DEATH OF JOHN JACKSON.

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1801:"Death, on the 25th of September, put a period to the existence of my aged grandfather, John Jackson, in the eightysixth year of his age. The long life of this good man was spent in those noble and virtuous pursuits, which endear men to their acquaintance, and make their decease sincerely regretted by all the good and virtuous. He was a native of England, and migrated hither in the year 1748. He took an active part in the revolutionary war in favor of Independence, and, upon the establishment of it, returned to his farming, which he laboriously pursued until the marriage of his younger son, when he was prevailed upon by my father to come and reside near him; there he lived for several years with his wife, enjoying all his mental faculties, and great corporeal strength, until a few days before his death. I saw him breathe his last in the arms of my aged grandmother, and can truly add, that to live and die as he did would be the excess of happiness.

"He left a valuable real-estate at the entire disposal of the widow, with the concurrence of all the natural heirs, as his liberality had been amply experienced by them all in his lifetime."

Elizabeth, his wife, survived him until 1825, beloved and respected by all who knew her, and reached the extreme age of one hundred and five years. Hers were stamina, both of the physical and moral constitution, fitting her to rear a race that were men indeed. The reader will be detained a moment, to note the names and characters of her children, in order that the springs of General Jackson's nature may be the better illustrated, and also that his widely scattered kindred may be enabled to ascertain their relationship to this world-famous hero. The eldest son was George Jackson, who lived at Clarksburg, the seat of justice for Harrison County, and was a prominent and influential man in the settlement of Northwestern Virginia. Having taken part with his father in the Revolution

ary War, he became a colonel in the forces which, at the close of the great struggle, expelled the Indians finally from his district. He was one of the first delegates from Harrison County in the General Assembly of Virginia, was a member for that county in the State Convention by which Virginia accepted the Federal Constitution, and was first delegate from his district to the first Congress of the United States which sat under it. After his father's death, he removed to Zanesville, Ohio, where his life was ended. The second son was Edward, the grandfather of General Jackson, who, after several removals, fixed his home on the west fork of the Monongahela, four miles north of Weston, the present chief town of Lewis County. He was a man of a spare and athletic frame, energetic character, and good understanding, beloved and respected by his acquaintances. Filling for a long time the place of surveyor for the great county of Randolph, he acquired much valuable land, and left to each one of his fifteen children a respectable patrimony. He, with his father and elder brother, was actively engaged in the Revolutionary and Indian wars.

The third son was Samuel Jackson, who emigrated to Indiana, and left a numerous family near the town of Terre Haute. The fourth and fifth sons, John and Henry, lived near the place of their birth on Buchanan river; but of their many children, several found their way to the extreme West. Each of these five sons of John Jackson was twice married, and left a numerous progeny. There were also three daughters, who married residents of the country, and left descendants bearing the name of Davis, Brake, and Regar.

Talent and capacity were not limited to this second generation. The sons of George Jackson deserve especially to be noted among the men of the third generation. Of these, the eldest was John G. Jackson, a lawyer of great distinction at

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Clarksburg. He succeeded his father in Congress, married first Miss Payne, the sister of the accomplished lady who married Mr. Madison, President of the United States; and then, the only daughter of Mr. Meigs, Governor of Ohio, afterwards Postmaster-General; who was appointed first Federal Judge for the district of West Virginia. This office he filled with distinction until his death about the year 1825. He was a learned lawyer, a man of great energy and enterprise, and sought to develop the resources of his country by the building of iron furnaces and forges, mills, woollen factories, and salt-works. These endeavors absorbed large sums of money, and at his death left his princely estate heavily embarrassed. The other sons of this family were Edward, a respectable physician; William L., a lawyer, and father of a relative and cotemporary of General Jackson; Colonel William L. Jackson, late Lieutenant-Governor of the State, and then Judge of the Superior Court; and George Washington, long a citizen of Ohio, and now an honorable exile, by reason of political persecution, for his fidelity to his native land. It was his son, Colonel Alfred Jackson, who, after serving on the staff of the General, received a mortal wound in the battle of Cedar Run, and now lies near him, in the graveyard of Lexington.

The character which the founders impressed upon their house will now be understood. From their forethought and virtues, it became the most noted, wealthy, and influential in their country. They usually possessed the best lands and most numerous slaves, occupied the posts of influence and power which were in the gift of their fellow-citizens, and sent some member of their family to the General Assembly of their State, or the Congress at Washington. They were marked by strong and characteristic physiognomies, close family attachments, determination and industry in their undertakings, and a restless love of adven

ture. Their race is now scattered from Virginia to Oregon. More than one of them has been led, by his love of roving, to the most secluded recesses of the Rocky Mountains, as explorers and hunters. All of them were energetic and skilful to acquire wealth, but not all of them were able to retain it. Many of the second and third generations were noted for a passion for litigation prompted not so much by avarice as by the love of intellectual excitement, and by a temper intolerant of supposed injustice; and almost the whole race were utterly incapable of resisting the fascination of machinery. Every Jackson owned a mill or factory of some sort-many of them more than one,where they delighted to exercise the ingenuity and resources of the self-taught mechanic. In a country like theirs, of sparse population, and more devoted to the rearing of cattle than of grain, it may easily be conceived that these toys ministered more to their possessors' pleasure than to their wealth. Colonel Edward Jackson, the grandfather of General Jackson, was, as has been said, the second son of his parents. His second marriage brought him nine sons and daughters. His first wife, by birth a Hadden, bore three sons, George, David and Jonathan, and three daughters, of whom one married a gentleman named White, and two, respectable farmers of German extraction, named Brake.

Jonathan Jackson, the father of the subject of this work, adopted the profession of law, having pursued his preparatory studies in the family, and under the guidance of his distinguished cousin, Judge Jackson of Clarksburg. His patronage induced him to go to that place the last seat of his forefather's residence to prosecute his calling. About the same time he married Julia Neale, the daughter of an intelligent merchant in the village of Parkersburg, in Wood County, on the Ohio river. The fruits of this marriage were four children, of whom

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the eldest was named Warren, the second Elizabeth, the third Thomas Jonathan, and the fourth Laura. Thomas was born in Clarksburg, January 21, 1824. The early death of his parents and dispersion of the little family, obliterated the record of the exact date, so that General Jackson himself was unable to fix it with certainty. Of these children none now live save the youngest, who survives as a worthy matron in Randolph County.

Jonathan Jackson, the General's father, is said to have been, what was unusual in his race, a man of short stature; his face was ruddy, pleasing, and intelligent; his temper genial and affectionate, and susceptible of the warmest and most generous attachments. He was a man of strong, distinct understanding, and held a respectable rank as a lawyer. While he displayed little of the popular eloquence of the advocate, his knowledge and judgment made him a valued counsellor, and his chief distinction was as a Chancery lawyer. His patrimony was adequate to all reasonable wants; the lands which he inherited from his father are now so valuable as to confer independence on their present owners. But a temper too social and facile betrayed him into some of the prevalent dissipations of the country; incautious engagements embarrassed him with the debts of his friends; and high play assisted to swallow up his estate. He at length became dependent wholly upon his professional labors, which yielded his family only a moderate support, while he owned no real estate but the house in which he lived. Not very long after the birth of his fourth child, and when Thomas was three years old, his daughter Elizabeth was seized with a malignant fever. He watched her sick-bed until her death, with a tender assiduity which, combined with his grief at the bereavement, and perhaps with his business troubles, prostrated his strength; and within a fortnight after his daughter