History of Early Pioneer Families of Hood River, Oregon. Compiled by Mrs. D.M. Coon

F.M. JACKSON AND FAMILY                       D.M.C.                    1873

     Francis M. Jackson, with his family, came to Hood River in 1871. He took up a homestead on the East side on which he lived nearly forty three years.
     He was born in Athens, Tennessee on December 13, 1836, his parents, Mr. and. Mrs. J.B. Jackson, being pioneers of that state. They moved to Morristown, of the same state, while he was still small.
     He grew to manhood and received an academic education in his home town. In 1853 he drove an ox team to Missouri and in the spring of 1856 journeyed to California and engaged in mining. The death of his father called him home in the fall of 1858.
     On June 8, 1859, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Thurman, and bought a farm and a number of slaves on credit soon after the Civil War began. In June 1861 he enlisted in the 4th Battalion of Tennessee Cavalry, known as Peck's Light Dragoons.
     He was soon promoted to the office of lieutenant and then to that of captain. He was in the Fisher Creek battle and the battles near Vicksburg. At the battle, of Black River he was taken prisoner and held on Johnson's Island, near Sandusky, Ohio, for eighteen months when he was exchanged. After a short stay at his old home he rejoined his former regiment and was serving as colonel when the war closed. When Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, was captured, Captain Jackson was one of his escorts, but temporarily absent. At the close of the war he returned to his farm and endeavored to pay off his debts contracted in the purchase of slaves before the war. He served as city recorder for two years, then, with his obligations discharged he turned to the West.
     He came to The Dalles and learned of Hood River, he visited it in its primi-tive wildness and was fascinated, and this became his permanent home. His wife was a relative of Captain Lewis, of "Lewis and Clark" fame. Together Mr. and Mrs. Jackson labored in Hood River, he had no work in which she did not share, suffered no privations in which she was not an equal partner.
     They improved their farm, raised a family of five children, contributed to the general welfare of the community and won the respect of their neighbors. He served for thirty years as school director in the Pine Grove District. He always took an active part in public affairs. Mrs. Jackson died in 1885. Mr. Jackson's health began to fail in the fall of 1913, he died at his home on January 12, 1914. The children surviving are Mrs. Carrie Gerdes, J.B. and D.M. Jackson of Hood River, W.F. Jackson of Moro and Francis J. Jackson, a Baptist minister of Centerville, Washington.
     In compliance with the request of Captain Jackson he was buried in his Confederate uniform.

"Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the Judgment day,
Love and tears for the Blue,
Tears and love for the Gray."

     From an article concerning Captain Jackson published in a Portland paper I quote: "Although he fought under the Stars and Bars in the Civil War, Captain Jackson numbered among his best friends the members of the Grand Army Post here."
     "We fought against each other", said E.D. Calkins, an old veteran who lost his leg at Antietam, "but I have never had a better friend". Members of the Canby Post acted as pallbearers.

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