson was on board a
ship
from London, England headed to Maryland to settle in the colony there.
Things
looked promising in the new country. Aboard ship on the long journey to
America, John Jackson met a young lady named Elizabeth Cumming (1720-
1825).
They had time to get acquainted on the sea voyage. After John got
established
in Maryland, he married Elizabeth Cumming in 1750.
To John and Elizabeth Cumming
Jackson was
born a son named William. He, in turn, had a son named William (ca
1799-July
27, 1859) who married Nancy Owenby Stanley (ca. 1793-1861), a widow
with two
small boys, in Burke County, N.C. It is interesting that Nancy was six
years
older than William. The story goes that Nancy Owenby Stanley's brother,
Arthur,
introduced the 16-year-old William to his widowed sister, and the two
were soon
married. William and Nancy Jackson moved their growing family to
Habersham
County, Ga., about 1827. They settled north of present-day Cleveland,
Ga., (now
White County) in the Nacoochee Valley, near towering Yonah Mountain.
Their son,
William Marion Jackson (1829-1912), was born there, as was their last
son,
Andrew (1835-1917). Children Rebecca, Armelia, Johile, Susie, and
Kimsey had
been born in North Carolina before the family migrated to Nacoochee
Valley.
Land lots were being sold
"across the
mountain" from Nacoochee Valley in what would become Union County.
William
Jackson purchased land in Choestoe Valley and moved his family there,
probably
about 1831. Earliest records of Choestoe Baptist Church in 1834 list
William
and Nancy Jackson as members, and also Joseph Jackson who also was in
Union's
1834 census.
William Marion Jackson
(1829-1912) married
Rebecca Jane Goforth (1833-1901) in Union County on December 19, 1850,
with the
Rev. William M. Pruitt performing the ceremony. She was a daughter of
Miles and
Elizabeth Patillo Goforth. Rebecca's mother died in Henderson, N.C.,
before her
father migrated to Union County sometime before the 1850 census was
taken. His
household shows Miles Goforth, age 50, as head of household, with sons
Millington, 22; John, 21; Albert, 16; and Miles Jr., 10; and daughters
Sarah,
19; and Mary, 12. In the 1850 Union Census, Rebecca Jane Goforth, 17,
was in
the home of her sister, Martha Davis (24). Martha was married to
William T.
Davis (30). Rebecca Jane was helping her sister Martha with small
children,
Melinda (7), Mary Ann (2) and Jane (1).
William Marion and Rebecca Jane
Goforth
Jackson had eight children: Nancy (1851) who married John W. Souther;
William
Miles (1853) who married Nancy Souther and Nancy West; Sarah Catherine
(1858)
who married James M. Hood; Mary Louise Jackson (1861) who married
Archibald
Benjamin Collins; Martha Ann who married William J. Hunter and John
Pruitt
Collins; Frankie Jane (1870) who married James Elas Collins; Thomas
Kimsey who
married Jane Collins and Mary Caroline Collins; and Fairlena (1873) who
married
Jospeh Souther and George Harris.
William Marion Jackson was a
blacksmith and
a farmer. He served in the War Between the States as a private in
Company D,
Second Regiment, of the North Carolina Volunteer Mounted Infantry (U.
S. Army).
He was wounded in the Battle of Shiloh and carried a bullet in his leg
for the
rest of his life, suffering great discomfort from the wound. Rebecca
Jane
Jackson died June 5, 1901 and William Marion Jackson died March 12,
1912. They
were interred at Old Liberty Baptist Church Cemetery.
[Ethelene Dyer
Jones is a retired educator,
freelance writer, poet, and historian. She may be reached at
e-mail [email protected];
phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708 Cedarwood Road, Milledgeville, GA
31061-2411.]
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