Jackson Homestead
Encyclopedia
The Jackson Homestead, located at 527 Washington Street, in the village of Newton Corner
, in Newton, Massachusetts
, is an historic house that served as a station on the Underground Railroad
before the Civil War
.
It was built in 1809 in the Federal
style by Timothy Jackson (1756–1814) on his family's farm. His son William Jackson
(1763–1855) lived in it from 1820 until his death. William Jackson was an abolitionist and was active in politics on the local, state and national levels and served in the United States Congress
from 1833 to 1837. The home was occupied by his family until 1932 when it was rented out. In 1949 it was given to the city of Newton and in 1950 the Newton History Museum was established there.
. Like his father, he was a nailmaker, and amassed a small fortune so that shortly after his arrival in New England
, around 1642, he was able to purchase a house with several acres of land on Newton Corner. He would eventually become the largest landowner in Newton. His wife, Frances, died shortly after his arrival; little is known but for the fact that she produced a son, Sebas, who is believed to have been born over the Atlantic Ocean
because his name is a contraction of the words sea born. There are no records of Sebas's older siblings, although they did exist; they are not identified and only Sebas is mentioned in Edward's will.
Edward was admitted as a Freeman in 1645, at the age of 43, became a Cambridge Proprietor and was quickly immersed in the civil and religious life of colony and town alike. For nearly two decades Edward Jackson was Deputy to the Central Court, where he served on many committees, many of them focused on surveying and planning new settlements. It is known that Edward married a widow named Elizabeth Oliver, who was believed to have been present at every local birth for fifty years, earning herself the title of Mother of the Village. Nothing else is known about her.
In about 1654, when Edward was about 52 years old, about a dozen families living south of the Charles were tired of making the long journey to the Cambridge meeting house and back for every committee meeting and discussion. When they started holding their own services, it is likely and easily imaginable that they met in the large, new, conveniently located mansion Edward had just built near the Brighton-Newton border. The separation of Newton from Cambridge, in which Edward played a leading role, had begun.
Unfortunately, not much is confirmed about Edward's youngest child. Although his father had left him a fine library, Sebas was unable to sign his own name. He did some town duties, serving as hogreeve, constable, and just before he died, the surveyor of highways. In 1671, when he married Sarah Baker of Roxbury, and it was most likely then that he moved into the house and took hold of the land Edward had left him.
Sarah and Sebas had five children: Edward, John, Jonathan, two daughters, and Joseph. On Sebas's death in 1690, his eldest son Edward, the only child who was of age, received 60 acres (242,811.6 m²) on the western side of the farm, where he built his house, while Sarah most likely stayed in the homestead, tending to the five younger children.
Sadly, for many years Joseph was involved in representing himself, his mother, and his two sisters in a litigation suit against his oldest brother, Edward, over the estate of their brother Jonathan, who had disappeared while on a logging expedition to the Gulf of Mexico
. The bitter feud had hardly died down when Sarah died in 1726, launching a fresh round of legal battles. By the time everything was finally settled, Joseph was so experienced in law that he was able to represent Newton in a lawsuit against Cambridge
over support for the Great Bridge
over the Charles River
. Towards the end of his life Joseph became too weak to walk and was forced to sit in a special chair while doing chores around the farm; a century later the chair was celebrated in a poem by his great-great-granddaughter, Marion Jackson-Gilbert, and is still exhibited at the museum.
. He was gone, off and on, for five years from about 1775 to 1780, when he came home for good, at the age of just 24, having gone on a spree of dangerous and exhausting adventures, without being "...broken in constitution or in character" like his father.
When Timothy came home, his father's estate was settled for good, most likely because of the efforts of Moses Souther, who had married Lucy and worked hard to organize the farm, taking on most male responsibility, in his absence. Timothy got two- thirds of the homestead and all the real estate, and in return assumed all the debts, most financial responsibility, and supported his sisters. Timothy worked hard on the farm for the next eight years, trying patiently to get the family's affairs in order. During two of those years, he taught at a local school and it is possible that Souther also took a job there. In 1791, when he was 35, he was appointed the deputy sheriff of Middlesex County
, and life began to improve. By 1802 he was able to start a soap and candle factory with the help of others most likely including Moses Souther and Lucy, and it was the success of the factory which helped improve the fortunes of the Jacksons for good.
Over the years Major Timothy worked to increase the size of the farm until spread about 20 acres (80,937.2 m²) north of County Road and twenty-seven acres south of it, the boundaries extending from about Smelt Brook to Hovey Street, and from Waban Park until about halfway up Mount Ida
. He worked with Moses Souther to make improvements on the landscape, particularly on the hill near the homestead, where they erected "...some miles of stone wall" and replaced what had been rough, unused pasture-land with useful, visually appealing fruit orchards.
Hardworking Timothy, determined to excel in the areas in which his father had failed, soon became the most famous of all the Jacksons. He was appointed Brigade Major
of the Middlesex Brigade in 1793, when he was just 37 years old. He became a Justice of the Peace
shortly after, and served as Massachusetts State Representative
from 1797 until just before his death. He ran for the United States Congress
unsuccessfully. He was also active and respected locally, attending and participating in events not only in Newton but in Cambridge
, Roxbury, and the Brighton area as well.He served on the school committee, was a Selectman of Newton for many years and also earned the title of Moderator of Town Meetings, a high honor indeed.
In 1809, Timothy Jackson decided to replace the old homestead with "a fine house for... the (modern) times." He designed and helped build a large, two-family house, hoping that his youngest son, Edmund, would possibly move into it if he married. The house was a great improvement on the original, featuring such improvements as an inside well, a laundry, storeroom and ell, magnificent fireplaces with huge mantelpieces, a great staircase and airy, small private bedchambers on the second floor, with a large, useful "garret" extending on top of the entire house. (The house is described in lavish detail on page 11 of the informative pdf file on the Jackson website http://www.ci.newton.ma.us/jackson/pdf-files/jackson-homestead.pdf.) Timothy Jackson had built what is now known today as the Jackson Homestead.
He was highly respected by family, town, and politicians alike, and paid little interest to religious affairs, although his wife, Sarah (Winchester) Jackson, relied heavily upon them. With remarkable foresight and planning no doubt spurred by the court battles of previous Jackson generations, Timothy did not leave a will, but having given generously to his sons throughout his periods of financial security, he asked that his estate be divided "equally" between them and that their mother be "looked after", a fair and wise choice of words.
, George, Francis
, Stephen, and Edmund, and a youngest daughter, Lucretia, who was noted to be "...spoiled and pampered... a pretty little thing", most likely named after Lucy.
Born in 1783, William was educated at the local school, where Timothy had taught, and was briefly enrolled in Dr. Stearn's Academy on Galen Street. When he was fifteen, just a few years before his father's death in 1815, he was unfortunate to be stricken with a severe leg injury which would lame him for life. Confined to his bed for what some critics say was the winter of 1808-1809, it was a blow to Sarah and Lucretia. Timothy was in a slight but steady decline, and William had a high chance of dying or becoming an invalid, both of which would dash his hopes of becoming a wealthy, famous scholar or politician. However, that winter,the Newton library had opened, Timothy was unusually healthy, and William reported to have learned more than he ever had in all his years of schooling, curled up in his upstairs bedroom with a stack of useful old tomes. The next few years continued on uneventfully and happily.
When he was seventeen, William moved to Boston
to work in the soap and candle factory his father had started. He soon gained respect and a reputation, and was shortly the foreman and eventually, the owner. During his years in Boston, he married a woman named Hannah Woodward. With her he had children Sarah, Timothy, and Marion, and 2 more daughters. After Hannah's death in 1812, when he was only 29 but already a respected figure, William married a woman named Mary Bennett. With her he had a daughter named Frances, unknown sons, unknown daughters, daughters Cornelia, Ellen, and Caroline, and a son named William Ward. Meanwhile, William continued to take new jobs and try new things. While he certainly amassed an astounding degree of respect and expertise, it is known that his tendency to try new hobbies was annoying at the least, frightening at most.
During his time in Boston, William made fortunes, but also lost them. He represented Boston in the General Court
, and became deeply involved in the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association
and similar enterprises. However, feeling that his extensive public commitments and jobs were taking a toll on his private life, as he now had a wife and at least twelve children to support and interact with, he retired back to Newton, hoping to be a farmer, at about 1820, when he was roughly 37 years old. After Timothy's death, the shares of his property were divided as equally as possible between his sons and Lucretia's survivors. When William moved back to Newton, now a rich, grown man who was well known throughout the Boston area, he bought Edward and George's shares and made a "division" with Francis and Stephen, according to which they took the land to the south of Washington street and he got the homestead and everything to the north. Adjustments were made to the house, most notably the creation and splitting of bedrooms, to accommodate the large family, the house was painted yellow with the same cream trim and green shutters the Homestead has today, and central heating would eventually be installed in the 1830s. As his daughter Ellen quotes in page 13 of http://www.ci.newton.ma.us/jackson/pdf-files/jackson-homestead.pdf, "The orchards yielded apples, peaches, apricots, plums, and cherries; there was a grape arbor beyond the barn and a flourishing flower garden in which lilacs and roses abounded." Everything was set for a happy, quiet retirement, where William's sons could mature and his daughters marry, and the family fortunes continue in prosperity.
However, he soon found himself to be just as active as ever. By 1825 he was Chairman of the Board of Selectmen. One of the Board's various tasks and duties was the licensing and regulation of the "purveyors of ardent liquors" , which he refused to grant until the regulations were more strictly enforced. Due almost completely to his influence, and despite horrific unpleasantness, opposition, and threats which terrified the "womenfolk" of his large household, namely the daughters of Hannah Jackson, Sarah, Marion, and their two sisters, and the daughters of Mary Jackson, Frances, unknown daughters, and Cornelia, Ellen, and Caroline, and of course Mary Jackson herself, who was now the maternal head of the Jackson household, Timothy having died in 1815 and Sarah soon after, Newton stayed dry and sober that year.
The window into the world of drinking William had gained in just those few months horrified and moved him so much that despite the cautionings of his daughters, he was a prime founder in the Newton Temperance Society and the treasurer as well as secretary. After over a year of monthly meetings devoted solely to alcohol and temperance, interest waned and the Society was modified to a Lyceum in which all topics were discussed and debated. Almost by accident, William found himself scheduled to give a talk on railroads. Railroads and trains quickly became his lifelone interest, and he was eventually associated and involved with no fewer than seven railway companies and groups. It was due largely to his influence and support that a regular railway service was built between Newton and Boston
in 1844, and he was among the fist to start planning for the effect of this on real estate and housing values in Newton and Brighton.
In 1832-33, William Jackson represented Newton in the General Court
. He became very active in various anti-Masonic movements and as a result was elected to the United States Congress
in 1832. He was 49. The anti-Masonic movements collapsed in the next few years, but most of its supporters turned to the anti-slavery Liberty Party
, which eventually merged with the Free Soil Party
. Then was William's association with the abolitionists, which would eventually lead to the Jackson Homestead being used as an Underground Railroad
stop. After a few years of moving to Newton, the candle factory became too much for William to manage, and he handed it over to his son, Timothy, and his nephew, Otis Trowbridge.
Another result of the Newton Temperance Movement was the Newton Savings Bank, later to become the National Savings Bank
, designed to help men save money as an alternative to spending it on liquor. William Jackson was its first president from its founding in 1848 until his death. William participated in a full range of town committees, meetings, and activities, especially education and religion. He was deeply religious at this point, although he had not been throughout his childhood, teens, and young adulthood. William ended up being active in the Sabbath Schools, Deacon of the First Church, and Deacon of the Eliot Church, which he helped to found, as an end to a full and prosperous career.
dedicated to the city's early development. It is a tourist attraction that includes scavenger hunts, displays, paintings, historical artifacts, costumed volunteers, a cellar in which slaves might have hid, manuscripts and documents, and more. It is open for small school groups or tours, and has a small gift shop.
On June 4, 1973, the Jackson Homestead was added to the National Register of Historic Places
.
Newton Corner, Massachusetts
Newton Corner is a village of Newton, Massachusetts, United States. Newton Corner borders Brighton, a neighborhood of Boston, as well as the city of Watertown, Massachusetts...
, in Newton, Massachusetts
Newton, Massachusetts
Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States bordered to the east by Boston. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of Newton was 85,146, making it the eleventh largest city in the state.-Villages:...
, is an historic house that served as a station on the Underground Railroad
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists,...
before the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
.
It was built in 1809 in the Federal
Federal architecture
Federal-style architecture is the name for the classicizing architecture built in the United States between c. 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815. This style shares its name with its era, the Federal Period. The name Federal style is also used in association with furniture design...
style by Timothy Jackson (1756–1814) on his family's farm. His son William Jackson
William Jackson (Massachusetts)
William Jackson was a United States Representative from Massachusetts who lived at the Jackson Homestead....
(1763–1855) lived in it from 1820 until his death. William Jackson was an abolitionist and was active in politics on the local, state and national levels and served in the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
from 1833 to 1837. The home was occupied by his family until 1932 when it was rented out. In 1949 it was given to the city of Newton and in 1950 the Newton History Museum was established there.
Edward Jackson
Edward Jackson was born in 1602, in the East End of LondonEast End of London
The East End of London, also known simply as the East End, is the area of London, England, United Kingdom, east of the medieval walled City of London and north of the River Thames. Although not defined by universally accepted formal boundaries, the River Lea can be considered another boundary...
. Like his father, he was a nailmaker, and amassed a small fortune so that shortly after his arrival in New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
, around 1642, he was able to purchase a house with several acres of land on Newton Corner. He would eventually become the largest landowner in Newton. His wife, Frances, died shortly after his arrival; little is known but for the fact that she produced a son, Sebas, who is believed to have been born over the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
because his name is a contraction of the words sea born. There are no records of Sebas's older siblings, although they did exist; they are not identified and only Sebas is mentioned in Edward's will.
Edward was admitted as a Freeman in 1645, at the age of 43, became a Cambridge Proprietor and was quickly immersed in the civil and religious life of colony and town alike. For nearly two decades Edward Jackson was Deputy to the Central Court, where he served on many committees, many of them focused on surveying and planning new settlements. It is known that Edward married a widow named Elizabeth Oliver, who was believed to have been present at every local birth for fifty years, earning herself the title of Mother of the Village. Nothing else is known about her.
In about 1654, when Edward was about 52 years old, about a dozen families living south of the Charles were tired of making the long journey to the Cambridge meeting house and back for every committee meeting and discussion. When they started holding their own services, it is likely and easily imaginable that they met in the large, new, conveniently located mansion Edward had just built near the Brighton-Newton border. The separation of Newton from Cambridge, in which Edward played a leading role, had begun.
Sebas Jackson
When Edward Jackson died in 1681 at the age of 79, his youngest son, Sebas, was about 39 years old, if it is assumed that he was born in 1642, while his parents sailed from London to a seaport in New England. During his lifetime, it is known that Edward had given or promised much of his lands and property to his children, including one gift, confirmed in his will, of a house and 150 acre (0.607029 km²) of land to his son Sebas.Unfortunately, not much is confirmed about Edward's youngest child. Although his father had left him a fine library, Sebas was unable to sign his own name. He did some town duties, serving as hogreeve, constable, and just before he died, the surveyor of highways. In 1671, when he married Sarah Baker of Roxbury, and it was most likely then that he moved into the house and took hold of the land Edward had left him.
Sarah and Sebas had five children: Edward, John, Jonathan, two daughters, and Joseph. On Sebas's death in 1690, his eldest son Edward, the only child who was of age, received 60 acres (242,811.6 m²) on the western side of the farm, where he built his house, while Sarah most likely stayed in the homestead, tending to the five younger children.
Joseph Jackson
Joseph was born only a few months before his father, Sebas, died. He lived with his mother, Sarah, and his siblings until they married, on the homestead until he was seventeen. However, when he, the youngest of Sebas's six children, finally came of age, his father's estate was finally divided among the six. Sarah gave up all rights to her property in exchange for financial support. Joseph took the homestead, as all other siblings were long married, wed a woman named Patience Hyde, and became a clothier.Sadly, for many years Joseph was involved in representing himself, his mother, and his two sisters in a litigation suit against his oldest brother, Edward, over the estate of their brother Jonathan, who had disappeared while on a logging expedition to the Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...
. The bitter feud had hardly died down when Sarah died in 1726, launching a fresh round of legal battles. By the time everything was finally settled, Joseph was so experienced in law that he was able to represent Newton in a lawsuit against Cambridge
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
over support for the Great Bridge
Great Bridge (Cambridge)
The Great Bridge over the Charles River connected Cambridge, Massachusetts, to what is now known as Allston, Boston, Massachusetts. The Great Bridge was built in 1660-1662 at what was then called Brighton Street, and was the first bridge to span the Charles. A toll was authorized in 1670...
over the Charles River
Charles River
The Charles River is an long river that flows in an overall northeasterly direction in eastern Massachusetts, USA. From its source in Hopkinton, the river travels through 22 cities and towns until reaching the Atlantic Ocean at Boston...
. Towards the end of his life Joseph became too weak to walk and was forced to sit in a special chair while doing chores around the farm; a century later the chair was celebrated in a poem by his great-great-granddaughter, Marion Jackson-Gilbert, and is still exhibited at the museum.
Lieutenant Timothy Jackson
Joseph and Patience had at least four children: Lietenant Timothy Jackson, another son, and two or more daughters. In 1750, when Joseph was frail and nearly 60 years old, he had given the eastern end of the house to Timothy, where he lived with his wife, formerly Sarah Smith , from their marriage in 1752. Joseph and Patience continued to live in the western half until Joseph died in 1768, from which point she lived there alone. Under the terms of Joseph's will, Timothy became responsible for all of Joseph's debts, made cash payments to his mother and unknown sisters, and in return was supposed to receive all real estate when Patience died. However, she ended up outliving him for a year, and Timothy never got his debts or papers in order. He was described as an "unfocused" man who had been weakened by consumption in the French Wars.Major Timothy
Lieutenant Timothy and Sarah had five children: Major Timothy, born in 1756, Lucy, and three other, youngest daughters. About a year after Lieutenant Timothy had died, just after Patience's death, Sarah and the daughters were left to care for the farm as young Timothy went off to fight in the American Revolutionary WarAmerican Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
. He was gone, off and on, for five years from about 1775 to 1780, when he came home for good, at the age of just 24, having gone on a spree of dangerous and exhausting adventures, without being "...broken in constitution or in character" like his father.
When Timothy came home, his father's estate was settled for good, most likely because of the efforts of Moses Souther, who had married Lucy and worked hard to organize the farm, taking on most male responsibility, in his absence. Timothy got two- thirds of the homestead and all the real estate, and in return assumed all the debts, most financial responsibility, and supported his sisters. Timothy worked hard on the farm for the next eight years, trying patiently to get the family's affairs in order. During two of those years, he taught at a local school and it is possible that Souther also took a job there. In 1791, when he was 35, he was appointed the deputy sheriff of Middlesex County
Middlesex County, Massachusetts
-National protected areas:* Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge* Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge* Longfellow National Historic Site* Lowell National Historical Park* Minute Man National Historical Park* Oxbow National Wildlife Refuge...
, and life began to improve. By 1802 he was able to start a soap and candle factory with the help of others most likely including Moses Souther and Lucy, and it was the success of the factory which helped improve the fortunes of the Jacksons for good.
Over the years Major Timothy worked to increase the size of the farm until spread about 20 acres (80,937.2 m²) north of County Road and twenty-seven acres south of it, the boundaries extending from about Smelt Brook to Hovey Street, and from Waban Park until about halfway up Mount Ida
Mount Ida
In Greek mythology, two sacred mountains are called Mount Ida, the "Mountain of the Goddess": Mount Ida in Crete; and Mount Ida in the ancient Troad region of western Anatolia which was also known as the Phrygian Ida in classical antiquity and is the mountain that is mentioned in the Iliad of...
. He worked with Moses Souther to make improvements on the landscape, particularly on the hill near the homestead, where they erected "...some miles of stone wall" and replaced what had been rough, unused pasture-land with useful, visually appealing fruit orchards.
Hardworking Timothy, determined to excel in the areas in which his father had failed, soon became the most famous of all the Jacksons. He was appointed Brigade Major
Brigade Major
In the British Army, a Brigade Major was the Chief of Staff of a brigade. He held the rank of Major and was head of the brigade's "G - Operations and Intelligence" section directly and oversaw the two other branches, "A - Administration" and "Q - Quartermaster"...
of the Middlesex Brigade in 1793, when he was just 37 years old. He became a Justice of the Peace
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
shortly after, and served as Massachusetts State Representative
Massachusetts House of Representatives
The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from single-member electoral districts across the Commonwealth. Representatives serve two-year terms...
from 1797 until just before his death. He ran for the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
unsuccessfully. He was also active and respected locally, attending and participating in events not only in Newton but in Cambridge
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
, Roxbury, and the Brighton area as well.He served on the school committee, was a Selectman of Newton for many years and also earned the title of Moderator of Town Meetings, a high honor indeed.
In 1809, Timothy Jackson decided to replace the old homestead with "a fine house for... the (modern) times." He designed and helped build a large, two-family house, hoping that his youngest son, Edmund, would possibly move into it if he married. The house was a great improvement on the original, featuring such improvements as an inside well, a laundry, storeroom and ell, magnificent fireplaces with huge mantelpieces, a great staircase and airy, small private bedchambers on the second floor, with a large, useful "garret" extending on top of the entire house. (The house is described in lavish detail on page 11 of the informative pdf file on the Jackson website http://www.ci.newton.ma.us/jackson/pdf-files/jackson-homestead.pdf.) Timothy Jackson had built what is now known today as the Jackson Homestead.
He was highly respected by family, town, and politicians alike, and paid little interest to religious affairs, although his wife, Sarah (Winchester) Jackson, relied heavily upon them. With remarkable foresight and planning no doubt spurred by the court battles of previous Jackson generations, Timothy did not leave a will, but having given generously to his sons throughout his periods of financial security, he asked that his estate be divided "equally" between them and that their mother be "looked after", a fair and wise choice of words.
William Jackson
Timothy Jr. and Sarah had six children: Sons WilliamWilliam Jackson (Massachusetts)
William Jackson was a United States Representative from Massachusetts who lived at the Jackson Homestead....
, George, Francis
Francis Jackson (abolitionist)
Francis Jackson was an abolitionist in Boston, Massachusetts. He was affiliated with the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society, the American Anti-Slavery Society and the Boston Vigilance Committee...
, Stephen, and Edmund, and a youngest daughter, Lucretia, who was noted to be "...spoiled and pampered... a pretty little thing", most likely named after Lucy.
Born in 1783, William was educated at the local school, where Timothy had taught, and was briefly enrolled in Dr. Stearn's Academy on Galen Street. When he was fifteen, just a few years before his father's death in 1815, he was unfortunate to be stricken with a severe leg injury which would lame him for life. Confined to his bed for what some critics say was the winter of 1808-1809, it was a blow to Sarah and Lucretia. Timothy was in a slight but steady decline, and William had a high chance of dying or becoming an invalid, both of which would dash his hopes of becoming a wealthy, famous scholar or politician. However, that winter,the Newton library had opened, Timothy was unusually healthy, and William reported to have learned more than he ever had in all his years of schooling, curled up in his upstairs bedroom with a stack of useful old tomes. The next few years continued on uneventfully and happily.
When he was seventeen, William moved to Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
to work in the soap and candle factory his father had started. He soon gained respect and a reputation, and was shortly the foreman and eventually, the owner. During his years in Boston, he married a woman named Hannah Woodward. With her he had children Sarah, Timothy, and Marion, and 2 more daughters. After Hannah's death in 1812, when he was only 29 but already a respected figure, William married a woman named Mary Bennett. With her he had a daughter named Frances, unknown sons, unknown daughters, daughters Cornelia, Ellen, and Caroline, and a son named William Ward. Meanwhile, William continued to take new jobs and try new things. While he certainly amassed an astounding degree of respect and expertise, it is known that his tendency to try new hobbies was annoying at the least, frightening at most.
During his time in Boston, William made fortunes, but also lost them. He represented Boston in the General Court
General Court
The General Court is the shorthand name for the:* General Court * New Hampshire General Court* Massachusetts General CourtThis term also formally applied to the:* Vermont General Assembly, formerly the Vermont General Court...
, and became deeply involved in the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association
Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association
The Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association of Boston, Massachusetts, was "formed for the sole purposes of promoting the mechanic arts and extending the practice of benevolence." Founding members included Paul Revere, Benjamin Russell, and others...
and similar enterprises. However, feeling that his extensive public commitments and jobs were taking a toll on his private life, as he now had a wife and at least twelve children to support and interact with, he retired back to Newton, hoping to be a farmer, at about 1820, when he was roughly 37 years old. After Timothy's death, the shares of his property were divided as equally as possible between his sons and Lucretia's survivors. When William moved back to Newton, now a rich, grown man who was well known throughout the Boston area, he bought Edward and George's shares and made a "division" with Francis and Stephen, according to which they took the land to the south of Washington street and he got the homestead and everything to the north. Adjustments were made to the house, most notably the creation and splitting of bedrooms, to accommodate the large family, the house was painted yellow with the same cream trim and green shutters the Homestead has today, and central heating would eventually be installed in the 1830s. As his daughter Ellen quotes in page 13 of http://www.ci.newton.ma.us/jackson/pdf-files/jackson-homestead.pdf, "The orchards yielded apples, peaches, apricots, plums, and cherries; there was a grape arbor beyond the barn and a flourishing flower garden in which lilacs and roses abounded." Everything was set for a happy, quiet retirement, where William's sons could mature and his daughters marry, and the family fortunes continue in prosperity.
However, he soon found himself to be just as active as ever. By 1825 he was Chairman of the Board of Selectmen. One of the Board's various tasks and duties was the licensing and regulation of the "purveyors of ardent liquors" , which he refused to grant until the regulations were more strictly enforced. Due almost completely to his influence, and despite horrific unpleasantness, opposition, and threats which terrified the "womenfolk" of his large household, namely the daughters of Hannah Jackson, Sarah, Marion, and their two sisters, and the daughters of Mary Jackson, Frances, unknown daughters, and Cornelia, Ellen, and Caroline, and of course Mary Jackson herself, who was now the maternal head of the Jackson household, Timothy having died in 1815 and Sarah soon after, Newton stayed dry and sober that year.
The window into the world of drinking William had gained in just those few months horrified and moved him so much that despite the cautionings of his daughters, he was a prime founder in the Newton Temperance Society and the treasurer as well as secretary. After over a year of monthly meetings devoted solely to alcohol and temperance, interest waned and the Society was modified to a Lyceum in which all topics were discussed and debated. Almost by accident, William found himself scheduled to give a talk on railroads. Railroads and trains quickly became his lifelone interest, and he was eventually associated and involved with no fewer than seven railway companies and groups. It was due largely to his influence and support that a regular railway service was built between Newton and Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
in 1844, and he was among the fist to start planning for the effect of this on real estate and housing values in Newton and Brighton.
In 1832-33, William Jackson represented Newton in the General Court
General Court
The General Court is the shorthand name for the:* General Court * New Hampshire General Court* Massachusetts General CourtThis term also formally applied to the:* Vermont General Assembly, formerly the Vermont General Court...
. He became very active in various anti-Masonic movements and as a result was elected to the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
in 1832. He was 49. The anti-Masonic movements collapsed in the next few years, but most of its supporters turned to the anti-slavery Liberty Party
Liberty Party (1840s)
The Liberty Party was a minor political party in the United States in the 1840s . The party was an early advocate of the abolitionist cause...
, which eventually merged with the Free Soil Party
Free Soil Party
The Free Soil Party was a short-lived political party in the United States active in the 1848 and 1852 presidential elections, and in some state elections. It was a third party and a single-issue party that largely appealed to and drew its greatest strength from New York State. The party leadership...
. Then was William's association with the abolitionists, which would eventually lead to the Jackson Homestead being used as an Underground Railroad
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists,...
stop. After a few years of moving to Newton, the candle factory became too much for William to manage, and he handed it over to his son, Timothy, and his nephew, Otis Trowbridge.
Another result of the Newton Temperance Movement was the Newton Savings Bank, later to become the National Savings Bank
National Savings Bank
National Savings Bank may refer to;*National Savings and Investments of the United Kingdom which was formerly known as the Post Office Savings Bank and National Savings.*National Savings Bank is a state owned savings bank....
, designed to help men save money as an alternative to spending it on liquor. William Jackson was its first president from its founding in 1848 until his death. William participated in a full range of town committees, meetings, and activities, especially education and religion. He was deeply religious at this point, although he had not been throughout his childhood, teens, and young adulthood. William ended up being active in the Sabbath Schools, Deacon of the First Church, and Deacon of the Eliot Church, which he helped to found, as an end to a full and prosperous career.
Mary (Bennett) Jackson
After William's death in 1855, Mary remained in the house with her three unmarried daughters, Ellen, Caroline, and Cornelia. They managed to keep the Homestead going by taking in various boarders, who most likely lodged in the garret and the eastern chambers, and by earning money as best they could. Mary was in poor health throughout her life, being a frail woman with a tendency to get chilled, but she bore William twelve children over twenty years, did many good deeds and acts of charity, and was remembered by her descendants as a warm and welcoming mother and grandmother.Ellen, Caroline, and Cornelia Jackson
After their mother's death, the three sisters took over the homestead.Newton History Museum
Today, the Newton History Museum at the Jackson Homestead is a local history museumMuseum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
dedicated to the city's early development. It is a tourist attraction that includes scavenger hunts, displays, paintings, historical artifacts, costumed volunteers, a cellar in which slaves might have hid, manuscripts and documents, and more. It is open for small school groups or tours, and has a small gift shop.
On June 4, 1973, the Jackson Homestead was added to the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.