Standard History of Adams & Wells Counties, Indiana – 1918
Tyndall & Lesh, Pages 529 & 530

SAMUEL J. JACKSON

This is the name of one of the oldest residents of Liberty Township, Wells County. The Jackson family have been here fully eighty years. It would be a difficult matter to estimate and appreciate all the substantial work accomplished by a single family of such industrious people as the Jacksons in four-score years. Many acres of land were cleared of timber and brush. Lowlands were drained, the soil was made to produce the crops which sustained mankind, homes have been built, and innumerable other services have gone into the composite activities which make Wells County what it is today.

The old home of Samuel J. Jackson is a mile north of Liberty Center. He was born three miles east of Muncie in Delaware County, Indiana, January 5, 1834, a son of James and Elizabeth (Hooker) Jackson. James Jackson was born in Stokes county, North Carolina, a son of Samuel and Hannah (Gibson) Jackson, both of whom spent their lives in Stokes county. That interesting section of western North Carolina furnished a large migration to the northwest and particularly to Indiana in the early part of the last century. From his home on the eastern side of the Alleghenies James Jackson came first to Ohio, married near Dayton, and from there moved into Delaware County, and in January, 1837, arrived in Wells County, locating in Liberty township. Here in the wilderness he entered ad half section of land, built a log cabin and undertook all the work and the experiences which were part of pioneer life in this county. James Jackson died in Wells County December 8, 1853, and his wife in 1865. They had nine children, six sons and three daughters, of whom Samuel J. is the only one now living, and he had long since passed the age of four-score. He was just three years of age when the family moved to Wells County, and his first recollections are of this region when few people were living here and when it was a strictly pioneer county. Doubtless his recollections extend back over a longer period than any other living resident. There was no transportation except by road through the woods for years after he came, and he was a mature man when the first railroad was built through this county. As a boy his advantages were only those of the subscription schools. In 1856 he made an interesting trip to what was then the far west, to the territory of Nebraska, which then occupied a large place in the public mind because of the struggle over the Kansas-Nebraska bill which was soon to precipitate civil war. He remained in the west only about nine months, and then returned to Wells County and on October 29, 1857, married Miss Sarah Foust. She is a sister of Adam Foust of Warren, Indiana. Mrs. Jackson was born in Highland County, Ohio, April 9, 1834, a daughter of Jonathan and Anna Foust.

In November, 1857, after his marriage, Mr. Jackson settled on a farm in Liberty Township, and then followed many industrious years of toil and enterprise as a farm and also as a merchant and man of affairs in and around Liberty Center. In 1862 he responded to the needs of his country and enlisted in Company E of the Seventy-fifth Indiana Infantry. He remained in service practically three years until the close of the war, and was mustered out at Washington in June, 1865. He and his good wife became the parents of nine children, and five are still living, James N., Amos L., Charles W., Rachel R. and Ida. The family are all members of the Christian Church at Warren, and Samuel J. Jackson has steadily supported republican candidates and principles since the formation of the party back in 1856.

James U. Jackson, his son, is a prominent business man of Liberty Center and for many years has been the leading lumberman of that locality. He was born in Liberty Township October 13, 1858, grew up on a farm until he was past fourteen years of age, at which date his father bought a store at Liberty Center. Mr. Jackson worked in the store while attending school. He finished his education in the Bluffton Normal, and for two terms was a teacher in Liberty Township. For a long period of years he has been a lumber dealer at Liberty Center, but has many other interests. He has a farm of eight acres, and is one of the directors of the Liberty Center Deposit Bank.

On January 16, 1892, Mr. Jackson married Sabina W. Smith. They have five children: Cecil W., who is married and lives in Liberty Center, Paul C., unmarried, and now attending an aviation school at Austin, Texas; Ethel, at home; Charles W., in the United States army service at Camp Grant, Illinois, and Ruth, at home. The family are members of the Baptist Church and Mr. Jackson is one of its trustees. Politically he has always supported the principles and policies of the republican party.