San
Joaquin County
Biographies
MRS. SUSAN JANE JACK
An honored pioneer of San Joaquin
County is found in Mrs. Susan Jane Jack, who was brought to California by her
parents in 1852. She was born near Van
Buren, Crawford County, Arkansas, May 12, 1848, the eldest daughter of Robert
Foster, a native of Alabama, who removed to Arkansas in the early ‘40s, where
the family became large planters and slave owners. He married Caroline Hargrave,
a native of Arkansas; and in 1852 started across the plains with ox-teams, with
a number of other families, to California, bringing with them stock and
supplies. Arriving in California, the
father settled on the Linden Road about eight miles east of Stockton and
followed farming until he removed to Merced County and engaged in grain farming. From there he went to Fresno County, where he
became well known as a sheep and stock raiser; then disposing of his California
holdings, he removed to Flagstaff, Arizona, in 1884, where in partnership with
a brother, he acquired large land holdings and engaged in stock raising. There he passed away in 1886, the mother
preceding him in 1865. Our subject is
the second eldest of a family of ten children, five of whom now survive.
Susan Jane Foster received her
education in the Greenwood and Chartville schools and
on January 14, 1866, was married to George G. Jack, a native of Tennessee, born
April 17, 1833. His boyhood was spent on
his father’s farm and in 1850 he made a prospecting trip to California,
spending some time in the southern mines, returning to the east at the outbreak
of the Civil War. He enlisted in
Arkansas as a private in the cavalry on the Confederate side; he was in the
Battle of Pea Ridge and served throughout the entire period of the war without
being wounded. Soon after the war was
over he started for California on his horse, “Old Bill,” used during the war
and came overland via the Santa Fe trail, a brother, John Jack, and another
comrade, Joe Looper, accompanying him to San Diego,
then to Los Angeles and over the mountains to San Joaquin County, arriving in
June, 1865. Mr. Jack purchased 100 acres
of choice land on the Copperopolis Road and for twenty-two years the family
resided here; then the family moved to Lockeford and
spent seven years; then to Waterloo, settling on the Long homestead, where Mr.
Jack passed away April 13, 1905. He is
survived by his widow, our subject, six sons and six daughters: Miss Lulu; George, of Lockeford;
Frank, of French Camp; Wm. T., of Stockton; Albert J., of Manteca; Mrs. Alice Leisz, of Ceres; Harry S., of Manteca; Mrs. R. E. Minaken, of Napa; Mrs. Aaron Keppel, of Manteca; Martin E.,
of Manteca; Mrs. Ray Stuart, of Ripon; Mrs. George LeMoin,
of Manteca. At the present time there
are twenty-five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. From the time of taking up his residence in
the county, Mr. Jack served on the Democratic County Central Committee and was
a liberal contributor to public and private charities.
In 1912, Miss Lulu Jack purchased
forty acres of the Carter homestead near Manteca, which has been improved and
developed into a fine home place and here she and her mother reside. Miss Jack was graduated from San Jose
Teachers’ College in 1895 and has followed her profession of teaching in the
public schools of the state ever since.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
399. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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