Notes for: Andrew Ferguson JACKSON
A belated Christmas present, Andrew Ferguson Jackson, the sixth of eight children was born on the 27th of December, 1869 to Thomas H. and Elizabeth Sneethen Jackson. At this time, his father had a farm in Valley Township, Page County, Iowa where they stayed until 1874 when the family again moved, this time to Wichita, Kansas where the large family waited while Thomas found another farm. This time the move was a more permanent one. Near Winfield, Cowley Co., Kansas, his father bought 160 acres from J. K. Fees who was moving on, probably further west.
It was here that Andrew finished growing up and learned that there was more to see in the world than the rear end of a plow horse as there is nothing to indicate that he ever farmed. At the tender age of 18, Andrew married an Emma Duck and had twins. No one seems to be sure what happened to that marriage, but there is a gravestone in Oxford cemetery stating " Emma Jackson 1866 - 1889" but there is nothing to tell of the twins. They died at child-birth.
The next event known about Andy, as he was called, is that on the 12th of March, 1893, he married Anna Catherine Louise Dollard, daughter of Adolphus Luther Dollard, another early settler in Cowley County. She had been born in Dewitt Co., Illinois and had moved with her family to Kansas. The wedding took place in front of friends and relatives in Milan, Sumner Co., Kansas where Andy had a store. The newspaper reported that although they were sad about leaving friends and associates, they were going to try their luck elsewhere.
Anna Catherine is not listed in any census or government records until she married Andrew Ferguson Jackson in 1893.
This they certainly did, for Andy made the Second Indian Territory Run into the Cherokee Strip. At noon on September 16,1893, Andy was one of ninety thousand who waited at the starting line for the gun to sound. He claimed a piece of land near Cherokee, I.T.. Andy soon returned to Kansas where he and Anna had their first child, Mona Elizabeth. About 1899/1900, they traded for a piece of land near Altus where they lost most of what they had in a large tornado. Andy's brother, John, sent him a letter asking him to come to Bartlesville in about 1901.
Andy worked as a book-keeper and in a hardware store for some time while recuperating from the tornado losses. Many wildcat oil companies were started at that time. Andy became book-keeper and part owner in the Mataoka Oil Co. and the Coombs, Coombs, and Jackson Oil Co. He also invested in a gold mine in South America.
His growing family consisted of three children now; Mona, John T., and Ruth. He was even able to buy a house at 1119 S. Osage where they lived until tragedy struck on May 16, 1915. On that fateful Sunday, the Jackson family along with some friends, went on a picnic to a popular Bartian spot, Silver Lake. Late in the morning, John T. got permission to go swimming. About 60 feet out, he got a bad cramp possibly from the very cold upswellings from the springs. Andy yelled out to him as he was taking off his shoes to "Keep up your courage and I will save you!" Andy, half crawling and half wading, went to the rescue but was himself seized by cramps and they both drowned.
According to newspaper accounts in the Bartlesville Examiner a large part of the town turned out for the services on Monday. The Masons and John's Boy Scout Troop marched behind the caskets to the train depot where the bodies were shipped to Oxford, Kansas to be buried.
Anna Catherine, stayed on at the house on 1119 S. Osage to raise her remaining child, Ruth Marie. Mona Elizabeth, her other daughter, had been married only six weeks previously to Robert Orlan Taylor. Andy's partners paid for the funeral, but no other money from his various investments after that was available. Anna Catherine Jackson had to take in boarders and also set up a kitchen for workers who had come to Bartlesville because of the oil boom. Several years later, one of the boarders, a Mr. Fisher, who had the right front bedroom, wanted Anna to marry him when his company transferred him to Pensacola, Florida. Anna felt she had to refuse as it would be too upsetting to her daughter, Ruth. Sometime later, after Ruth had married a Samuel Taylor who worked for the Bureau of Mines and had moved away, the grocery bills got too far ahead of her. She had to sell the house. Bob, her son-in-law, would have moved there to help her save the house, but Anna was too proud and refused. She instead went to work as a housekeeper and nanny for several families, in particular Don Welty and his family from whom she later received a touching letter of praise.
She later moved to a small apartment near Garfield School which she and a teacher shared. However advancing age was not kind to her and she became too ill to live by herself.
Anna had to move in with Bob and Mona at 1937 S. Dewey. Her senility became more pronounced until she was unable to recognize any one of the family. Caring for her became too difficult for Mona and upsetting to the children, so Anna Catherine was moved to the Masonic Home in Guthrie, Oklahoma. Within a short span of time, she fell out of bed, broke her hip, and caught pneumonia. She died on December 14, 1950. She, too, was taken north on the train to lie beside her husband and son in the Mount Vernon Cemetery near Oxford, Kansas.