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by
J. Hugh LeBaronAbraham Jackson was a noble character who became committed in mid-life to the spread the Gospels of Jesus Christ. A Baptist preacher, he moved toward the ministry methodically and with hesitation. He measured carefully the will of God for his life, and under the tutelage of one of Alabama's early premier preachers, he came to understand the call of God. Once committed to the tasks of the ministry, he set himself on a course to preach salvation that lasted until his death.
However, Abraham Jackson was not merely a preacher. He was a husband, father and an economic man. He engaged in activities designed to financially support his family and accumulate wealth. He was required to provide for the education of his children and the economic under-girding of their move to independence. He moved four times during his life. First, he moved with his parents from Greene County, Georgia to Perry County, Alabama and then from Perry County to DeSoto Parish, Louisiana. His final relocation was to Coryell County, Texas. He married three times and had children by each wife.
Abraham Jackson's Ancestors and Early Life
Abraham Jackson's grandfather was John Jackson of Edgefield District, South Carolina. His birth date and place is unknown, but he was in the upcountry of South Carolina when it was a woodland wilderness. He died in 1794 leaving at least eight children. His youngest child was Green B. Jackson, who was Abraham's father. Green B. Jackson was born in Edgefield District in 1766, ten years before the Revolutionary War. After the war, he moved to Greene County, Georgia, and, in 1819, he moved to Perry County, Alabama where he lived out his life. Green was among the earliest settlers in the county. He had at least seven children of which Abraham was the youngest. Abraham was born in Greene County, Georgia on March 27, 1805 and grew to manhood in that place. He received an education in the schools of Greene County and learned the lessons taught on the plantation. The Jacksons were a close knit family who moved as a group from South Carolina to Georgia and repeated the process when the decisions was made to move to Alabama.
Therefore, Abraham, in his youth, was surrounded by family and knew the support and closeness of cousins, uncles, aunts and siblings. The Jacksons were slaveholding people going back to John Jackson. Being reared with slaves, Abraham found the use of slave labor natural and acceptable. When Abraham was fourteen years old, land opened to settlement in Alabama and the Jackson family decided to move to Perry County, Alabama in search of fertile land. Green Jackson settled the family on the Little Oakmulgee Creek in the eastern part of the county and put the slaves to work clearing the wilderness for a home and farm. Here, isolated from any appreciable center of population, Abraham passed most of his teenage years.
His parents joined the Ocmulgee Church on Big Oakmulgee Creek six miles to the south of the Jackson farm in 1820 and were among the first members of that church. It is assumed that Abraham accompanied his parents and received his first exposure to the Reverend Charles Crow family including Charles' fifteen-year old daughter Jane F. Crow. Green and Clara Jackson remained members at Ocmulgee Church only a few months and withdrew when the Shiloh Church was founded near their home in order to attend the new church.
The records of Shiloh Church are no longer available, but it is logical to assume that young Abraham attended church there with his parents and made a declaration for Christ at some point in his youth thereby establishing a permanent, life long connection with the Baptist Church.
Abraham Takes a Wife-Begins A Family
In the year 1825, Abraham reached his twentieth birthday and decided to take a wife. While the details are not specifically known, it is documented that the Reverend Charles Crow was living west of the Jackson farm near Perryville and was a neighbor of Temple Lea who is known to have lived in that area. During these years of 1821-1825, Reverend Crow was the pastor of several churches in Perry County including Siloam Church in Marion, Hopewell Church and Shiloh Church. He was also active in the Cahaba Association to which Shiloh Church belonged. Under these circumstances, Abraham had opportunities to court Jane Crow and sometime in the year 1825, they were married. Jane was born on May 9, 1805 in South Carolina and was twenty years old the year she married Abraham. The exact date and location of the marriage is not known. No license was issued in nearby Dallas County. Unfortunately, the marriage records in Perry County for the year 1825 are missing, but it is logical to assume that Abraham and Jane were married in Perry County in that year. During the early years of their marriage, they lived along the Little Oakmulgee Creek and attended Shiloh Church while farming on Green's property or managing his farming operation for him. During this period, Abraham owned no land for which a record has been found. In October 1826, the children began to arrive. The first was a boy whom they named Charles Green after his grandfathers-Charles for Charles Crow and Green for Green Jackson. In doing this, Abraham and Jane followed a long-standing tradition in the South of naming the first born son after his grandfathers. Thirteen months later the second child arrived and was named Silas. The child bearing continued until the children totaled eight-Sarah M. E. (1829), Jonathan B. (1830), Clara Matina (1831), Elsa Frances (1835), James W. (1836) and Rebecca J. (1838). At the age of twenty-five in the year 1830, Abraham made some changes in the arrangement of his life. He left Green's farm and began to acquire land of his own. In 1829, Charles Crow resigned as pastor of Siloam Church in Marion and relocated near Ocmulgee Church. Abraham and Jane followed Charles to the area near the church and in 1830, Abraham bought 126.8 acres one mile west of Charles' property. In 1831, he bought another eighty-two acres from the Federal government and in 1834, he purchased another forty acres from the government. In 1838, Abraham again expanded his land holdings, purchasing 176 acres from Aaron and Jane Moore. Before he finished buying land, he owned nearly a thousand acres. Abraham acquired slaves and began to independently engage in the production of cotton, which he learned to do on his father's farm. He acquired his first slave on October 5, 1825 when he purchased a four-year old slave boy for $200 from his father. In 1830, he owned four slaves. By 1840, he had acquired a total of fifteen and thereby expanded his cotton production to new levels with a resulting increase in his prosperity. Jackson enjoyed a measure of prominence in his new location. In 1831, he became the region's Justice of the Peace, which held a great deal more authority and importance than it does today. JPs made a majority of judicial decisions in their community in those days. In the tradition of the time, he operated a court of justice, deciding cases according to his own view of justice.
Abraham and Jane Join Ocmulgee Church
On February 7, 1832, Abraham and Jane joined the Ocmulgee Church. Their children over the years made professions of faith in Christ until they were all gathered into the bosom of the Baptist Church. Abraham's slaves, Julia and Saul, were represented in the church's membership, and he encouraged evangelism among the black population of the community. Before long, he began to assume a leadership role in the church's affairs. He was elected a deacon. In February 1833, he was appointed to a committee to inquire into the truth of a report that Mary Gary had "taken things not her own." Later he was sent to Providence Church in Dallas County to "settle a difficulty" and investigated a charge of lying made against Sister Perry. He became the church clerk in 1834 and the song leader in 1836. In 1836, 1838 and 1839, Abraham attended the Alabama Baptist Convention as a representative of Ocmulgee Church.
A good example of the role Abraham filled during these years in the life of the church is the construction of a new meeting house that was begun in 1833. Jackson was placed in charge of contracting for the building and given responsibilities by the congregation related to the acquisition of furnishings and hymnbooks for the church building after the construction was completed. The church assigned him the task of insuring that the building had "sufficient steps and seats" and drafting a bill for the lumber and taking it to the sawmill. When the building was completed and furnished, Abraham was among those deacons assigned to oversee the installation of a ceiling for the structure.
Abraham Remarries in October 1841
Disaster struck the Abraham Jackson family in the late 1830's. Jane Crow died at the age of thirty-three years from causes not known. The year of her death is believed to be 1838 although this date cannot be confirmed. Her last child, Rebecca, was born that year, and Jane probably died in childbirth. No headstone for her burial site has been identified. She is probably buried in the Ocmulgee Church cemetery. There are over thirty unidentified graves in that cemetery, and she is presumably one of those lying eternally in an unmarked burial site.
The death of Jane F. Crow left Abraham with eight children to nurture. The oldest child was twelve years old and the youngest a newborn. How he managed for the care of the children is not known, but he was living in a large concentration of Jane's relatives who could provide support. However, it is not good for man to be alone so Abraham took a second wife in late 1841 when he married Sarah M. Corgill of Dallas County, Alabama. Together Abraham and Sarah became the parents of two sons-Adolphus Franklin born in 1844 in Perry County and Alphonsus W. born in 1847 in DeSoto Parish, Louisiana.
Call to Ministry-Ordination at Ocmulgee
Abraham Jackson appears to have been a cautious man who rarely acted impulsively. His move to the Ocmulgee Church and the Big Oakmulgee Creek community brought him into frequent close contact with and under the regular influence of Charles Crow, one of the most respected Baptist ministers in the state of Alabama. Abraham's work in the little church on the Oakmulgee Creek had a profound influence upon his religious perspective, and he moved slowly over the next decade toward a decision to enter the ministry.
At Ocmulgee Church, Abraham had the example of ministers rising out of the congregation. Noah Haggard, John Dennis, George Everett and Abner G. McCraw were laymen at Ocmulgee who were called into the ministry and made preaching their life's work. Abraham Jackson followed their example. In 1843, he preached his first sermon during Sabbath services at his home church and preached three additional sermons that year.
In July 1843, Ocmulgee Church issued him a license "to preach in any place where he may in Providence be called" and fourteen months later he was ordained a minister of the gospel. His ordination presbytery consisted of men he admired and respected. The principal minister in the presbytery was Charles Crow who was assisted by Elias George, George Everett and a rising star in the galaxy of Alabama ministers, Abner Gary McCraw.
Jackson's ordination enhanced his standing with other ministers and the congregation. At the age of thirty-eight years, he was now a member of the presbytery-that portion of the Baptist Church reserved for the ministry. Charles Crow was growing old at seventy-three years and, in fact, had only two years to live.
Abraham's role in the church began to expand as Crow's role contracted. He attended the church's conventions, district meetings and sessions of the Cahawba Association as a representative of the church. He was called upon to preach. When the slavery controversy of 1844 arrived at Ocmulgee Church, he was among those designated by the church to draft a response. His abilities were recognized outside the church. He was repeatedly asked to preach at Providence Church in Dallas County in 1843.
Decision to Migrate
Events in Perry County and in the family of Abraham Jackson gave rise to thoughts of migrating to a new place. In June 1845, Charles Crow died. The death of his mentor and the grandfather of his children loosened a tie to Perry County. His father, Green, was aged and comfortable but had only four years to live.
Abraham resigned as Ocmulgee Church Clerk on April 27, 1844 to devote his attention to the ministry. He began to sell some of his land in Perry County in early 1845, and on April 5, 1847, he sold additional land to George Hopper as he prepared to leave Perry County. He observed that others were leaving Alabama to migrate to recently opened lands further west. Among his Crow brothers in law, Silas was dead; Elijah moved to Bibb County, Alabama; Joshua moved to Marshall County, Mississippi in 1844 and Jonathan to Union County, Arkansas. Ocmulgee Church leaders such as Dr. John Prestridge and Abner McCraw invested in land in DeSoto Parish, Louisiana and promoted the benefits of the new country. William B. Benson and George Hale had already moved to DeSoto Parish and Elias George to Union Parish, Louisiana.
On September 25, 1847, Abraham Jackson and his entire family resigned their membership at Ocmulgee Church and joined the trek west to a new home in Louisiana. As an Ocmulgee Church biographer wrote in 1860 for the Alabama Baptist newspaper: "The Lord had prepared a field for his labors, in the newly inhabited portions of DeSoto Parish, La., consequently he received a dismission from the bosom of the nursing mother, and erected the standard of the Cross in the dense and thinly populated forests of his new home." Jackson can surely be given credit for leaving Alabama and moving to Louisiana as a self appointed missionary. The motivation to serve God was a strong force in his life, but this is too simple an explanation since there were other forces at work in his life. He was drawn by the availability of procreant cheaper land upon which to practice agriculture with the prospect of greater prosperity. He was influenced by the herd instinct and the natural desire to follow others of his acquaintance and from his community to the western states. The sense of adventure and the desire to go to a different place also influenced him as it did generations of pioneers before him. So in the fall 1847, he bade farewell to Alabama and faced west to Louisiana.
DeSoto Parish was formed in 1843. In that year, Reverend John Bryce, a Baptist minister was sent from Kentucky to Shreveport, Louisiana as collector of customs for imports from Texas, then an independent Republic and thus a foreign country. Bryce discovered that he was the only Baptist preacher west of the Red River in northwestern Louisiana. He set to work and established the First Baptist Church in Shreveport on March 18, 1845. He labored alone for four years, all the while praying for preachers to help with the work of promoting the Gospel.
In 1847, his prayers were answered when Abraham W. Jackson arrived making him the second minister west of the Red River. Arriving about the same time was Reverend Jesse Lee, also from Alabama, who settled near Summer Grove in Caddo Parish. These three preachers set to work and by 1849, there were five churches with a membership of 195 people west of the Red River.
Arrival in DeSoto Parish, Louisiana-1847
Founder--Minister of Friendship
Church
Abraham's family arrive in DeSoto Parish in the late fall of 1847 after harvesting his crops in Alabama. Before spring, he had to have a place to house his family in his new location and fields cleared for the spring planting. He owned nineteen slaves that he put to work preparing a home and clearing woodlands. As large and time critical a task as this was, Abraham did not delay his missionary work.
Friendship Church
Jackson had traveled to DeSoto Parish before he moved his family to scout out the new country, arrange for land and generally organizing things for his family before the move. During this trip, he devoted attention to God's work and founded the Friendship Church on June 6, 1847 with twenty members. He became the church's first pastor. He was to preach at Friendship church for the next thirty-two years.
Jackson's enduring association with Friendship Church is seen in the history of the church. In 1855, Jackson led a revival that resulted in fifty-four converts elevating the membership to 147 members. By the end of the War of Southern Independence in 1865, the membership had declined to ninety-three. A revival that same year added twenty-four members raising the membership to 117, a twenty-five per cent increase. In 1867, M. O. Stribling, a member at Friendship was ordained and fourteen new members were added by baptism. By 1868, reconstruction had driven a wedge between the races and the membership declined to eighty-eight due to the withdrawal of the church's black members.
Land Acquisition
Among Abraham's activities in DeSoto Parish before moving his family was the acquisition of land. On July 14, 1847, he purchased 163 acres at $1.25 cents an acre. The land was located one and one half miles southwest of Mansfield along an unnamed creek in Township 11 and Range 14. The Jackson family purchased so much land in this area and made it the center of the family's holdings that the creek was named Jackson Creek. Forty-one acres were purchased a half-mile from Mansfield at the same time in Township 12, Range 14. On August 26, 1847, Jackson purchased another 164 acres along Jackson Creek giving him 227 acres along the creek that bore the family name, plus forty acres near the Parish seat of government. In February 1849, he bought another 41 acres near Mansfield.
Missionary Work-1848-1852
The author of A Short History of the First Baptist Church (of Mansfield) wrote in 1988 that "It would be safe to state that Elder Jackson contributed more to Baptist growth in this area than any other person." Between the years 1848 and 1852, he helped to organize the following churches: 1847 Friendship Baptist Church, 1850 Old Patrice/Union Church, 1850 Hazelwood Church, 1851 Mansfield First Baptist, 1852 Evergreen Church at Frierson, 1852 New Hope Church, 1852 Longstreet Church. In addition to founding churches, Jackson aided in the formation of the Grand Cane Association of churches in December 1849 and served as pastor of the Hazelwood Church from its founding through 1856 in addition to his continuous ministry at Friendship and his pastorate at the Mansfield Church. He was also moderator of the Grand Cane Association and "presided with dignity and impartiality." According to his son Adolphus, Abraham was "an eloquent expounder of the Gospel, was a worthy gentleman and true Christian . . . "
The period of 1847 through 1852 was to be Jackson's most productive period as a minister founding churches. He labored alone to bring the Gospels to what was then a sparsely settled land. As time passed, other ministers arrived and new ministers rose out of the Parish's congregations, but in this period Abraham Jackson was the sole source of church leadership in the area. His services were in great demand as small groups of Christians across the Parish called upon him for the authority to constitute new churches.
An example is the Evergreen Church near Kingston. Twelve Christians in that area gathered and petitioned Jackson to visit Kingston and constitute a church. He responded and on April 29, 1852, the Evergreen Church was born. In 1856, Evergreen Church passed to the leadership of D. R. W. McIver and successively to Moses C. Williams, Robert H. Scott and Robert Hamilton.
Likewise, Patrice Church was started on September 7, 1850 with nine members. Abraham was among old friends from Perry County at Patrice. William B. Benson and William George Hale, former members of Ocmulgee Church, and the sons in law of Abner McCraw were among the constituting members. In 1853, the church changed its name to Union Church. Jackson served as pastor of this church until 1855.
Sarah M. Corgill Dies in March 1850
Little is known about Sarah M. Corgill except that she was born in 1815 in South Carolina and moved to Alabama as a young child. The Corgill family was among the early settlers in Dallas County, arriving there before Alabama became a state. Sarah was pregnant with her second son when Abraham moved the family to Louisiana, and Alphonsus W. Jackson was the first of the Jackson children born in DeSoto Parish.
Life was tenuous in those days and medicine was not far advanced from the level developed by the Greeks centuries earlier. So when Sarah became ill with a fever the medical skills of the day could not save her and she died in March 1850. According to Colonel W. P. Winans, DeSoto Parish was ravaged in 1850 by "the frightening spectacle of typhoid fever in its most malignant form." Typhoid "had killed nearly every man and woman that took it." Abraham, at the age of forty-five, was a widower again with children at home to care for without the help of a wife and mother.
The Census of 1850 records that Abraham's household consisted of eight dependents. The oldest was Charles Green at the age of twenty-three and the youngest was Alphonsus W., aged three years. Three of the children, Elsa, Rebecca and James, were in school. Charles worked as the overseer on his father's plantation; Silas, at age twenty-two, was a planter on his own; and John worked as a laborer for his father.
Abraham was not a poor man. He owned nineteen slaves in 1850 valued at nearly $20,000 and land appraised at $3,500. His children had inherited money from the estate of Charles Crow and, therefore, enjoyed a measure of pecuniary security.
In November 1849, Green B. Jackson died in Perry County at the age of eighty years. He left a sizable estate and Abraham inherited a portion of his father's largess. In addition, he was a planter who operated a sizable plantation from which profits were realized. Jackson's ability to care for his family was not a big problem, but he was now without the companionship of a wife and the management a woman brings to a household.
Founding of the First Church in Mansfield
Among Abraham Jackson's most lasting achievements was the constitution of the Mansfield Baptist Church. Many of the other churches founded and ministered to by Jackson have since ceased to exist, but the Mansfield Church has prospered, continuing to serve in a significant way into the modern age.
This church was founded on June 28, 1851 with eleven members and a building endowment of $1,051. A contract was let in May 1852 and a new church meeting house was occupied in August 1852. Jackson served this church as its pastor from the founding through 1853. He served a second time as pastor in 1855-56. Among the constituting members of this church was William B. Benson who served as the church's first clerk, and his wife Ann G. McCraw, daughter of Abner G. McCraw. Also, among the constituting members were Henry H. Meredith, the son of Martha Crow, and the nephew of Jackson's first wife.
Abraham Marries Martha Louisa Provost
The year of 1851 was a year of high activity for Abraham. He was called as a witness in a lawsuit between Ephraim Butler and the administrators of his brother Leonard's estate back in Perry County, Alabama. This meant returning to Alabama to help his old friend Ephraim, but he had another motive for returning to Alabama. He needed a wife, and there was someone in Dallas County that he had in mind for a bride.
The object of Abraham's eye was a teenage girl named Martha Louisa Provost, the daughter of George Provost of Dallas County. Martha was born in 1832 in South Carolina and in 1851 she was nineteen years old while Abraham reached his forty-sixth birthday in that year. Nevertheless, Martha accepted his proposal of marriage with her family's approval. Abner McCraw performed the wedding ceremony in Dallas County on March 6, 1851.
The couple returned to DeSoto Parish and Abraham presented his youthful bride to a household where five of Abraham's children were older than their new stepmother. Thus, Abraham began what was to be a second family. Already the father of ten children, he and Martha Louisa became the parents of seven more. The first child, William, was born in 1854, followed by J. T. (1856), Charles W. (1859), W. B. (1862), Crawford (1864), Howard (1865) and Lou (1870).
Land Holdings Increase - Lot in Mansfield
In March 10, 1851, three days after marrying Martha, Abraham met his brother, John Y. Jackson, in Summerfield, Alabama for the purpose of receiving a settlement payment from the estate of their father in the amount of $1,574.92. Five days later, Abraham gave power of attorney to Abner McCraw to settle any lingering matters in his behalf related to Green Jackson's estate. This was all part of Abraham's severing ties with Alabama. He was turning permanently to Louisiana, and this trip to Alabama ended his associations with the area except as can be managed through correspondence. He continued to receive periodic payments over the years from his inheritance. In July and December 1852, John sent him payments amounting to $400.00 and in September 1854, he received two payments for $763.92 and 519.46.
Back in Louisiana in May 1851, Jackson purchased a town lot in Mansfield from the estate of John H. McKinnie, recently deceased. The lot was Lot No. Three located on the San Patrice Road and contained four and one half acres for which he paid $285.00. As was usual in those days, he gave a promissory note for the payment amount with security provided by Dr. John E. Prestridge, another old friend from Perry County who had business interests in DeSoto Parish, principally land speculation. The promissory note was due on May 3, 1853 and bore eight per cent interest. It was duly paid in the amount of $307.80 when it came due.
Jackson continued to purchase land in the Parish. He bought forty acres west of Mansfield in May 1851 from the government, paying $1.25 and acre. In July, he bought another forty acres near the first forty from Jesse G. Steel for $50.00.
In October 1852, Abraham purchased forty more acres of land from the Federal government again at a price of $1.25 and acre. In 1853, he purchased an addition 140 acres for $500.00 from Elizabeth Dyson, the widow of Lawrence M. Dyson, paying again with a promissory note.
War Years and Afterwards
Abraham Jackson continued to add to his land holdings and increased the number of slaves to twenty-three in his possession until the 1860's. He reduced his preaching responsibilities but never surrendered them completely. Abraham lived in Ward 3 and was appointed by the Parish government to inquire into "the wants and destitute condition of each family in" the Ward "and report their number to our next meeting in April 1861." A severe drought in DeSoto Parish and other places in Louisiana induced this action because of a reduction in the corn crop prompting governmental relief from the State of Louisiana.
When the Civil War erupted in 1861, he presided over the departure of all his sons old enough to serve in the Confederate army. Adolphus was in the western army and was present at most of the major engagements of that army until severely wounded in the Battle of Jonesboro, Georgia during the defense of Atlanta. Charles Green and Silas were both engaged at the Battle of Mansfield. Charles, a Mexican War veteran, was in the Consolidated Crescent Regiment and in the hottest of the fighting at the Battle of Mansfield. The record is murky about Abraham's activities during the war. In fact, the record is very sparse from here to the end of his life.
With the end of the war, much of Abraham's wealth walked away when his twenty-three slaves were freed without compensation. The value of his real estate shrank to thirty percent of its prewar value, as did his personal estate. He, nevertheless, was still reasonably economically stable and better off than most people were. In 1868, Martha Louisa Provost's father died and Martha inherited one-ninth of the estate adding assets to the family.
In 1870, Abraham was farming for a living at the age of sixty-five. With the slaves gone, he was forced to rely upon his own efforts. His second family was still at home and numbered seven children and two adults that had to be supported and educated. In 1879, he resigned as pastor at Friendship Church, left DeSoto Parish and moved to Coryell County, Texas. He continued to preach occasionally in Texas to the degree his age and infirmities permitted.
The story of Abraham's last days in Texas has not been fully developed by this writer and additional research in Texas needs to be performed. However, it is clear that Abraham died in Coryell County but the exact date is uncertain. Paxton's History of Louisiana Baptists reports that he died in 1885 at the age of eighty years. The History of First Baptist Church of Mansfield states that he died on March 3, 1878. Biographical Sketches-History of Louisiana records that Abraham died in 1880. All three sources give the place of death as Coryell County, Texas.
This writer accepts the 1880 date, which was Abraham's seventy-fifth year. Adolphus Jackson wrote the article presented in Biographical Sketches and undoubtedly had first hand information regarding his father's death.
Epilogue
Abraham Wyche Jackson was a noble, righteous and principled person. He lived a life that had value and left behind a legacy of service to his family, his community and humanity that is sufficient cause for pride among his ancestors. This can be attributed to the fact that his life was strongly rooted in the church and Christian religious principles throughout his adult life.
He came from a strong family of industrious pioneers who repeatedly plunged into the wilderness and helped to tame, conquer and civilize a vast frontier that was then known as the Southwest. In the process of living this life, he learned self-reliance and possessed the confidence to always go forward although the way ahead was fraught with hazards.
Underpinning all that Abraham did was his belief in God and his devotion to the principles and promulgation of the Christian faith. Institutions he promoted and founded continue to be involved in active ministrations 150 years later. The Ocmulgee and Mansfield churches are still serving Christians in a significant way, as are some other churches to which he contributed. During his lifetime, he served as an instrument of God and led hundreds to a saving knowledge of Christ and an eternal life. In the end, what more fitting tribute could be raised to honor a man than treasures laid up in heaven.
Documentation is omitted here in order to save space. Readers wanting documentation of the facts presented herein should contact the writer. Abraham W. Jackson is the author's third great grandfather.
J. Hugh LeBaron
100 South Rosebud Lane
Starkville, MS 39759
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