The Family of
William Jackson (1879-1944) and Sarah Wilkinson Jackson in England and America by Neil A. Boyer William (Bill) Jackson, the father of Annie and Jack Jackson, was born in England on May 20, 1879. He migrated to America in 1923 and died there in 1944. This section focuses on Bill’s life in England, his move to America, and on his two children, Annie Jackson Boyer and John E. Jackson, who grew to adulthood in the United States. The section includes: Bill
Jackson’s Early Life
His Marriage to Sarah Ann Wilkinson Bill’s Decision to Move to America Sarah and the Children Join Bill in America U.S. Citizenship for Sarah Children of Bill and Sarah Jackson Annie
Jackson Boyer
John Edward (Jack) Jackson His Service in the U.S. Navy His Wife: Dorothy (Dee) Rostron Children of Jack and Dee Jackson: Lynn Sharon Jackson Esola Sarah Ann Jackson Bell Eleanor Kay Jackson Pew Liz Carol Jackson Nowoj LINKS: Genealogical Charts for the Jackson, Wilkinson, James and Hayes Families The Jackson Family of Cumberland The Family of Francis James of Cumberland The Wilkinson Family of Leigh, Lancashire The Hayes Family of Leigh, Lancashire The Casson Family of Ulpha, Cumberland The Boyers of Easton Neil Boyer's Home Page Bill Jackson’s Early Life The only known record of Bill Jackson’s place of birth is his immigration manifest, which said that he was born in Hapton, a very small town in Lancashire county, about three miles north of Accrington and two miles west of Burnley. His ancestors had come from Cumberland, which encompasses what is known as the "Lake District" in west central England. They were, therefore, "Cumbrians." "Jackson" was, and is, a popular name in Cumbria. In 1988, a review of the telephone directory for Cumberland and North Lancaster revealed more than 950 listings for Jacksons. Another section of this account provides detailed information on Bill’s ancestors from the Jackson and James families. Bill's father, Edward Jackson, had been baptized at Embleton, about four miles east of Cockermouth, in Cumbria, on June 6, 1847. By 1872, when he was 25, Edward had moved to St. Helen's, about six miles north of Leigh and 18 miles northeast of Manchester, and he was a policeman in Lancashire for 25 years, from 1872 to 1897. If Bill Jackson was born in 1879 in Hapton, about 15 miles from St. Helen’s, it would indicate that the family moved around while Edward was a constable. (Bill’s brother Thomas, born in 1877, two years earlier, gave his birthplace as “Hapton Bridge, Padiham.”) Edward married Mary Barton, baptized in Thwaits in southwestern Cumbia on April 29, 1855. He died in Leigh on February 2, 1910, at the age of 62. Mary lived for 23 more years, dying in Leigh on April 1, 1933, at the age of 79. Both are buried in Leigh Cemetery. Edward and Mary had eight children, of whom Bill Jackson was the third. Bill Jackson met his wife, Sarah Ann Wilkinson, in Lancashire county, where both of their families resided. They were married in Leigh in September 1903. Bill worked in iron foundries in the heavily industrialized part of England, near Manchester. Among other places, he worked at Wigan and in Scotland, as well as near Leigh. Sarah went him a postcard while he was in Talkirk, Scotland. The date is not specified, but the message was a report on daily activity in Leigh:
Bill was living at 50 Bark Street, in Bolton, when his daughter Annie was born in 1912. In 1988, many of the houses of Bark Street had been torn down, and the site where No. 50 would have been located was occupied by a large new department store, Marks and Spencer.  Bill also worked as an iron molder in Seacombe, just across the River Mersey from Liverpool. Seacombe is reached by a ferry from the Liverpool docks. Shortly before he left England, Bill went on a trip to Scotland and came home with a souvenir photo of himself in kilts (see photo at left). When Bill sailed to America, he gave the Jackson family address as 9 William Street, just ten minutes walk up straight up the hill from the ferry dock, one block beyond the church on the right. The family also had lived on Mark Street, one block further, but in 1988, the houses on Mark Street, and the street itself, had been destroyed to make way for a tunnel under the River Mersey to Liverpool. Anna Boyer's cousin, Marian Wilkinson Magilton, at the age of 80, remembered well visiting Anna and the Jacksons in Seacombe around 1920. Sarah had been born in Leigh, Lancashire, England on February 8, 1879, and was known to some as “Sariann” or “Sarann.” Her mother, Ellen Hayes, had married John Wilkinson, an engineer with the Pennington Mill, a large cotton mill in Leigh, Lancashire. (See other sections on the Hayes and Wilkinson families.) The Wilkinsons lived in a row of six or eight small adjoining houses on Neild Street, a private company lane next to the cotton mill. Many in the family were involved in the mill, including Sarah, her brother Charles Henry Wilkinson and her sister Annie Wilkinson. Next to the mill, members of the family recalled, a prison was established to house German prisoners captured during World War II, and the residents of Leigh used to stand outside the fence to watch the prisoners play soccer. In 1984, the last remaining resident of Neild Street, Clara Pemberton, died. The houses were torn down, as the factory had been years before, and in 1987 the town of Leigh opened new flats, called Neild Gardens, for senior citizens. Near the site, and still thriving, was Pennington Church, where Sarah had married Bill Jackson and where many other family marriages and baptisms took place. Sarah's children were baptized there, and in 1997 Anna still possessed books awarded her and her family for perfect attendance at Pennington Sunday School.
Bill and Sarah had four children – Eleanor, born in Leigh in 1905, Annie in Bolton in 1912, Ada in Leigh in 1918 and Jack in New Brighton in 1923. Two of them died young. Eleanor died of "jawlock" on June 23, 1916, at the age of 11. Ada died on March 4, 1919, at the age of nine months during a major flu epidemic. Both Eleanor and Ada were buried in Leigh Cemetery. Annie and Jack went to America with their parents. Bill Jackson’s Decision to Move to America In the early 1920s, Bill decided to seek a better life by moving to America, presumably motivated by a bad economy in England and good reports from relatives of Sarah who had moved to Rhode Island. It was a bold move for Bill to begin a new life at age 44. Everything that follows in this section owes to that decision. Bill traveled second class on the RMS Celtec, of the White Star Line, sailing on June 30, 1923, from Liverpool and arriving in New York on July 9. It was an easy trip for him to get to the ship, since his home in Seacombe was only a ferry journey of a few minutes across to the Liverpool docks. Bill’s ship manifest said that he paid for the passage himself, that he had $60 with him, that he was an iron molder, that he could read and write English, that his nearest relative at home was his wife, at 9 William Street in Seacombe, that he intended to visit cousins, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Hodgson, at 32 Clark Avenue in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and that his intended length of stay was “always.” The manifest said that Bill was 43 (this was wrong – he was 44), height 5 feet 8, dark complexion, black hair, grey eyes, in good health, with no special marks of identification, and (in response to the questions required on the immigration form) that he had never been in prison, and was not an anarchist or a polygamist. The steamer trunk he took with him in 1923 was in the room of his great-granddaughter, Sabrina Boyer, in Washington DC, in 1997. Apparently a major incentive for Bill to move his family to America was the Hayes family in England. Sarah's mother, Ellen Hayes, was one of the ten children of Peers Hayes, born in 1828, and Ann Hatton, born in 1826. At least two of those children, and the offspring of one other, went to live in the United States and all stayed in close touch with each other. The first to make the trip was Hannah Hayes, born in England in 1861. She sailed on May 10, 1887, at the age of 25, and 20 days later, on May 30, she was married to Levi Pemberton in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Apparently, she had known Levi in England. Hannah lived to the age of 93, dying in 1955. Hannah's sister Elizabeth Hayes, born in 1855, was six years older than Hannah. She had been married to James Sharrock, but James died in England in December 1920. Six months later, on June 1, 1921, Elizabeth Hayes Sharrock sailed to America, at the age of 66. Elizabeth and James had had two children, Albert Sharrock and Elizabeth Ann Sharrock. Elizabeth Ann, who had served as a nurse in the Ambulance Brigade in World War I, in 1921 married Joseph Hodgson, who had been a soldier in the War. Just two months after their marriage, and six months after the death of her father, Elizabeth and Joe sailed to America, along with her mother. (See photos of the Hayes sisters and family.) The Hodgsons first went to live with Aunt Hannah and then settled in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. It was Elizabeth Hodgson -- cousin of Sarah Wilkinson Jackson -- that Bill Jackson went to visit when he first traveled to America to look for work two years later, in 1923. Bill probably was met in New York by the Hodgsons, who drove him to Pawtucket. Joe and Elizabeth had two daughters -- Hilda Hodgson and Mildred Hodgson – then very young but about the same age as Bill‘s son Jack Jackson, who was only three months old when Bill left for America. Many years later, Hilda and Mildred introduced Jack to their friend Dee Rostron, and in 1957 Jack and Dee were married. In Pawtucket, Bill made contacts with his wife's relatives and looked for leads on possible jobs. Shortly after his arrival, he moved to the area where the Lehigh and Delaware Rivers join, near Easton, Pennsylvania, and Phillipsburg, New Jersey, presumably because of information that in that area he could find foundry work such as he had done as an iron molder in Seacombe. Somehow, he was put in touch with a Mr. Brown, an Englishman who worked at Warren Foundry in Phillipsburg, and Bill also secured a job there. Later he worked as a die caster with Ingersoll-Rand Company, also in Phillipsburg. While he was getting settled, his daughter Annie wrote to him from England to say she was looking forward to joining him. In 1997, she still possessed two cards that he had sent her in 1923. One of them was a photo post card which appeared to show him walking on the promenade at Blackpool; she wrote that this was surprising, since she thought he was in America (!). Sarah and the Children Join Bill in America About 15 months after Bill sailed to America, Sarah joined him with their two surviving children, Annie and Jack. Just before sailing, Sarah, Anna and Jack had moved for a few days to the house of Sarah’s mother, Ellen Hayes Wilkinson, in Leigh. During that short period, Anna remembered pushing a young cousin, probably Jack Wilkinson, around the neighborhood in a baby stroller near her Aunt Mary's house, when suddenly she was accosted by a stern man. The school truant officer, who didn't realize she was not a local girl, said that if she were not in school the next day, there would be no sailing to America. The problem was tearfully resolved, but not without a bad taste that lingered more than 80 years. As Sarah left England on October 11, 1924, to join Bill across the Atlantic, her mother reportedly said, "She'll follow him anywhere." Sarah sailed from Liverpool on the S. S. Adriatic of the White Star Line, second class, arriving in New York on October 20, 1924, with daughter Annie, age 11, and son Jack, age 19 months. The ship manifest said that Sarah had paid for her own passage, had at least $50 with her, that she intended to visit her husband, William Jackson of R.F.D. No. 6, in Easton, Pennsylvania, and that her nearest relative at home was her mother, Mrs. Ellen Wilkinson, of 5 Neild Street in Leigh. In response to the same questions on the immigration form, Sarah said that she could read and write English, was in good health, that she was 45 years old, 5 feet 4, with dark complexion, dark hair and brown eyes and had no special identifying marks. Basically the same information was given for Annie and Jack (although Jack could not read and write English at 19 months!), except that their passage had been paid by their father.
Once the family was in New York, Anna recalls that they were met by her dad, who had been driven to New York by his neighbor Mr. Brown, and they then drove to Morgan’s Hill in Williams Township outside Easton. Bill lived there about four months, first alone and later with his family. Anna remembered that her father did not drive – in fact, he never learned to drive – and he was driven to work in Phillipsburg by Mr. Brown. When the family needed supplies, he would take an empty suitcase and walk to downtown Easton and carry the goods home with him. Anna vividly remembered her father returning home one snowy evening pulling a shiny new sled. She also remembered the modest one-room school she attended briefly and the long walk into town from an area with no public transportation. After a short time on Morgan’s Hill, the family moved to an apartment at 580 South Main Street in Phillipsburg NJ. Later they lived in a house on Mercer Street, then a house at 897 Gate Street in the Valley View section of Phillipsburg adjacent to the Ingersoll-Rand Company. The Valley View community had been built by Ingersoll for its workers. About 125 homes were constructed between 1918 and 1928. Made of concrete, the houses had walls that were six and eight inches thick. The Easton Express reported that, in 1919, the six-room houses rented for $8.50 a month. In 1920, the houses sold for $3,250; in 2000, they were going for between $60,000 and $90,000, and a new spurt of decoration had led many of the homeowners to paint their concrete houses in bright colors. Many of the early residents, like the Jacksons, were immigrants from Europe. The article in the Easton Express in October 1989 told in warm tones of the history and the warmth and sense of community of Valley View that still exists. A large number of photographs of Valley View were published in the Easton Express-Times of February 6, 2000.
U. S. Citizenship for Sarah. Sarah became a U.S. citizen in 1941, with her daughter Annie, at Warren County Courthouse in Belvidere, New Jersey. Around 1950, Anna went to New York to assist her brother Jack to gain his citizenship by appearing before the Immigration and Naturalization Service to identify a photograph in their possession. Shown a picture of Jack, not yet one year old, being supported by a pair of disembodied hands (Anna had been cut from the picture), Anna exclaimed, "Where did you get that picture? Those are my hands!" That settled the identification. Jack was accepted for citizenship.
In the late 1930s, Art and Anna took her parents to Rhode Island to visit other relatives who had moved there from England. The 1931 Dodge Victory was somewhat cramped, but the family somehow fit. Anna's father, Bill Jackson, rode with his straw hat on his knee. They were within a mile of home after a journey of several hundred miles round-trip when Art had to brake suddenly. At the culmination of a trip otherwise without untoward incident, the family remembered that Bill Jackson's knee went through his hat. Bill and Sarah Jackson hoped to return to England some day, but they had suffered through some hard economic times in America in the 1930s. They had secured cartons and begun packing at one point, but the return trip never worked out. Sarah died of cancer on Sunday, October 25, 1942, at the age of 63, at her home on Gate Street in Phillipsburg. Bill died of atheriosclerosis on Sunday, February 20, 1944, at the age of 64, at the River View nursing home in Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania. They were buried at Straw Church Cemetery, opposite St. James Church on Route 22, at Still Valley, just outside Phillipsburg. The tombstone may be found on the east side of the cemetery, toward the rear boundary, about 100 yards back from Route 22, and about 10 yards north of a small access road; it is partly hidden by a much larger stone marked "Chalmers."
The Straw Church Cemetery (according to an article by James Wright in the Easton Express of December 23, 1985) dates at least from the 1760s. Many German pioneers are buried there, with headstones inscribed in German. The German legend of the "Seven Whistlers," passed down through the years, contended that seven distinct whistles could be heard by those passing by the cemetery at night, although no more than six could ever be heard at one time. The legend held that when the seven whistles were heard together, Judgment Day would follow soon. When Sarah died in Phillipsburg in October 1942, her mother was still alive in England. Sarah's father, John Wilkinson, had died in 1919, at the age of 63, but Ellen Hayes Wilkinson lived on for 24 years after that, dying on August 7, 1943, at the age of 90. Children of Bill and Sarah Jackson 1. Eleanor Jackson, the first child of Bill and Sarah, was born in 1905 in Leigh, Lancashire, and died at home in England on June 23, 1916, at the age of 11. Death was attributed to “lockjaw.” Her sister Anna possessed a book inscribed to "E. Jackson, 50 bark st., Bolton," given by "aunt and uncle."
2. Annie Jackson, the second child, later called Anna, was born in Bolton, England, on Christmas Day, December 25, 1912. She is shown at right with her mother, Sarah, and father, Bill Jackson, in 1916. Annie went to America with her mother when she was 11, in October 1924, and married L. Arthur Boyer of Easton, Pennsylvania, in October 1935.
Art and Anna had two children – Neil Arthur Boyer in 1938 and Ann Lee Boyer in 1945. Anna died on April 28, 2006, at the age of 93, in Moravian Hall Square, a retirement center in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, where she had lived for the past 15 years. Accounts of Anna, Art, their children and grandchildren, including numerous photographs, are provided elsewhere in this report. For this reason, this section focuses on Annie’s brother, Jack Jackson. 3. Ada Jackson, the third child, was born in Leigh in June 1918 and lived only nine months. During the global flu epidemic of that period, a doctor was called to Jackson home because it was feared her older sister Annie would not live. But when the doctor arrived, Annie had recovered and Ada had died. It was March 4, 1919. Both Ada and her sister Eleanor were buried in Leigh Cemetery. The grave site, located in 1988, was well maintained but there was no marker on it. It is Grave No. P 37.G 22. Directly in from the main gate, in the section behind the chapel, the grave site is about 20 feet back from the road, next to a tall stone bearing the name Pilkinton (James, Eliza and others). 4. John Edward Jackson, the fourth child, is addressed in detail in the section below. John Edward (“Jack”) Jackson John Edward (“Jack”) Jackson, the fourth child of Bill and Sarah Jackson, was born on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, 1923. Jack’s birth certificate -- called a Certificate of Registry of Birth, on very thin tissue paper 5-1/2" x 4-1/2" ("fee not to exceed three-pence") -- says that he was born in the District of Birkenhead, Sub-District Wallasey. Jack said his parents had told him he was born in the nearby town of New Brighton, which is considered a subdivision of Wallasey. The New York immigration manifest in 1924 lists Jack’s birthplace as Liverpool, which is possible since it is unlikely there was a hospital in Wallasey. The family lived at one time in Seacombe, directly across the River Mersey from Liverpool, and Seacombe is within Birkenhead, with Wallasey close by. Jack was born in this area at the time his parents lived in Seacombe, either on William Street or Mark Street. Jack went to America in 1924 at the age of 19 months, with his mother and sister Annie, to join his father, who had gone to America in 1923. Jack was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1950. Jack’s Service in the U.S. Navy. Jack graduated from Phillipsburg High School and served in the Navy in World War II aboard a drydock repair ship in the Pacific. He sailed from San Francisco to Papua New Guinea, south of Guam, and was on board the ABSD-2 (a Navy designation for a dry dock). A picture of the ABSD-2 is on the website http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/g300000/g304096c.htm. Other similar ABSD ships are on other sites. Jack wrote regular letters about life in the Navy to Anna and Art from August to November 1945.
Jack was 19 when his mother died and 21 when his father died. For a brief time after the war, Jack lived with his sister Anna in Phillipsburg NJ and worked at Ingersoll-Rand Company. He then went to New York and studied on the GI Bill at the RCA Institute in New York. On September 28, 1957, Jack married Dorothy (Dee) Rostron at Central Congregational Church, on Angell Street, in Providence, Rhode Island. Neil and Ann Lee Boyer were in the wedding party. A reception followed at the Wannamoisett Country Club in Rumford, R. I.
Jack studied at the RCA Institute in New York and worked as a television and recording engineer in various sites around the country, including WPIX, Channel 11, in New York City. Among other places, he worked in New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Georgia and California. In 1987, Jack was living in Chino, California, and was working for Capitol Records. Then Capitol Magnetic Products went out of business, and Jack started his own business called “Cartridge Express,” which replaced audio tape in endless-loop cartridges used by radio stations. In 1995, Jack and Dee moved to a condominium in Kirkland, Washington, a city of 41,000 people on the east side of Lake Washington, opposite Seattle. “NO MORE CUTTING GRASS. HURRAH,” he wrote to Anna. Jack continued his audio-tape at his new home, but in 1997, he reported that the era of using recording tape in radio stations had just about ended, and thus his business servicing the stations was also ending. Jack and Dee lived in Kirkland, Their daughters Sarah and Liz and their families lived nearby. There Jack continued his home business of supplying recording tape to radio stations. Jack’s wife, Dorothy (Dee) Lillian Rostron, was born on October 20, 1930, in Attleboro, Massachusetts. Her parents were Wilberforce Rostron, who had been born in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, on June 24, 1885, and Myrtle Genevieve Whittaker, born in Pawtucket, R.I., on October 19, 1897. Dee's father died on November 23, 1972, at the age of 87, and her mother died on April 22, 1975, at the age of 77. Both were buried in Swan Point Cemetery, Providence, R.I. Dee lived in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and had been a childhood friend of Jack's cousins, Hilda and Mildred Hodgson. Dee was a graduate of East High School and Bryant College in Providence. She and Jack lived in Jackson Heights, New York, just after their marriage. Dee later was an executive secretary, working for the senior executives of companies in various cities where she and Jack lived. In 1987, in California, she was secretary to the personnel manager of Aerojet Electro Systems Company in Azusa. Following Jack’s death in 2000, Dee resumed her part-time work at the information desk at a local hospital, and she continued that work in 2005. In April 2009, Dee's health deteriorated and she moved to the Fairwinds retirement community in Redmond, Washington. She died there on May 15, 2009, at the age of 78. * * * * *
Throughout his life, Jack stayed in close touch with his sister Anna, as did his girls. On several occasions they journeyed east to visit Anna, and Art and Anna visited Jack and family in California. Jack and Art also enjoyed exchanging joke gifts. One of these was a ball containing the letters TUIT. It was intended to be displayed on a desk, making clear that any job will get done “as soon as I get a round tuit.” In their travels, Jack and Dee also visited Scotland and England, roots of the ancestors of both of them, in 1991. On February 19, 2000, Jack died at his home in Kirkland. He had had no major illness, only a serious cold and cough. So that he could breathe better during the night, he moved to sleep sitting up on the sofa in the living room, but in the morning, it was discovered he had died in his sleep. He was 76. Jack's wife and four daughters gathered in Seattle for a memorial service, with Sarah being summoned from vacation in Hawaii. A small family viewing was held on February 22 at the Green Funeral Home and Chapel of the Valley, in Redmond, Washington. Jack's body was then cremated. In mid-April 2000, his family gathered on a sailboat off of Dana Point, near Laguna Beach, California, and scattered his ashes at sea. Jack and Dee had four daughters: 1.
Lynn Sharon Jackson Esola (b. 1958)
2. Sarah Ann Jackson Bell (b. 1961) 3. Eleanor Kay (“El”) Jackson Pew (b. 1962) 4. Lizabeth Carol Jackson Nowoj (b. 1966). Details of the children are as follows: 1. Lynn Sharon Jackson was born November 29, 1958, in New York City. Moving around with her family, she graduated from Chelmsford (Massachusetts) High School and Fitchburg State College. In 1987, she was living in southern California and selling advertising for a newspaper. Later, she became sales manager for newspaper advertising for the community editions of the Los Angeles Times. In June 2002, Lynn started her own company to help students get admitted to the best possible colleges and secure the best financial aid packages. Later, she was involved in selling antiques and collectibles on ebay, and in 2008 she was the Southern California representative for California Closets, working as a designer and salesperson. On February 24, 1987, Lynn married Paul David Esola, of Mission Viejo, California, a flight instructor at John Wayne Airport. Paul had been born on August 4, 1956, in San Bernardino, California, the son of Donald David Esola, who was born in 1931 and died in 1986, and of Kay Randol. Paul was a graduate of Concord High School in Concord, California, and was selling Nissan cars when he met Lynn, a potential customer. The wedding and reception were at the Hotel San Maarten in Laguna Beach. Lynn's sister Eleanor was the maid of honor. In 2008, Paul was a pilot for American Airlines, and the Esolas lived in Laguna Niguel, California. Lynn and Paul had a son Andrew
Michael Esola, born in Laguna Beach on
April 9, 1991. In 2004, in seventh grade, at the age of 13, he was
taking flying lessons with his father. He also played the
piano and guitar and had won several sailing competitions. In 2008, he
was entering his senior year in high school.
In 2002-2004, Lynn and Paul also raised a nephew of Paul, Colton Chambers, born in 1995, as part of their family. Colton later went to live with his mother and grandparents in San Diego. 2. Sarah Ann Jackson, named for her grandmother, was born in Norwalk, Connecticut, on February 7, 1961, the second child of Jack and Dee. She graduated from Ridgewood High School in New Jersey and attended Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, California. On December 18, 1981, she married Charles Harold Bell, an engineer and computer specialist with Rockwell International Corporation, where Sarah worked as an administrative assistant on the Space Station Program. They were married at Shepherd of the Hills United Methodist Church in Mission Viejo. Charlie was born in December 31, 1957, in Fullerton, California, the son of Harold Wright (Charles Harold) Bell, born in 1917, and Helen Elizabeth Fairchild, born in 1936. Charlie graduated from University High School in Irvine, and, in 1981, from California State University in Fullerton. While he was at Rockwell, he was awarded the prestigious Silver Snoopy Award, given by NASA astronauts for outstanding work on the Space Shuttle Program. In August 1989, the Bells moved to Santa Maria, where Charlie worked as a self-employed computer expert at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Then in late 1989, they moved to Redmond, Washington, and Charlie worked as a computer expert for Oracle Corporation at Boeing Aircraft. In 1996, Charlie left Oracle to start his own computer consulting firm. He and a partner created Server Technologies Group, Inc., in September 1996. The company, based in Bellevue, Washington, specialized in internet commerce. Begun with just two partners, the firm by mid-1997 had ten employees, including Charlie's younger brother, Rand. Charlie was CEO and president of the firm. In March 1998, Server Technologies Group was bought out by a client, Amazon.com, the largest seller of books on the Internet, and Charlie began to work for Amazon in downtown Seattle. He was subsequently made a vice president. In 2003, Charlie appeared in a full-page advertisement in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and other newspapers, representing Amazon.com and touting the virtues of Hewlett-Packard (HP) equipment. Charlie also was a Little League volunteer, acting as league scheduler, coach of his own children's various teams, and as umpire. Before their marriage, Sarah worked for the Federal Archives and Records Center in San Juan Capistrano. Among her tasks was the cataloguing of gifts to President Richard Nixon and his wife Pat. After the Bells moved to Washington state, Sarah stayed at home with her three children until they were all in school on a full-time basis. During this time, she volunteered with the elementary school's parent-teachers unit as secretary, newsletter editor, and chairman of the Emergency Preparedness Committee. In 1997, she was honored as a recipient of the Washington State PTA Golden Acorn Award for outstanding community service. Before Charlie moved to Amazon.com, Sarah worked part-time at Charlie's company, Server Technologies Group, and handled the company's bookkeeping, payroll and administrative requirements. Sarah also did research on genealogy. Sarah and Charlie and family often went skiing in Washington State and Canada, vacationed in Hawaii, and in 1999 bought a beach house in Ocean Shores, Washington. They also went to France at the invitation of the French government. In 2000, they bought vacant land with 50 feet of waterfront on a lake near their home in Redmond, a rapidly growing community which is the home of Microsoft. They designed a house and supervised its construction, and Sarah undertook a two-year fight with the Army Corps of Engineers and related environmental interests to get permission for construction of a dock in front of their property. Eventually, she secured the support of U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell, and the permit was issued. The family moved into the new house in November 2002 and enjoyed the view of Mt. Ranier from their dock. In 2006, Sarah and Charlie were divorced. Gardening and landscaping had become important to Sarah when she and Charlie began designing their new property on Lake Sammamish Parkway. Sarah went back to school in September 2004 to become a certified horticulturist with the possibility of becoming a certified landscape designer. She also began to work with landscape designers to help them with their gardens for the Northwest Flower and Garden Show. In 2007, she had her own landscaping consulting business. Sarah and Charlie had three children: Brandon Charles Bell, born in 1986, David Jackson Bell, in 1988, and Amanda Frances Bell, born in 1991. All three were active in karate, moving up the ladder of belts. They were also expert in skiing and snowboarding. A.
Brandon Charles Bell was born on May 29,
1986, in Mission
Viejo, California. He moved from California to Washington
State with his parents in 1989, when he was three years old.
He attended Audubon Elementary School in Redmond, Washington, where he
excelled in mathematics, was a member of the Continental Math League,
and especially enjoyed computers. At age 11, he said his goal
was to become a computer programmer when he grew up. In 2004, Brandon
graduated from Redmond High School, receiving his diploma at Seahawks
Stadium in Seattle, and began to study computer science at the
University of Washington. He graduated in 2008.
In the martial arts, Brandon earned black belts in both Tae Kwon Do and Arnis (Filipino stick fighting), and he attended seminars on such subjects as board-breaking. In Little League baseball, he played on one team and was a coaching assistant for his sister's T-ball team. B. David Jackson Bell, second child of Sarah and Charlie, was born on March 8, 1988, in Mission Viejo, California. David moved with his family from California to Washington in 1989, when he was one year old. He attended Audubon Elementary School, in Redmond, Washington, and graduated from Redmond High School in 2006. He enjoyed studying geography and reading non-fiction stories about shipwrecks and other historical events, and he was a volunteer on his school's safety patrol. Like his brother Brandon, he had earned blue and black belts in Tae Kwon Do and Arnis. He also played Little League baseball. He also played tuba in the Redmond High School Mustang Band and in a brass quintet that included one tuba, one French horn, one trombone and two trumpets. C. Amanda Frances Bell, third child of Sarah and Charlie Bell, was born on June 21, 1991, in Kirkland, Washington. Amanda's middle name was taken from the maternal grandmother of her father, Charles Bell, Frances Bell Dibble (Fairchild). It was notable that there was a "Bell" in the maiden name of the wife of a Bell. In 2006, Amanda was a student at Redmond Junior High School. She played the guitar and was on the school basketball team, badminton team, and track team. To the dismay of her brothers, it was reported, Amanda used to sing constantly, frequently improvising lyrics to melodies of songs she had previously heard. She also trained in Tae Kwon Do and Arnis and achieved the rank of brown belt in both sports. 3. Eleanor Kay (El) Jackson, third daughter of Jack and Dee Jackson, was born on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 1962, in Westport, Connecticut. She graduated from Ridgewood High School in New Jersey and, in 1991, from California State University in Fullerton, where she received a B.S. degree in human services. She also worked part-time as assistant manager of a restaurant in Laguna Hills. In 1993, El obtained a master's degree in psychology at California State University in Fullerton, and later was involved in social work and psychotherapy, working extensively with abused and abandoned children and with foster families. In 2004, she opened her own psychology practice. On December 4, 1993, Eleanor married Danny Baird, a golf course developer and marketing representative for a fishing lake. They were divorced in 1999. On February 27, 2001, El married Garry Pew in a ceremony on the beach in Hawaii. Garry was associate director for risk management of Amgen, Inc., an insurance company. In 2008, they were living in California. 4. Lizabeth Carol Jackson was born in Norwalk, Connecticut, on November 28, 1966. She graduated from Tustin High School, in Tustin, California. In 1987 Liz was living with her parents and working as the bookkeeper at California Masonry Company. She was also doing modeling part-time. In June 1991, Liz moved to the state of Washington to be near her sister Sarah and began working at M. A. Mortenson Company, at Bellevue, Washington. It was there that she met John Jesse Nowoj, a Mortenson construction manager, and on August 29, 1992, they were married. The wedding was held in Saint Stanislaus Church, in Lewiston, Idaho. John had been born in Lewiston on January 15, 1963. A reception following the ceremony was held at the Clarkston Quality Inn in the Lewis and Clark Convention Center, in Clarkston, Washington. John was the son of Emil Joseph Nowoj, born in 1932, and Mary “Cookie” Vernalee Doty, born in 1936. He received a B.A. degree in 1985 from Washington State University and was a general contractor for the construction of sizeable properties, including shopping centers. Shortly after Liz and John married, he was assigned a project in Westlake Village, California, where they moved and where their first child was born. After a brief return to Washington, the family moved in 1996 to McKinney, Texas, where he became director of his company’s office in Dallas and supervised a construction project. Their second child was born in Texas. They returned to Washington state in 1999, and in 2000, John became director of Mortenson operations in the Northwest. At home, John kept busy with his installation of a waterfall and pond for koi fish – a pond holding 2,500 gallons. All of the fish had names. In 2006, the family lived in Woodinville, Washington. Liz and John had three children: Nicholas Ryan Nowoj, born in 1994, Kyle John Nowoj, in 1997, and Alexa Nicole Nowoj, in 2002. Liz filled board positions with the private school that the children attended, among other things chairing an auction to raise money for the school. After the children transferred to a public school, Liz retained her position on the board of the private school and become PTA social services chairperson at their new school. She also became manager of Kyle’s hockey team and Nicolas’s all-star hockey team. She was also studying for a real estate exam. A.
Nicolas Ryan Nowoj was born on September 19,
1994, in
Thousand Oaks, California. Both Nicholas and his brother Kyle
were excellent skaters, and in 2005 they played on ice hockey
teams. In 2004, Nicolas’s team played in a
tournament in Canada, not winning any games, but Nicolas scored his
team’s only goal of the event. In 2005, Nicolas's
hockey team won the Washington State title.
B. Kyle John Nowoj was born on August 22, 1997, in McKinney, Texas. Besides hockey, Kyle also played basketball and baseball. At the age of 6, he played ice hockey with the 8-year-olds. Liz described Kyle as very “rough and tumble,” gaining five broken bones by the age of 6. C. Alexa Nicole Nowoj was born on October 10, 2002, Washington State. When Alexa was born, following Jack’s death, her mother Liz wore her dad's wedding ring while she was in the hospital. Alexa was baptized on November 24, 2002, in Washington, and the entire Jackson family gathered for the event. Present were her parents, her Grandma Jackson, and her three Jackson aunts and their families. On the occasion, her Aunt Sarah gave Alexa the English communion book that had belonged to Alexa’s great-grandfather, Bill Jackson.
LINKS: Genealogical Charts for the Jackson, Wilkinson, James and Hayes Families The Jackson Family of Cumberland The Family of Francis James of Cumberland The Wilkinson Family of Leigh, Lancashire The Hayes Family of Leigh, Lancashire The Casson Family of Ulpha, Cumberland The Boyers of Easton Neil Boyer's Home Page Return to the Top of This Page |
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