he sunk, by the same disease, into a premature grave. This unexpected end was all that was needed to complete the ruin of his affairs. Out of their wreck absolutely nothing seems to have been saved for his widow and babes. The Masonic Order, of which Jonathan Jackson was an officer, gave to the widow a little cottage of a single room. In this dwelling she applied herself to the task of earning a living for herself and children, by her needle and the labors of a little school.

She is represented as a lady of graceful and commanding presence, spare, and above the ordinary height of females, of a comely and engaging countenance. Her mind was cultivated

much of the talent of Her constitution had

and intelligent; and it is probable that her children was inherited through her. pulmonary tendencies, which were evidently entailed on her distinguished son. Her mind was sprightly, and her temperament mercurial, at one time rising to gaiety under the stimulus of social enjoyment, and at another sinking to despondency under the pressure of her troubles. But her character was crowned with unaffected piety. While her parentage and education would have inclined her to the Presbyterian persuasion, the difficulty of reaching their ministrations caused her to become a member of the Wesleyan or Methodist communion. General Jackson always spoke of her with tender affection, and traced his first sacred impressions to her lessons. When a daughter was born to him a few months before his own death, he caused her to be baptized with his mother's name, Julia Neale. In the year 1830, Mrs. Jackson, whose youth and beauty still fitted her to please, married Mr. Woodson, a lawyer of Cumberland County, Virginia, whom the rising importance of the Northwest had attracted, along with many other Eastern Virginians, to that country. He was a sort of decayed gentleman, much Mrs. Jackson's senior, a widower, without pro

perty, but of fair character, and of a popular, social turn. The marriage was distasteful to Mrs. Jackson's relatives. They threatened, as a sort of penalty for it, to take the maintenance and education of the children out of the widow's hands, and offered, as an inducement on the opposite side, liberal pecuniary aid if she would continue to bear her first husband's name. But love, as usual, was omnipotent. Upon her marriage to Mr. Woodson, his scanty resources compelled her to accept the protection of her former husband's kindred for her children, which she had at first declined as an infliction. The second husband's professional success was limited, and he very soon accepted from his friend, Judge Duncan, who had also intermarried with the Jackson family, the office of Clerk of the Court in the county of Fayette, which lies on the New River, west of Greenbrier. After one year of married life, Mrs. Woodson's constitution sank upon giving birth to a son; two months after, she died, on the 4th of December, 1831; and her remains await their resurrection not far from the famous Hawk's Nest of New River. Her husband announced her death to her friends in these words:-"No Christian on earth, no matter what evidence he might have had of a happy hereafter, could have died with more fortitude. Perfectly in her senses, calm and deliberate, she met her fate without a murmur or a struggle. Death for her had no sting; the grave could claim no victory. I have known few women of equal, none of superior merit." The infant, thus early bereaved of her care, lived to man's estate, and died of pulmonary disease, doubtless inherited from his mother, in the State of Missouri. Thomas, then seven years old, with his brother and sister, had been sent for to visit his mother in her sickness, and he remained to witness her death. To his Christian friends he stated, long afterwards, that the wholesome impression of her dying instructions and prayers, and of her

triumph over the grave, had never been erased from his heart. In his manhood, he delighted to think of her as the impersona tion of sweetness, grace, and beauty; and he could never relate, without tenderness, the events of his departure from his uncle's house, when she had him mounted behind the last of his father's slaves, "good old Uncle Robinson," and recalled him so anxiously, to give the last touch to the arrangements for his comfort. She had no other legacy to leave him than her prayers; but these availed to shield him through all the untoward incidents of his orphanage and his eventful life; and they were answered by the most glorious endowments of grace and virtue which the heart of a dying parent could crave for a child, -a cheering instance of God's faithfulness to his people and their seed.

The orphans thus thrown upon the wide world, received shelter at first from their father's sisters, Mrs. White-for whom Thomas always cherished a tender gratitude-and Mrs. Brake. His home was with the latter, about four miles from Clarksburg. He was then a pretty and engaging child, with rosy and almost feminine cheeks, waving brown hair, and large pensive blue eyes. It was said of him that, in the waywardness and levity which are usually seen at his age, he never was a child. The little fellow had a manly innate courtesy, and strange, quiet thoughtfulness, united with a determination beyond his years, which drew wonder and love from his relatives. An incident, which is most fully authenticated, occurring when he was but eight years old, shows that nature made him, from the first, of another mould from that of common men. Не appeared one day at the house of his father's cousin, Judge John G. Jackson, in Clarksburg, and addressing Mrs. Jackson by the title of aunt, which he usually gave her, asked her to give him dinner. While he was eating it, he remarked, in a

once.

very quiet tone, "Uncle Brake and I don't agree; I have quit him, and shall not go back any more." His kind hostess remonstrated against this purpose as a childish whim. Не listened most respectfully to all her reasoning, but returned to the same resolute declaration,-"No; Uncle Brake and I can't agree; I have quit, and shall not go back any more." It would seem that the husband of his aunt, though an honest, was an exacting man, and had made the mistake of attempting to govern the orphan through force, instead of through his understanding and conscience. And the singular child, having concluded that his stay under his authority would never be congenial, had calmly determined, with the same inexorable will which he displayed in after years, to end the connexion at From Judge Jackson's he went to a favorite cousin's, lately married and living in her own house, and asked leave of her to spend the night. In the course of the evening he announced his purpose of leaving his home, and, after listening respectfully to her remonstrances likewise, returned resolutely to his old formula: "No; Uncle Brake and I don't agree; I have quit there; I shall not go back any more." Accordingly, the next morning, he set out from Clarksburg alone, and travelled on foot to the former home of his grandfather, in Lewis County, about eighteen miles distant, then belonging to Cummins Jackson, the half-brother of his father. There he was kindly received, and, in the affectionate protection of his uncle and of two maiden aunts, afterwards Mrs. Carpenter and Mrs. Hall, then residing with him, found the home he wanted. It was the more attractive to him that his elder brother, Warren, was now sharing the same refuge. This remarkable man deserves our notice, not only for his paternal kindness to the orphan, but for the influence which he exerted, and for that which, contrary to all human calculation, he failed to exert upon him. He was

then approaching middle life, a bachelor, of lofty stature and most athletic frame, and full of all the rugged energy of his race. The native powers of his mind, although not cultivated by a liberal education, were so strong, that some of his acquaintances have declared him to be, in their opinion, the ablest man they ever knew. His will was as strong as his understanding, and his passions were vehement and enduring. As a friend, he was steadfast, and generous, without stint; and, though forbearing and slow to take offence, as an enemy he was equally bitter and unforgiving. Such was his liberality, that his poorer neighbors and dependants adored him. He never had political aspirations for himself, but his unbounded influence usually gave the honors of his country to the person whom he favored. Yet his business morals, save when he was bound by his own voluntary promises, which he always sacredly fulfilled, were accounted unscrupulous; and he was so passionately fond of litigation, that his legal controversies consumed a large part of the income of a liberal estate and the earnings of his own giant industry. He owned a valuable farm and mills, and was one of the largest slaveholders in the county of Lewis. His occupations were agriculture, and the preparation of lumber and flour, diversified with the hardy sports of a forest country. In this plain but plentiful home, Thomas lived until he became a cadet of West Point, with one noted interval, which shall be related. He received all the privileges of a son of the family. The relation existing between him and his uncle was, from the first, remarkable. He treated the little boy more as a companion than as a child, soothing for him all the ruggedness of his nature, imparting to him his plans and thoughts as though to an equal and counsellor, making him his delighted pupil in all the rural arts in which he was himself an unrivalled adept, and always rather requesting than demanding