JACKSON FAMILY
Pioneers of Jefferson County
Madison Courier, November 15, 1873

    JAMES JACKSON, SR. of Republican Township, Jefferson Co., IN. was born in Warren County, North Carolina in 1783. His birthplace was on the banks of the Roanoke river, a short distance from the Virginia line. His father (Solomon Jackson) was a Revolutionary soldier. In the year 1814 old Solomon Jackson settled 1 1/2 miles from Lexington, Scott Co., IN., (at that time, until 1820, part of Jefferson Co.) on the place now owned by the widow Hastie, where he lived till he died in 1848. Burried:  Old family graveyard in the abandoned Hastie Cemetery on the north side of State Road 356 about two miles east of Lexington, In.

   SOLOMON JACKSON was a native of North Carolina and served during the Revolution in regiments of North Carolina. Hostilities were commenced between the Mother Country and the Colonies before Jackson was of age. On this account he was at first refused as a volunteer in the Continental Army, but was shortly afterwards received as a substitute for someone who probably had more influence than courage, more money than patriotism. When his first term of service expired he enlisted in another N.C. regiment. While serving in this command, the battles of Gates Defeat and Guilford Courthouse occured. At the former battle it will be remembered Gates commanded the Americans and Lord Rawden the British forces.
   James Jackson, now aged 90 years (in Nov. 1873) narrates his father's story.
   The British were formed in the shape of a horseshoe, their men were stationed from 4 to 8 feet apart so as to make the line long enough to coop the Americans in. Our men were so close together that they crowded each other with their elbows. When in position this way and advancing on the enemy, father said he saw the British pointing a cannon right at him. As the Americans kept marching up, not 40 steps from the British, he could see the muzzle of the gun as they prayed it first on one side and then on another part of the line to scare them. When at last the gunner dropped the fire on the touchole he thought it was coming straight at him and expected every minute to be blown to pieces. Bur fortunately in the firing of the gun, it was turned a little and so missed him. Then the Americans gave them a volley. Father was on the first line, and the man behind him fired his gun with the muzzle so close to his ear that it stunned him and he was out of his mind for some time. When he came to, he found himself ramming a bullet down his musket with the ramrod. He looked on both sides and behind him, where he had been crowded so close and couldn't see a single man. Then the smoke cleared away a bit in front and he peered through it, and saw the British about 10 feet away charging on him with their bayonets. He pulled up his gun and fired, bullet, ramrod and all, and then turned and ran. He ran a few steps and threw down his gun just as an officer came up cursing and asked where was his gun. He told him the gun was shot out of his hand and then he broke for the bushes near the creek. It was a mighty bad place to be in there right between the lines, in infantry behind and the light horse coming in on the sides, slashing and cutting down our men.
   So father ran and hid in the bushes of Sander's Creek and then ran through a field into the woods till he heard men talking in the brush. He listened and finding that they were our men, went up to them and they all marched out on the Charlotte Road, about 12 miles from their camp and ammunition. There were about 100 men sitting there and talking about the defeat, when they looked along the road and saw a man riding toward them. The road was straight as an arrow and you could see down it as far as the eye could reach. Then one of the officers got up and said he supposed it was a British Dragoon, coming; so he mounted his horse and galloped toward him to see if it was, and if there were others coming. Presently the officer returned and said it was a dragoon and there would be more after him. The best thing they could do was to scatter. So the Americans struck out in different ways, all but a neighbor of Father's , a kind of fool-hardy fellow. He stayed till the dragoon came up. The British rode along side and asked him if he wasn't afraid to stay there sitting in the wagon. The American gave his gun a little toss, he had it all cocked and ready, and said he didn't think anyone would hurt him. Then he rode away safe as the Americans was afraid to fire before he got away.
   He hid among some logs though, right there and saw the squad come up and examine the wagon and then ride up to where the wagons of the Maryland troops were placed. These troops had mostly their women with them. The dragoons dashed in amongst the women and children, slashing and killing them, for their orders were that morning not to give quarter. Gates had sold out our troops to the British and the whole thing was a plot to kill our men.
   If our men had seen Gates they would have shot him. He killed 3 horses riding away from the battlefield. Father said he would have shot him quicker than a Britisher if he had seen him.   

Historical note from a Revolutionary War History which validates facts and give dates for James Jackson's narration of his father's story. What he calls Gates Defeat was the Battle of Camden. (SLK)  Battle of Camden

"In May of 1780, news of the fall of Charles Town, South Carolina, and the capture of General Benjamin Lincolns southern army reached Congress. They voted to place Gates in command of the Southern Department. He learned of his new command at his home near modern Shepherdstown, West Virginia, and headed south to assume command of remaining Continental forces near the Deep River in North Carolina of July 25, 1780.
He led continental forces and militia south, to their stand-up fight with British general Charles Cornwallis at the Battle of Camden on August 16, where he was overwhelmingly defeated. Gates' only notable accomplishment in the unsuccessful campaign was to cover 170 miles in three days on horseback, headed north in retreat. His bitter disappointment was compounded by the news of his son Robert's death in combat in October. Nathanael Green replaced Gates as commander on December 3, and he returned home to Virginia. Because of the debacle at Camden, Congress passed a resolution requiring a board of inquiry (prelude to a court martial) to look into Gates' conduct in that affair."

   Father and another man left the wagon together, when the Dragoon was coming, as I told you. From the battleground to where they stopped that night was 60 miles and they hadn't eaten anything except peaches and fruit they had picked off the trees as they went along the road. The night before the battle they had drawed fat meat and couldn't eat it. Father tied his piece to his canteen and left it in camp thinking if they won the battle he could get it and if they didn't it could go. So they laid down on a husk frame in a mill the night after the battle without anything to eat. When father work up in the morning he couldn't move his legs until he cought hold of them and rubbed them with his hands, and worked them forwards and back a while. Going out of the mill to the house he saw the yard full of officers and men who had travelled that distance in the night. The officers gathered the men together and they all marched to regain the army.
   At the battle of Guilford Courthouse, the Americans were formed in three different lines; first the North Carolina troops, then the Virginians and last the Maryland regulars, who bore the brunt of the battle. The orders were for the first line to fire three rounds and retire behind the last line and reform there. Before the firing commenced the British marched down the slope in front of us in their fine red coats. An officer mounted on a big roan horse was riding in front. A man in the American lines stepped out in front with a big fowling peice. The muzzle was so big you could run your finger down it. He ran out with his gun, the officer standing and saying nothing, and he took aim at the British officer. The minute he fired the officer pitched forward and over his horse's side, stone dead. The British, however, didn't stir ahead, they didn't look one way or the other, but kept coming straight for us. The man jumped back in his place and commenced reloading saying, "by _____, I killed one of them."
   The sight of the Red Coats coming was too much for a man who stood in front of fater in the first line. He wanted to swap places and get behind but fater wouldn't let him. He stood in his place a second or more, then fell back on father as if he stumbled. But father caught him by the shoulders and threw him forward. The coward fell on his knees and managed to crawl away somehow, at least he wasn't seen in the line after that. At the word the Carolina troops fired and retired as arranged. Then the next line. But our troops didn't form well again, they were like a gang of turkeys scattared about. Finally they all got formed on the brow of a little hill as the British came down the slope on the other side and charged up. Our men having the advantage, the enemy couldn't stand the fire, and fell back on the other side of the branch and formed on the rising ground. Then they go to killing our men so fast that they gave way. The British didn't pursue them at first, not till reinforcements came up. Then there was another fray and the British retook the four or five hundered prisoners we had taken.
   In the fracas an officer in our regiment named Lindsay was wounded. He made a stroke with his sword at a footman and missed him; just as he was wheeling to strike again, the Red Coat fired his musket, the ball passing through his knee and hitting his horse in the wetheres. Father and three others took him to a hospital 30 miles distant. On the return to the army they went in twos, as provisions were scarce and they would not attract so much notice that way. Father and his companion case to a cross road as they were traveling. This fellow seeing a man hanging from a limb of a tree said: "Hello! you're that, are you?" Father looked up then and saw a British officer strung up by the nexk with a paper pinned to his coat having on it: "Death to the man who cuts him down." They concluded they'd better travel then and get out of that neighborhood, for if any Torie or Britist fell in with them, they'd hang them in the same way. They reached the army without any adventure and that ended the battles he saw.
   The "old revolutioner" lived to be 83 years of age and passed 32 years of his life near Lexington. Many old residents remember him, and speak of his tales about the war and his passion for hunting. It was a habit of his, if he saw a squrrel and was unable to get a shot at it immediately, to sit down on a log, remarking "that's my meat" and wait there patiently till the nut cracker appeared, when he never failed to bring it down. His remains lie buried in the graveyard upon the old place near Lexington.
   In 1814, when 31 years of age, James Jackson, with his father Solomon emegrated to this county. The party consisted of Solomon Jackson, his wife, one daughter and four sons. Of the latter, James was the eldest and the only one married. He was accompanied by his wife and 4 children. The party travelled in one of the immense road wagons drawn by four horses, common to that day. The old trace of Daniel Boone was followed from North Carolina through to Kentucky. The Jacksons passed through Cumberland Gap, crossed the river at Cumberland Ford, passed Flat Lick, aperhaps assisted, by killing deer and leaving inferior parts upon the banks to rot, in fastening the name of Stinking Creek upon the stream this side of the Lick, which will be remembered by many readers who are familiar with the places mentioned.
   Almost a straight course was pursued from Crab Orchard to Bedford in Trimble Co., KY. The Ohio crossed at McKinleys ferry at the prominent bluff known as Plow Handle Point. The party reached the river late in the afternoon, hailed the ferry which was nothing but anold flat and a very slow navigator and were for the first time landed upon the Territory of Indiana as the sun was sinking in the west. There they camped that night upon the bank, cooking their supper by the rude fire of branches, and sleeping in and under the wagon which contained their household goods.
   In the morning bright and early, they arose to ascend the hill. McKinley had dug a road up the hillside, but it was new and no rain had fallen to settle it. The heavy wagon stalled in the ascent and it became necessary to unload it and make several trips. Thus the entire day was consumed and the pioneers counted the distance from the bottom to the top, a days journey. It was something remarkable that the party had traveled such a distance through Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky, taking the mountains in their course and steep hills and never had a "second pull" till they reached this side of the Ohio.
   The next day Lexington was entered. It was but a very small village of but a few. General (William) McFarland was the proprietor of the town and the leading man in the country. McFarland and a Louisville man were attempting the manufacture of salt. The water was good, sufficiently strong, but could not be found in quantitiy. A well had been bored to the depth of 700 feet without finding the supply of water necessary to make the enterprise profitable. Here at Lexington, the old soldier, Solomon Jackson, bought his land from the government. The younger Jackson was not so easily satisfied. His old home on the Roanoke had been forsaken on account of the poorness of the soil, and coming so far he wished to settle where the land was richer; finally he selected a tract on the White River fork of the Muscatatuck. 
   Article continued in the Madison Courier 22 November, 1873.    
   In Nov. 1814 Mr. Jackson bought his farm from the government. The land he decided to be good and his judgement was accurate for it has held out to this day. Land lies 2 miles from Kent and is now the property of John Wilson. Mr. Jackson started to build a cabin. Winter was upon them. They left Carolina October 17th and landed in Lexington November 17th, almost 59 years ago. The snow was almost a foot deep. Soon they had a one room cabin - one story - just one room - a single doorway with a flapping bed quilt for a door - no windows as cracks let in enough light. The fireplace was a large square hole cut in one wall, close to the ground, only this and nothing more. Fire was built outside of the cabin and the family sitting inside warmed themselves by its flame. Sitting on the floor meant bare earth and in one corner of the cabin a hole had been dug and mud made with which to fill up the wide cracks and cover over the stones when a stone chimney could be built. The chimney was not long in coming, or part of it, for it was never built higher than the mantel. Then heavy punchions took the smoke in charge and conducted it by the shortest route out of doors.
   James Jackson cleared four or five acres that winter - when he cut down trees the deer came into the clearing and he shot them without any trouble. Standing in front of his quilt door he shot wild turkeys when he wanted them. Wolves were plentiful and once they killed and devoured a small calf - quite a loss. Corn for horses was bought of old Jimmy Blankenship, and corn meal was ground at old John Smith's mill, 5 miles away at the head of Schmidlapp's branch. All during the winter they were told that the Indians would be on them in the spring.
   But no hostile Indians disturbed the settlement. Once friendly Indians came on their way to Madison with venison hams and furs to sell. They were mounted on ponies. Old White Eyes, Charles White Eyes, his son, and old Jonnie Wea with his squaw and papoose. A white man accompanied them as a guide. The Indians were afraid to come alone. The third day after they passed Mr. Jackson went to town to buy a kettle to boil sugar water. The Indians had been drunk for 2 days and the squaw was sober. Then in the morning it was her turn to drink for one always stayed sober to watch. Mr. Jackson saw the squaw sitting on a poplar stump near Ristine's tavern, blanket over head. Old Wea was a black, nasty mottled color - not white or black. Old White Eyes was a yaller Indian - so was his son. White Eyes hardly as tall as a white man; Charles about average, and Wea chunky and low. The men were sober and fixing their guns. As soon as they came the whites had taken their guns and broke the locks. Old Wea led the procession as they filed out of town to their camp in Decatur County. The band hunted on Bear Creek, Bear Tail and Wild Lucy, three streams which emptied into Sand Creek near Scipio. They left Decatur County in 1816 for Tippecanoe River.

   Early settlers: William Chambers is the only one living who was here when Jackson came. Living on White River were old Joshua Tull, old Jimmie Smith, old Tommy Ramsay, Ben & John Ramsay, old Bob Miller, old Johnnie Lattimore, Bill Thicksten, Bob Marshall, Abraham McCurry, Billy Sage, Gabriel Foster, Jimmie McCartney, Thomas Roseberry, George Campbell, Billy Whitesides, Patrick Wilson, old Billy Rock Wilson, Tommy Almonds and Amos Chitwood.

   Kent was first called Ramsay's Mills. When Jackson came the mill was being built. Then the place was called Daubingsville. This was because the first store was a wood frame daubed with dirt. The store was kept by a Scotchman named Ellison. The Methodists had the first church on Chitwood's place. The Baptist not long afterwards organized the White River Baptist Church.

    From the Roster of Revolutionary Soldiers buried in Indiana; page 204
SOLOMON JACKSON born 3 Dec. 1760, Warren Co., North Carolina
Service--Private in Co. of Capt. White, Col. Johnson's North Carolina Regiment for 18 months. Substituted spring of 1779 for 7 months under Col. Lincoln, Col. Johnson, Capt. White. Drafted 1780, 7 months under General Gates, General Green. Drafted Feb. 1781 under General Green, Capt. Nazery. In battles of Camden & Guildford Court House. Pension claim S16424, applied from Scott County. IN. Solomon died 12 Jan. 1848 Pension application shows son, Jesse. General accounts office shows two children: James and Sarah Hogue. Solomon Jackson, Scott County, Indiana, d.o. allowance $60: received $180; description of service, NC Militia; when placed on pension roll, May 29, 1833, age 82.

On 13 October 1830 Book C., p 323, Solomon Jackson sold or mortgaged the east 1/2 of the SW 1/4 of Section 26 Tsp; throught N. Range 8 east of Jeffersonville, 80 acres.  Solomon Jackson signed his name.

Solomon Jackson, believed to be the son of Peter and Elizabeth Bush Jackson, was born in old Bute (later Warren) County, North Carolina on land his father purchased along Six Pound Creek just south of the Virginia border and south of the Roanoke River.

When the Revolutionary War began, Solomon was only fifteen years old. (1775) On 7 November 1832 Solomon Jackson appeared before the Scott County, Indiana Court and gave the following information when he applied for his pension for service during the Revolution:  At the time the application was made, he was 71 years of age and testified that he first served in the Colonial Army in March 1779 as a substitute for William Bacon.  He left Warren County, NC, and marched into South Carolina under General Lincoln.  They marched through South Carolina and on to Augusta, Georgia, where they corssed the Savanah River and then marched further down into South Carolina until they reached Charleston.  They reached Charleston the night before the battle was fought near St. John' Island.

Solomon was then sent southward with one hundred others to keep the British from going up the river to get fresh water and captured a boat attempting to pass there.  They reached the main part of the army the next day--after the battle was over.

When he signed on as a substitute for William Bacon, the lenght of service was to be for three months, but when his three months were up his services were still required, so he signed up for another four months.  At the end of this time, he returned to his home in Warren County.

In the spring of 1781 he was again drafted and left Warren County to serve under General Greene near Hillsboroughm, North Carolina.  He served in the regiment commanded by Colonel Benjamin Williams and General Butler commanded the militia.  After the Battle of Guilford, he went Ramsey's Mill on Deep River.  General Greene went back into South Carolina near Camden where there was another battle.  He was kept in service until about the middle of October 1781, then he returned to Warren County.

RETURN TO TABLE OF CONTENTS