Jackson-Herman-Willig Family History
Our Family's Journey Through Time: 1677 to 2025
One Sunday afternoon in October of 1908, the family of Thomas Jackson and two of his sons' families, Jury and Jacob Jackson, Jr, had a family gathering in their hometown
of Olney, Illinois where this family photo was taken. The occasion was a farewell of sorts because Jury and his family were departing the next day to move to Enid, Oklahoma which was a recently-opened
and rapidly developing agricultural region along the historic “Cherokee Strip”. For reasons unknown, the farming effort was unsuccessful and so the family returned to Illinois the following year.
This historic family photo shows Jury Jackson seated in the center with one-year-old Florence sitting on his lap. His father, Thomas Jackson, is seated on his right and Jury’s wife Annie is on his left. [Rebecca (Wright) Jackson, wife of Thomas and step-mother of Jury, is not in the photo.] All eight of Jury and Annie’s children are in the photo: Euris, Ervin, Ersil, Mary Ellen, Lloyd, Everett, Raymond, and Florence. Additionally, Jacob Jackson, Jr (Jury’s brother), is standing in the back right holding his small daughter, Claudi, with his wife Myra seated in front of him next to Annie Jackson; another child of Jacob and Myra is sitting in front of Myra. Standing next to the tree on the far left behind Euris is Euris’ wife, Ethel, and her brother, Charles. (The 8 "children" of Jury and Annie Jackson in this photo are the "seniors" in the following photo.)
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In 1954, a “Herman-Jackson-Willig Family Reunion” was held in McLean County, Illinois where this photo
was taken. Most of the attendees shown came from Illinois and Indiana. This website is especially dedicated to the seniors seated front and center in the photo -
the Jackson siblings whose parents were Jury and Sarah Anna (Powell) Jackson from Crawford Country, Illinois. Pictured are (seated from left to right) Lloyd Jackson, Euris Jackson,
Florence (Jackson) Willig, Everett Jackson, Mary Ellen (Jackson) Herman, and Ersil Jackson. They are surrounded by their spouses, children and grandchildren.
Not pictured in the reunion photo are the other two Jackson brothers: Ervin from Texas, who had died the previous year, and Raymond from southern Illinois. The photo shows three generations of the descendants
of Jury and Annie Jackson who both passed away in Mount Vernon, Illinois in the late 1940s. For the purposes of this website, the "recent generations" refer to the 8 children of
Jury and Annie Jackson, as well as their 20 grandchildren. These two "recent generations" are deceased; however, most of the next generation are still alive -
they are the children and teens in the photo. Names of living persons are intentionally not included on this website. This website is published for the descendants of Jury and Annie Jackson,
as a way to maintain the memories of their ancestors and lineage.
[This website also includes other "recent" family surnames through marriages: Berdusco, Davis, Gordish, Hayse, Hook, Oertwig, Riddle, and Veach]
We salute them! With a sense of appreciation and gratitude we seek to know and remember what our early ancestors in North America were able to accomplish and how they contributed to what we are today. We commemorate their sacrifices, hardships and losses, their never giving in or giving up, their resoluteness to go on and build lives "with a future and a hope" for their families. They are the people who gave us the opportunity to become the people we are today. This journey through time begins in 1677 with the arrival of our earliest American ancestors who helped found the Pennsylvania Colony and carries through to the WW2 era of "recent generations" who gathered for the Family Reunion in 1954.
Formative Quaker Values: 1) Freedom of belief, speech, etc. 2) Pacificism, 3) "Hard work" ethic, 4) Family values, 5) Respect and fair treatment toward others: noteiceably seen in dealings with American Indians and in opposition to slavery, and 6) Modest and moderate lifestyles choices.
