Jackson-Herman-Willig Family History
Our Family's Journey Through Time: 1677-1945
Thomas Jackson: born Sept. 18, 1831 in Clinton County, OH, a son of Jesse and Anne (Hockett/Hoggatt) Jackson. He died March 4, 1910 at Willow Hill, IL which is a few miles west of Oblong, IL where he was buried at the Oblong Cemetery.
Ellen Wright: born in 1837 in Clinton County, OH, a daughter of John and Susanna (Terrrell) Wright. The details of her life are uncertain. She died in Clinton or Highland County, OH in 1866/67 shortly after the birth of her fourth child, Frederick. Her gravesite is reported to be in Hillsboro, OH.
Marriage of Thomas and Ellen (Wright) Jackson: in 1856 in Clinton or Highland County, OH
Children of Thomas and Ellen Jackson (4): Demaris, Jury, Laura, and Frederick (all born in Ohio).
Rebecca Wright: born Sept. 28, 1840 in Clinton County, OH, a daughter of John and Susanna (Terrrell) Wright and younger sister of Ellen (Wright) Jackson. Rebecca died on Dec. 30, 1928 in Willow Hill, IL. and is buried alongside Thomas Jackson in the Oblong (IL) Cemetery.
Marriage of Thomas and Rebecca (Wright) Jackson: Nov. 2, 1872 in Clinton County, OH. (about 5 years after the death of Ellen (Wright) Jackson, Rebecca's sister and Thomas' first wife.)
Children of Thomas and Rebecca Jackson (4): Curtis, Jacob, Pearl, and Myrtle (all born in Illinois).
Thomas Jackson was born Sept. 18, 1831 in Clinton County, Ohio. He was the ninth of ten children born to Jesse and Anne (Hockett) Jackson who had been married in Clinton County and lived there all their lives. Thomas was 13 years old when his father, Jesse Jackson, died in 1844, so Thomas' older brother, Joseph (then 27 years old), was appointed to be his legal administrator and guardian. Jesse and Anne Jackson had left the Orthodox Quakers and joined the Hicksites about the time Thomas was born, and there is no mention of Thomas Jackson in Orthodox Quaker records.
[Joseph Jackson was unmarried and died in 1846 at the age of 28, and was buried in the Martinsville Friends Cemetery. There is no further documentation about him or the guardianships.]
John and Susannah (Terrell) Wright were Quakers who resided in Clinton County, OH. They were the parents of 10 children, including two daughters who each married Thomas Jackson: Ellen and Rebecca Wright. Ellen/Eleanor was born in 1831, the first child of John and Susannah Wright. Rebecca was born in 1840, the fifth child of John and Susannah Wright. John Wright was descended from the Joseph Wright family from Bedford, Virginia who had immigrated to the Lynchburg, Ohio region in the early 1800s, along with their son Thomas Wright. Thomas was John Wright's father and thus the grandfather of Ellen and Rebecca Wright.
Thomas Jackson married Ellen Wright about 1856 in Clinton County, Ohio. They had four children between 1857 and 1867, all born in the vicinity of New Vienna, Ohio: Damaris, Jury, Laura, and Frederick. Ellen died in 1867 shortly after the birth of Fred.
About this time in 1867 or 68, according to Florence (Jackson) Willig (a daughter of Jury Jackson and granddaughter of Thomas), writing her memories about family historical stories in 1997, "[Thomas and Jury] were caught in a violent rain storm (this was summer), and they took shelter under a large tree. Lightning struck the tree and the tree fell on the buggy that they were in. My grandfather was pinned under the tree, crushing his legs. The doctor said he would never walk again and be an invalid for life, but he was determined to walk. Three years later, he walked with two canes. He could never bend his hips, and bent down from the waist." [Florence was only two and a half years old when her grandfather Thomas died, and the story was related to her by her father Jury.]
On Nov. 2, 1872, in Clinton County, Ohio Thomas Jackson married Rebecca Wright, the sister of Ellen who had passed away. Shortly thereafter, they moved their family to Crawford County, Illinois, residing near the town of Robinson. At the time of the move, the children of Thomas and Ellen, Thomas' first wife, ranged in age from about 15 down to about 5 years old. Rebecca and Thomas had four children together, all born in Crawford County: Curtis in 1873, Jacob in 1875, Pearl in 1880, and Myrtle in 1882. According to Florence (Jackson) Willig, Jury was "the man of the house until his brothers Fred and Curtis could take over the work."
Thomas and Rebecca (Wright) Jackson and their eight children continued to reside in southern Illinois for the remainder of their lives. Damaris Jackson married George David Eagleton and they had nine children (Damaris, George and one of their sons were killed in a tragic train-auto accident in 1927). Jury Jackson married Sarah Anna Powell (the 8th Generation on this website) and they had eight children (the 9th Generation). The next child of Thomas Jackson, Laura Jackson, married George Cox and the couple had three children. Fred Jackson never married. Evidently, Curtis Jackson married twice: first to Lucinda (Bailey) Jackson, and then to Mary Catherine (Bailey-Nebergall) Jackson and had six children. Evidently, Jacob Jackson was also married twice: first to Viola Harris and then to Mary Kirk. They had four children; tragically, Jacob died by suicide in 1908 in Oblong, Illinois. Pearl Jackson married William Peter Wurtzberger with whom she had six children. The youngest Child of Thomas and Rebecca, Myrtle, married Dan Scott and they had three sons, but Myrtle (Jackson) Scott died in 1911 at the age of 28; she is buried in the Oblong, IL cemetery along with several other Jackson family members.
Thomas Jackson died on March 4, 1910 in Jasper County, Illinois. Rebecca (Wright) Jackson continued to live in Jasper County, in the town of Oblong, until her death in 1928. They were both buried in the Oblong Cemetery.
Find a Grave.com
Florence Jackson's personal correspondence with her niece Doris Veach, and Doris' daughter-in-law