Jackson-Herman-Willig Family History
Our Family's Journey Through Time: 1677-1945
Jacob Jackson: born in 1747 in Chester County, PA, a son of Samuel and Catherine (Plankenthorn) Jackson. He died in Clinton County, Ohio, on Nov. 14, 1844 and was buried in the Martinsville Friends Cemetery.
Ann (Beales) Jackson: born in 1755 in Guildford County, NC., a daughter of Bowater and Sarah (Cook) Beals of Surrey County, NC. She died in Clinton County, Ohio in 1835 and was buried in the Martinsville Friends Cemetery.
Marriage of Jacob and Ann: August 10, 1774 at New Garden Friends Meeting, Guilford Co., NC. A copy of their marriage certificate is posted online through "Quaker Corner".
Children (9): Rachel, Ruth, Samuel, Mary, Ann, Jesse, Lydia, Curtis and Josiah.
Jacob and Ann were devout Quakers; the family of Ann (Beals) Jackson was historically prominent among American Quakers going back three generations. Her great-great grandfather, William Clayton, was an associate of William Penn and was one of the original eight members of the Pennsylvania Provincial Council in 1683, named on the founding charter granted by King Charles II. He served as the "first governor" of the Pennsylvania Colony in 1684-5.
Ann's uncle, Thomas Beals, one of the witnesses who signed on Jacob and Ann's marriage certificate, was a prominent Quaker minister. He is credited with establishing several Quaker communities and congregations in North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Ohio. In 1748, he had been the first white settler to acquire land by purchase from the Indians as a homestead in that part of North Carolina. Soon other Quakers followed and established the New Garden Monthly Meeting (MM) and meeting house. Families surnamed Beals, Jackson, Jessup, Sumner, Simmons, Hiatt, Mills, Garrett, and others were part of this famous migration along the "Great Wagon Road" via "Maggoty Gap" from Pennsylvania to North Carolina in the 1750s.
Jacob Jackson, born in 1748 in Pennsylvania, was the oldest of nine children born to Samuel and Mary Catherine (Plankenhorn) Jackson. Two other children were born in Pennsylvania in 1751 and 1752; the family joined the Great Quaker Migration to North Carolina in 1753-54 where six more children were born between 1755 and 1769. In the early 1760s, Samuel placed Jacob in the home of a local Quaker family where he could learn a trade; he remained with that family for several years and became a devout Quaker. Jacob married Ann Beals in 1774 in Guildford County, NC where they continued to reside for about 10 years; five children were born to them there: Rachel, Ruth, Samuel, Mary and Ann. In the 1780s, members of the Samuel Jackson family settled in an area with other Quakers that later became known as "Westfield", near "Tom's Creek" North Carolina. Jacob Jackson and his brothers John, Curtis and Samuel, Jr. were charter members of the Westfield Quaker community and helped build the original Meeting House. (The original Meeting House was eventually replaced by another structure that exists to this day, with the Quaker cemetery located across the road.) After Jacob and Ann moved to Westfield in 1785, they had four more children: Jesse, Lydia, Curtis and Josiah.
In 1797, Jacob and Ann, accompanied by at least eight of their children, moved westward across the mountains to Greene County, Tennessee. At that time, Quakers were leaving North Carolina in large numbers due to their opposition to the rapid increase in the state's slavery practices. The first society for the abolition of slavery in America originated with these Quakers as well as the formation of the "Underground Railroad" that helped runaway slaves escape into Tennessee and then north into Ohio and beyond in the early and mid-1800s. Daniel Boone, the frontier explorer, was instrumental in blazing the trail through the Appalachians so Quakers and others could move through the mountains to Tennessee. The Jacob Jackson family remained for 7 years as members of the New Hope Quaker community near present-day Rheatown, TN.
Their next westward migration was to the newly-opened Ohio territory where they lived for the rest of their lives. In 1804, Jacob and Ann Jackson - and, over time, at least seven of their children moved to central Ohio. Until 1811, they were members of the Miami Quaker meeting in Warren County, when a new Quaker congregation was established in Clinton county. Jacob continued his calling as an active preacher and leader in the Quaker movement. Ann died in Clinton County in 1835; Jacob continued his life there until he died in 1844 at the age of 97. Although he lived more than 20 miles from the Meeting House and in spite of the poor roads or inclement weather, he seldom failed to attend meetings. Jacob and Ann were both buried at the Quaker cemetery in Martinsville, Ohio.
Six of the seven children of Jacob and Ann, who had moved to Ohio with their parents, remained living there throughout their lives - some in Clinton County and others in neighboring Highland County: Rachel (Jackson) Graham, Ruth (Jackson) Hoggatt, Jesse Jackson, Lydia (Jackson) Morris, Curtis Jackson, and Josiah Jackson. (Samuel Jackson's life is unknown.)
Jesse Jackson, the second-oldest son of Jacob and Ann, was the father of Thomas Jackson and the grandfather of Jury Jackson - both of whom relocated to Crawford County, Illinois in the late 1800s.
"A Testimony of Fall Creek Monthly Meeting of Friends in Highland County and State of Ohio Concerning Jacob Jackson:
Under a solemn engagement of mind, that breathes love to the memory of the deceased and desires for the edification of the living, we are induced to give a brief account of our beloved Friend and helper in Christ, Jacob Jackson.
He was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, and when about twelve or thirteen years old, his parents removed with him to Rowan county, North Carolina. While yet a lad, his father placed him in the services and under the care of a steady and exemplary member of our Society, where he resided for several years, in which time, (as some of us have heard him say,) he became seriously engaged, concerning his future state; impressions of this kind increased, until he believed it his duty to make application to become a member of the society; which, after a time of deliberation, was granted. In the year 1774, he married Ann, daughter of Bowatu [sic] and Sarah Beals, who proved a pious and an affectionate help-meet to him during the space of about sixty-one years. She was a woman of good example in the common walks of life, and particularly in that of the diligent attendance of our religious meetings, in which she encouraged her children and those around her: and for a number of years before her death she filled the station of an Elder in the church to the satisfaction of her Friends. In the early part of his married state he became deeply exercised under an apprehension that he was called to the ministry, unto which he submitted, and occupied his gift therein with great caution and self-abasement--having frequently been heard to say, it was a great thing to him to be permitted to minister in the Lord's sanctuary.
In the year 1796, he removed with his family to the State of Tennessee, where he remained about eight years, aiding in the settling and well-ordering of the meetings of Friends in that State, and also performing some religious visits to Friends and others in other States. In the Fall of 1804, he again removed with his family and settled in this county, where, for many succeeding years he witnessed the almost unprecedented increase and growth of Friends meetings in this country, particularly in this and some of the neighboring counties, many of which received a portion of his tender care and labor, both in the ministry, and the proper exercise of this discipline, wherein he had a remarkable quick sight and correct judgment. He was diligent in the attendance of his meetings at home, wherein he mostly sat in a solemn and awful silence, waiting patiently for the moving of the waters: yet at time he would rise, as it were, from the bottom of the Jordan, bringing up stones of memorial as evidence of help in his deep baptisms and earnest engagement for the present and future welfare of all mankind, particularly the members of this Society whom he ardently loved.
In the latter part of 1811, he removed to Clinton county, where a few Friends had previously settled, and where, also, and in the adjacent meetings, his labors of love were continued. His longest sojourn was there. There his useful labors closed, and in the burying ground at that place his remains and those of his beloved wife repose. After the division which took place in our Yearly and subordinate Meetings in the years 1828 and 1829, this our dear Friend, with the members of this Monthly Meeting, were attached to Miami Quarterly Meeting, from which he resided more than twenty miles; and, notwithstanding his great age, the distance, the frequent inclemency of the weather and badness of the road, he seldom failed attending it; often evincing therein a fervency of engagement for the good of "THIS PEOPLE," as he frequently called the society, which manifested a greenness in old age, such as we do not remember to have witnessed in any other person.--His intellectual faculties were stone and continued almost unimpaired to the close of his eventful life. In his conversation and deportment among his friends he was of a remarkably cheerful and lively disposition, often very shrewdly applying the common incidents of the time and occasion to the correction or encouragement (as the case required) of those about him, which rendered his company not only agreeable but instructive and edifying.
Within the last ten years he several times visited all the Monthly Meetings within the limits of Miami Quarter, administering advice in cases of difficulty, and encouragement to those who were laboring faithfully to support the testimonies and good order of our Society. He was also enabled to attend all the sittings of our last Yearly Meeting a little more than a month before his decease; in the several sittings whereof he manifested a deep and lively concern for the right acceptance and application of the Gospel. His greatest concern appeared to be for the cause of Truth and the welfare of those whom he should leave behind. His mind was exercised on account of the many empty professions and new-modeled systems so prevalent in those days; and exhorted Friends both in meeting and in private conversation to faithfulness in bearing a testimony against them; saying that we should not only discourage our children and those under our care from attending the lectures delivered on those subjects, but that we should restrain them when practicable. His last illness, which was of a complicated character, confined him mostly to his room for about three weeks, but to his bed only a few hours. A sudden change took place about two o'clock in the afternoon on the 14th of the 11th month, 1844. On being helped to bed he said he did not expect ever to rise again, and spoke but little afterwards, though he appears to be quite sensible and composed, and lay in that situation until near eleven o'clock in the evening of the same day, when he passed quietly away, and thus closed his long and useful life in the 97th year of his age. We who are left cannot but feel the loss of him who has been as a father in Israel, whose religious experience and sound principles have survived the many turnings and overturnings that have transpired for almost a century, a large portion of which time he has been as one of Zion's watchmen, faithful to the Captain of his Salvation.
Signed by direction and on behalf of the aforesaid Meeting, held at Clear Creek, the 19th day of the 4th month, 1845, by Joseph Bennett, Ruth Tomlinson, Clerks At Miami Quarterly Meeting of Friends, held the 10th of the Fifth Month, 1845. The above Testimony was read and approved in this Meeting, and directed to be forwarded to the Meeting for Sufferings. James M. Janney, Hannah Lukens, Clerks "