The Jackson Family Tragedy
The story of a late-nineteenth century mulatto man, Andrew Jackson, is told in missing records and ends in loneliness.
Missing Records
Andrew Jackson’s Land Tax records do not exist for several years for his land. Whether this was tax evasion, undocumented payment, or payment under someone else’s name is not known. The first set of undocumented tax records are from 1875, the year he purchased the land, until 1885, when the first tax records were made under his name. Another set of missing documents exists around 1910.
The Loss of a Son
For information pertaining to the household as described by census records, find the sub-page above. While the Mount Vernon 1890 Census records were lost to a fire, a less detailed census gave information of the family at this time. The 1890 School census records indicate that the Jackson family had 3 sons enrolled at a school at the same time. [8]
The youngest son, undocumented until this piece of information was found, was only 8 years of age (born in 1882), meaning he missed the previous decade’s census held in 1980. No other families under the last name of Jackson existed in the Mount Vernon district’s tax records or census records for several decades. This leads to the conclusion that this boy was Andrew Jackson’s third son: Walter Jackson.
Unfortunately, this child has no record in any census past this point. It can only be surmised that he passed away before the next decade’s census could be held.
A Second Wife
While marriage is a joyous occasion, Andrew Jackson had the experience twice. Based on all of the census records, the name of Andrew’s wife changed from Maria to Louisa. [10, 12] The possibility of a name change is undeniably incorrect as the age of his wife regressed by more than a decade between these census’.
Buried Alone
Andrew Jackson died in 1913 and was buried in, what is presumably, his own Black cemetery on his property [2]. In the cemetery death records, he was not buried with any family members. It may be the case that his late ex-wife Maria either remarried and moved away or was buried with her own family. His child Walter does not appear to be buried in the same cemetery, which does create some questions, and his living sons moved away from the county and district in which they were raised and never appeared on any other documentation under the Jackson name. Louisa, his second wife, remarried after his death and was likely buried with her next husband or her own family.
by Caleb Hughston