NOTE: I have no connection, no further information and am not seeking additional information. NOTE: I recently found approximately 100 biographies of Kentuckians in Pike Co MO, the location of our Gorin family after leaving Christian Co. KY. I will be interspersing them among my other biographies. This first one is quite long, but even if you don’t “connect” with this lady, please read it. It is encouraging and a wonderful view of pioneer life. 11164 CLARK CO – MRS. HARRIET M’CREERY JACKSON – Jackson, McCreery, Watson, VonPhril, Teson, Crow, Hargadine, Barnard, Carstarphen, Gunter, Hughes, Dow, Campbell, Creath, Smith, Hopson #11164 Pike County Missouri History, Des Moines, Iowa, Mills and Company, 1883. Page 423, “Old Ladies of Pike County.” MRS. HARRIET M’CREERY JACKSON. Mrs. Jackson is still living at her home adjoining the city of Louisiana, in the full possession of all her facilities and with a deep interest in the welfare of her neighbors as well as the current events in the community where she resides. She was born on the 6th day of November, 1800, in the vicinity of Winchester, Clark county, Kentucky. Her father’s name was Elijah McCreery and belonged to a family which boasts of many distinguished names in a state noted for its men of great renown, both in civil and military life. United States Senator Thomas McCreery and Governor Robert McCreery are both her cousins in the first degree. Her childhood was spent partly in Henderson and party in Christian county – the common schools of the county affording the only opportunity for acquiring an education. Such advantages would be considered very limited now, but with the exception of one winter which she spent in Hopkinsville, where she attended a dancing school, as well as the common school of the village, they were all she had. These meager advantages, however, appear to have been amply sufficient to equip for the long, useful, and cheerful life she has lived. The necessities of the times demanded a sort of training for the girls of that period essentially different from the present. The men, and women too, had to depend upon home products and home manufactures for almost every article of the daily wearing apparel. The spinning wheel and the loom were necessary implements of industry in every household, and no girl’s education was complete without a careful training in their use. It was a happy, contented period in the history of the country, where there was a great simplicity in the matter of dress and a rigid system of economy practiced by nearly all classes of society. Like the other girls of the period, she, too, was well skilled in the use of these instruments. It may be said now that they imposed great labor and much absolute drudgery upon the female portion of the family, and so they did. There was, nevertheless, a large amount of compensation in the activities of such a life. Girls grew to womanhood in better health and with constitutions better prepared to meet the responsibilities and labors of maturer years than now. These instruments of their daily toll were perpetual reminders of the fact that their husbands and fathers were depending upon their loving help and assistance in the business of economizing and accumulating a sufficiency for the wants of age. They grew up with the idea that in time they were to become important factors in the work of helping a loving, trusting husband in overcoming the adverse circumstances of life and establishing a comfortable home for his loved ones. Such girls could spend the day in earnest, active labor, and at the country dance could “trip the light, fantastic toe” as long as “the fiddler” could hold out to play. These were the women whose training so well fitted them to become the mothers and heads of families in the log-cabins of the west. The same training and habits prevailed in the simple homes of the early settlers of Pike. Many look back to those days with a sigh of regret. They remember the time when the men wore the buckskin hunting shirt and the women were clothed in the simple garb made from cloth of their own manufacture, and when, in their opinion, even the angels dressed in linsey-woolsey. On the 30th day of January, 1819, in Davis [sic] County, Kentucky, being then but little over the age of eighteen years, the subject of this sketch was married to Julius C. Jackson, of Hartford, Ohio county, Kentucky. In the fall of 1831 they left Kentucky with a simple outfit of one wagon drawn by oxen, and which contained their goods and worldly effects, having two horses for the alternate relief of the different members of the party when they became tired by the way. They plodded along slowly westward with the town of Louisiana as their point of destination, and on the evening of October 1st, stopped at a log cabin just went of the fair grounds. It was the home of Christopher Jackson, the father of Mrs. Jackson’s husband. Christopher Jackson had died in the preceding month of August, but no tidings of the event had reached his son in Kentucky and was announced to him for the first time as he entered the desolate home. It may be well to stop for a moment and contrast the means of communication of that period with the present. There was no thought or anticipation connected with his future in Missouri that was not prompted by or associated with the idea that it was his father’s home. Much that was unpleasant and disagreeable in locating in a new country and among strangers was taken away by the idea that his father was living there and could at least help him to an acquaintance with a new order of things that he would find. They had wended their way along the old emigrant route through the states of Indiana and Illinois and reached the Mississippi Riser at Alton, where they crossed. It was then a small village, consisting mostly of log houses. Mrs. Jackson remembers that on the fourth day after their arrival at Louisiana a big snow fell, which is still mentioned as having been of unusual depth. The log cabin mentioned became the home of herself and her husband, and they continued to reside there for a period of five years. Mr. Julius C. Jackson in the meantime became owner of a saw and grist mill, situated on Noix Creek, just opposite the fair grounds, and generally known to the early settlers here as the Watson Mill. Mr. Jackson was a man of remarkable energy and business capacity, and during the time of his ownership of this mill he sawed the lumber with which he constructed the dwelling house situated just outside of the limits of the city of Louisiana, and fronting immediately upon what is known as the old dirt-road leading from that place to the town of Bowling Green. It is the same house in which her three daughters were married and in which Mrs. Jackson still lives, and was considered one of the finest residences of its day in the county. It was constructed almost entirely of walnut lumber and was substantially built. This house continued to be the home of Mr. and Mrs. Jackson from the time of its completion up to his death, which occurred September 26, 1869. Mrs. Jackson had a very large circle of friends and relatives. Among the latter were the Von Phrils, Tesons, and Wayman Crow, and Phocion R. McCreery, of the old and wealthy mercantile house of Crow, McCreery & Co., of St. Louis, and of which another relative by marriage, Mr. William A. Hargadine, also became a member. It was at this house that year after year they received and entertained this large circle of acquaintances with a generous and unpretending hospitality. Ten children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Jackson – six boys and four girls. Three sons and one daughter died in childhood. Two sons, Cortes and Henry C. Jackson, are still living. Columbus Jackson, the second son, died in October, 1879, at his home in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Of the three daughters who grew to womanhood only one survives, she the eldest child, Attella Jackson, the wife of Capt. George Barnard, now living near the city of Louisiana. Belina Jackson, the youngest daughter married James E. Carstarphen, of Louisiana and has been dead a little more than two years. The other daughter, Marcella Jackson married the Hon. Thos. M. Gunter, of Arkansas, who has been a member of Congress from that state for the last ten years and was recently re-elected for another term. Mrs. Gunter has been dead several years. Mrs. Jackson’s life has in all respects been a most remarkable one. She can say what but very few people can, and that is that she never had a week of continual sickness during her whole life. She has been at all times a hearty, active housewife; energetic in the performance of her duties and prompted by a cheerful spirit. The ambitions of her life has been to be at all times active and useful. She has lived with strict adherence to the motto “early to bed and early to rise,” and was in all respects a true helpmeet to her husband. They lived together long enough to celebrate their golden wedding, and it seems that she has to pass the last years of her long life without him. She is, however, patiently waiting for the end with a Christian’s faith and hope. In 1838 she joined the Christian Church at Louisiana and was baptized by Dr. John H. Hughes, then a citizen of Paynesville. Thus for a period of forty-five years has she been a faithful, active, working member of the church, in which she has done what she could to illustrate the truth of what she professes. While there must be in such a life a great many sad incidents and unpleasant recollections, still they are overbalanced by the great blessings that have been bestowed upon her, and the pleasant reminiscences that rise up at every step along her pathway. Mrs. Jackson remembers very distinctly that very eccentric and singular man, Rev. Lorenzo Dow. On one occasion, in 1817, in Hopkinsville, KY., she heard him preach in the court-house at an appointment he had made just twelve months before. He was there promptly on the day and to the minute – the time of service being fixed at eleven o’clock sharp. Alexander Campbell, Jacob Creath, “Raccoon” John Smith, Dr. Winthrop H. Hopson, and other prominent ministers of the Christian Church here all enjoyed her hospitality. Her house was the favorite resort of Elder Jacob Creath during his visits to Louisiana. She remembers with great accuracy many of the prominent men and events.