Siskiyou
County
Biographies
SAMUEL H. JACKSON
Samuel
H. Jackson, who has the distinction of having lived for sixty-two years on the
farm in Shasta valley where he was born, belongs to the real pioneer stock of
his locality and is an exemplar of the type of citizenship which has made this
one of the most advanced and desirable sections of the Sacramento valley. He was born where he now lives on the 14th
of August, 1868, and is a son of Samuel and Caroline (Sherrill) Jackson. His father was of sterling old Scotch-Irish
ancestry and was born near Winchester, Frederick County, Virginia, January 22, 1827. The
progenitor of the family in this country was Samuel Jackson, great-grandfather
of Samuel H. Jackson, while the maternal ancestor was great-grandfather McVeagh, of Irish stock.
They both settled in Virginia in a very early day. Samuel Jackson’s son Samuel, married Miss
Cynthia McVeagh and they reared five children,
Benjamin Franklin, Margaret Ann, Samuel, Jonathan and Ruth Grace.
Samuel
Jackson worked on his fatrher’s farm until about
twenty-two years of age, when, in October, 1851, he went on a visit to Ohio,
where he spent one winter. From there he
went to Illinois, and later proceeded to St. Louis, Missouri. From there he went to New Orleans, where he
made the acquaintance of two returned Californians, whose stories of life on
the Pacific coast decided him to come to this region. With about five hundred dollars in his
pocket, he took passage on the steamer Cortez, bound for Panama, and on the
Pacific side he embarked on the California, which reached San Francisco in
November, 1852. He proceeded to
Sacramento, where he found work in a bakery, at a wage of eighty dollars a
month. He soon went to a place called
Lower Springs, near Shasta, and began mining.
Later he went to Weaverville and mined on Big and French bars. In the fall of 1853, he moved to Yreka, but
finding it dull there he went on to Cottonwood, where he secured a very rich
claim in Rocky gulch. He soon sold that
for the paltry sum of two hundred and fifty dollars and went to Virginia bar,
so named by Mr. Jackson and his friend Goodnight, who was also a Virginian. They brought a ditch onto this claim and
operated the mine for a time. Mr.
Jackson then went to Shasta valley and bought one hundred and sixty acres of
land, which he improved, and to which he added from time to time until he was
the owner of three thousand acres of fine land, well stocked with cattle and
horses, and improved in every respect.
And what was of supreme importance in those days, he had a fine spring
of water, which he developed and piped into the home. There Mr. Jackson died November 4, 1904. The improvements upon his first one hundred
and sixty acres consisted of a cabin without a roof, and about four hundred
rails, while some potatoes had been planted.
He remained there to raise three crops after which he rented the place
and went to Greenhorn, where he bought two claims. After operating them for two years, he
decided that farming was after all the best and safest vocation, so selling out
he returned to his original ranch. On
January 10, 1861, Mr. Jackson married Miss Caroline Sherrill, of Independence
County, Arkansas, a daughter of Alfred and Margaret Sherrill, the former a
native of North Carolina and the latter of Tennessee. To Mr. and Mrs. Jackson were born six
children: Harvey Edward, who was born
October 31, 1861, and died November 8, 1867; Thomas Jefferson, born August 31,
1863; Rosa Ellen, who was born January 23, 1865, and died November 8, 1867;
Samuel Henry; Alice Virginia, born March 8, 1870; and Jonathan Franklin, born
July 1, 1872.
Samuel
H. Jackson attended the common schools of his home neighborhood and spent one
year in the Oakland high school. He has
lived all his life on the home ranch and his present holdings comprise about
two thousand acres of land, part of his father’s holdings. He took over the home place on his father’s
death in 1904 and has been engaged in the stock and hay business during almost
the entire time that he has operated the ranch.
He has also done some dairy farming, raising Shorthorn cattle and some
Herefords, and has had at one time as many as three hundred and fifty head of
shorthorns on the place. He is
progressive, methodical and up-to-dated in all that he does and has been very
successful in his affairs.
On
February 10, 1904, Mr. Jackson was united in marriage to Miss Pearl E. Jacobs,
who was born in Iowa and is a daughter of W. C. and Mary E. (Udderbach) Jacobs, who came to Siskiyou county
in 1888. Her father’s death occurred at
Oakland, in July, 1924, while her mother lives at the present with Mr.
Jackson. The father, Mr. Jacobs, had
followed farming in Iowa and owned and operated a ranch after coming to his
state. To Mr. and Mrs.
Jackson have been born two sons, Samuel Clinton and Henry Clifford. The former, who is assisting his father on
the home ranch, received a good education, completing the public school course,
attending the Oakland Technical high school and graduating from the University
of California in 1928, having majored in economics. He is a member of the Alpha Gamma Rho
fraternity. Henry Clifford, who was
graduated from the Oakland Technical high school and from the University of
California in 1929 having majored in agricultural economics, is an instructor
in the United State bureau of animal science at Davis, California, the home of
the State College of Agriculture. He
married Miss Rebecca Alberta Priddy, who also graduated from the University of
California in 1929. She was born in
Memphis, Tennessee, but was a resident of Anaheim, California, at the time of
her marriage. They have one child,
Elizabeth Caroline.
Politically
Samuel H. Jackson is a democrat and his religious faith is that of the
Protestant Episcopal Church. His son
Clifton is a member and the present chancellor of the Knights of Pythias lodge
at Weed, and also belongs to the Dramatic Order of Knights of Khorassan at
Redding. The subject of this sketch has
given his support to those things which have promoted the growth and
development of the community in which he lives and has long been regarded as
one of Siskiyou county’s most substantial and influential citizens, honored and
respected by all.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Wooldridge, J.W.Major History of Sacramento Valley
California, Vol. 2 Pages 188-190. Pioneer Historical
Publishing Co. Chicago 1931.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Siskiyou County Biographies