William Pentecost Jackson

William P. Jackson 1772/3 - after 1867

John Pentecost Jackson's son, William P. (Pentecost? Philip?) Jackson, known affectionately as "Willie", was born in what later became Green County, Kentucky in 1772 or 1773. He is thought to have married his first wife (name unknown) there in the late 1790's when he was in his mid-20's. They appear to have had just one son, Abner "Ab" Jackson, who died young. On 9 Dec. 1802 he married his second wife, Ann Marple (dau. of George Marple, b: ca. 1745, & Theodocia Rossel of Gloucester Co., New Jersey, who moved to Kentucky before 1802), & evidence suggests that they had at least four children: Lucinda, Rueben, Robert & an unnamed daughter who died young. Ann apparently died in 1809 or 1810. William Jackson & Ann Marple's brother, Benedict Bennett Marple, were surieties for the marriage of William's sister Ann Anny Jackson to Righard Wright on 7 June 1810 in Green County. Although care must be taken to distinguish William P. Jackson from his uncle William Jackson who lived in the same area, it is clear that the younger William was being taxed on 100 acres on the west bank of Rolling Fork (near Cartwright's Creek, Hardin Creek & Robinson Creek where his father & uncles lived) 1807 - 1809. And he appears on the 1810 Federal Census in Washington County. Following Ann's death in 1809 or 1810, William took a third wife, Jane "Jinny" Sally, daughter of his neighbor John Sally on 9 Nov. 1810 in Green County, Kentucky. She, or Ann, is shown with him on the 1810 census. William was taxed on one black slave & two horses in Washington County, but by 1813 he was down to just one horse. Their first son, Andrew Philip "Philip" Jackson, our ancestor, was born 1813.

In 1817 to 1819 William P. Jackson is seen on the tax rolls as owning two horses & 69 acres in rolling fork Washington County. But in 1820 & 1821 he & Jinny were again living in Green County, & by 1823 they had acquired 75 acres on Robinson Creek near the farm of his father-in-law John Sally. Jinny's father was of French Huguenot ancestry. She herself is said to have been running a trading post at the time she married William Jackson. One family tradition suggests that she was at least half Native-American -- John Sally's wife has never been identified -- however, it is more likely that Jinny's mother was surnamed Smith, daughter of William T. Smith [see discussion below under Smith Jackson]. John Sally was the son of William & Nancy Sallee. William was one of Guillaume Sallee & Elizabeth Givaudan. Guillaume was the son of Abraham Sallee & Olive Perrault. Abraham was the son of Jean Sallee & his wife Mary [see further under the Huguenot Families].

Around 1829 William elected to move his brood farther west, into Washington County, Missouri where they appear in the 1830 Federal Census for Merimec Township. The family consisted at that time of William (age 56), his wife Jinny, sons Philip (16), Smith (15), John (13), Andrew (1), & daughters Polly (14), Martha (9), Sarah (8), & Elizabeth (ca.5). In Missouri Jinny bore him two more sons: Francis Minett "Frank" Jackson, in 1832, & George Washington Jackson in 1833, but apparently died shortly thereafter.

William took a third wife, Mahala Garrett, in June of 1835 in Washington County, Missouri. Strangely he married her again on 30 July 1844; this was not a case of a married couple renewing. Perhaps they had divorced sometime after Richard was born in 1841, or they feared for some reason that their first marriage to each other was invalid. In any case, they had eight children between 1833 & 1850, making a grand total of at least 24 children ascribed to William P. Jackson in his lifetime.

William & Mahala are listed with their family on the 1850 census for Johnson Township in Washington County, Missouri, not far from where his grandson, Smith Jackson, later patented land in 1857. He received federal land patents for 80 acres [S half of lot #1 in the SW quarter of Sec. 7; & the SW quarter of the SW quarter of Sec. 7, T39, R1E in Johnson Township in 1857, probably on land he had cleared & been living on for many years. Directly adjacent was his son Philip's farm [NW quarter of the NE quarter of Sec. 18, T39N, R1E], on which Philip had been granted a patent in 1848. These farms are probably on the land on which William's family originally settled around 1829. The last record of him is in the 1860 census, after which he is no longer mentioned. He is said to have been blind on the 1860 census, therefore he probably died no earlier than 1867, but before the 1870 census wherein Mahala is living alone.

Levitha "Viscy" Jackson, William's daughter, used to tell this story from the time of the Civil War, when she was 14 years old. Confederate soldiers, she said, came to her house & asked for the head of the family, William P. Jackson. The family objected that William was old & totally blind (from diabetes), but the soldiers insisted he be brought out to the gate to be shot. When the family led him out before the soldiers, he said: "I don't know why you want to kill me. *I have eight sons in the war, four on the side of the North, & four on the side of the South." So the soldiers decided not to kill him. Then he had Mahala & the girls kill some chickens & pick vegetables from the garden & feed the soldiers. When they left, the soldiers took hams & bacon from the smoke house, more vegetables from the garden, flour, meal, sugar & lard from the house & feed for their horses, nearly cleaning out the Jackson household.

Mahala lived to be 96 years old. Her published obituary read as follows:

DIED - JACKSON - At her home in Johnson Township, Washington County, Mo., Monday, January 13, 1896, Mrs. Mahala Jackson, of general debility, age 96 years & 13 days. Mrs. Jackson was the daughter of Allen & Jane Hamilton, born in Washington County, Kentucky, on the Rolling Fork of the Elkhorn River, on January 1, 1800. There in that part of the country of blue grass, she resided with her parents & received a limited education such as that country afforded in those days. She was married to John Garrett, September 18, 1816 & with him came to Missouri in 1819 & settled on the Big Piney [River] in Pulaski County. She bore Garrett two daughters, now Mrs. Elizabeth Wise & Mrs. [Sarah "Sally"] Paul DeClue, both living. In 1828 Mr. Garrett died, then with her parents she came to Washington County, Mo., & on June 3, 1835 married William P. Jackson, & to him bore five sons & three daughters, of whom four are living, two sons & two daughters, viz: Jasper & Richard Jackson, Mrs. Vicey Wise & Mrs. Lucinda Garrett. Mrs. Jackson had 58 grandchildren, 39 living & 19 dead; 75 great grandchildren, 62 living & 14 dead; & four great great grandchildren, 3 living & 1 dead. Until about the first of March her health was remarkably good, but since then she gradually grew worse until death relieved her on the 13th inst. The remains of Mrs. Jackson were interred in the Smith burying ground on Indian Creek on Wednesday, January 15th, followed to their last resting place by a large concourse of sorrowing friends & relatives. Services were conducted by Elder Doty.

• ......I have yet to find proof of Wm. P. Jackson having four sons in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. I'm not stating it is impossible, because there were thousands of Mo. men in each army during that war, as I say, it's just that I've yet to find proof. Also, for this to have been possible, William's sons from his marriage to Jane "Jinny" (Sally) Jackson would have been the only other four sons to have been able to have fought for the Confederacy, and they all would have been in their thirties or older at the break of the Civil War. There were men fighting at that age, but it was mostly fought by much younger men. I have found proof of William's four sons from his marriage to Mahala (Hamilton) Garrett serving in the Civil War. They were Richard H., Thomas N., Allen Jasper, and Lafayette who was mortally wounded in the Battle of Milligan Bend, La. in 1863. These brothers all fought in the Thirty-First and Thirty- Second Mo. Inf. Regiments (U.S.). My theory is William probably stated this to the soldiers to show his family provided equal support for the armies of the Civil War to perhaps save his families' hides! Staying alive in Mo. during the Civil War was a fickle thing even for the civillians, you really had to watch what you said and who heard it.

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@R-943798311@ Ancestry Family Trees Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.

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Ancestry Family Tree http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=88358826&pid=53