Oshkosh Sesquicentennial 2003
A Wave of Progress

Book Excerpt: A Portrait of Joseph and Emeline Jackson

As a special feature of the Oshkosh Sesquicentennial 2003 web site, we offer an excerpt from the book Independent of Mind, Open of Heart: The Story of 150 Years of Ministry 1849-1999 by Evelyn Bowerman, Susan Coghill, Ralph DiBiasio-Snyder, Susan Grant, Hope Linton and Kay Sanders.

Researched and written by Kay Sanders, this excerpt focuses on Jackson's role in the church but includes much of Oshkosh's history from 1845 to 1880. The Jacksons participated in the founding of the city, and Joseph served as mayor and chief of police during his life in Oshkosh.

Published in 1999 to mark the 150th anniversary of the First Congregational Church of Oshkosh, Independent of Mind, Open of Heart describes events and people from Oshkosh's history.The book is available for purchase for $5 at the First Congregational Church.

This excerpt is reprinted with permission from Ralph DiBiasio-Snyder.

A Love Story
by Kay Sanders
Chapter 1, Independent of Mind, Open of Heart
Copyright, First Congregational Church, Oshkosh, 1999

Around the first of March 1838, nineteen-year-old William W. Wright set out from Green Bay to bring a load of goods to a brand-new settlement at the mouth of the Fox River. It was a long, hard journey, with no roads and the path not clearly marked. Wright stopped overnight at a backwoods cabin that served as the only inn in the area. He had just gone to bed about midnight when the innkeeper woke him, saying there was a man outside who had to get to Webster Stanley's settlement right away and needed a guide. The innkeeper knew that Wright had made the trip several times and was familiar with the way.

Wright got up, dressed, and went out to find none other than his friend Joseph Jackson. Jackson wouldn't say what urgent business required him to proceed through the wilderness in the middle of the night, but Wright climbed into the wagon with him and away they went through the woods and alongside the lake. They reached the settlement about dawn, and Wright soon found out what cause had seized Jackson. It was Wright's own sister, Emeline.

Born in County Monaghan on September 2, 1812, Joseph Jackson had immigrated at the age of four with his parents, Robert and Anna (Stuart) Jackson, to Lewis County, New York. His father, who'd been a farmer in Ireland and a mason in America, died a few years later, and Joseph was adopted by Stephen Leonard, an uncle of Morgan Martin, who was in a similar situation. Jackson's mother was still alive, as was his sister, Jane, but Leonard was allowed to adopt Jackson, perhaps because he could provide an education for him. Martin and Jackson grew up and went to school together.

In the spring of 1837 Joseph Jackson met Emeline Wright in the territory of Wisconsin. He had recently come, by way of Ohio, from the state of New York to the settlement of Navarino, later called Green Bay. He had followed his foster brother, Morgan Martin, who would become a prominent Green Bay judge. Emeline, who was twenty-one at the time, had made the trek west from Auburn, New York, with her parents, George and Electa (Whitney) Wright. Her father had served in the War of 1812 and was a millwright, building flour and grist mills in the area. The Wrights brought with them three daughters and one son; another daughter and two sons would follow later. Frequently working alongside the Wrights, Jackson practiced his trade as a carpenter while the region around Green Bay rapidly filled with new settlers.

In the fall of 1837 George Wright and his son William left the rest of the family in Green Bay while they investigated an area to the south for a place to settle permanently. They found to their liking a stretch of land along the Fox River, near where it emptied into Lake Winnebago. The Stanleys and the Gallups had already established residence, and the Evanses and the Fords would soon join them at the place Chester Gallup called Athens. In February of 1838 Wright moved his family from Green Bay to what would become the city of Oshkosh.

The family was surprised early on the morning of March 2 to hear a wagon drive up and see their son William disembark. They had expected him to arrive soon with a load of provisions, but they certainly hadn't expected him to travel through the night. They were even more surprised when he brought in a visitor, Joseph Jackson, whom they had known and worked with in Green Bay.

Jackson lost no time in asking Emeline to marry him. After she had agreed, Jackson headed back to Green Bay. Two days later, March 4, he returned with a minister and wedding gifts of clothing, wine, and a colorful rug. The Reverend Stephen Peet, a Presbyterian minister who would later found Beloit College, married the couple at the Gallup home in the presence of the entire population of the settlement--twelve people.

The following notice, the first officially recorded marriage in what would become Winnebago County, appeared in the Wisconsin Democrat of Green Bay:

JACKSON-WRIGHT.--At Athens, March, 1838, at the house of Chester Gallup, Esq., by the Reverend S. Peet, Mr. Joseph Jackson and Miss Emeline Wright, daughter of Geo. Wright, Esq., all of that place.

The couple left right away, after a wedding feast and so much merry-making that the Indians of the area wondered what was going on. They boarded in Green Bay for a year, then moved to Oshkosh (still called Athens), went on to Kenosha (called Southport at that time), and finally returned permanently to Oshkosh in 1840/41.

It seems appropriate that the founding of First Congregational Church begins with a love story. The pioneer spirit that would lead people to plunge into the wilderness, to seek a guide when needed, to bind themselves together in love in the face of extreme difficulty, to rejoice and feast together--this is, in short, the story of our congregation. And it began with this couple, Joseph and Emeline Jackson, who opened their home in the 1840s for church services with like-minded people. When there was no minister, Jackson read the Scripture, led the singing, prayed, even preached on occasion. And together, the two of them ministered to the poor and needy of the area, loading a sleigh on winter days and driving far into the countryside to deliver food and medicine.

Joseph Jackson: A Good, Honest, True Man
by Kay Sanders
Chapter 3, Independent of Mind, Open of Heart
Copyright, First Congregational Church, Oshkosh, 1999

Joseph Jackson, who with his wife Emeline and ten others founded the church in 1849, was a leader not only of the church but of the entire city. When he died in 1881, a reporter for the Weekly Northwestern lamented the lack of biographical material about a person so connected as Jackson was with the history of Oshkosh. Even so, more is known about Joseph Jackson than about Emeline. In keeping with the custom of the times, she stayed in the background, delivering eight children, raising six of them to adulthood, three daughters and three sons. Joseph was prevailed upon in the late 1870s by a writer for the Northwestern to record his memories and experiences. He did so but, unable to tell it to his own satisfaction, threw the manuscript into the fire. According to the reporter, Jackson was overcome by his "natural modesty," a trait by which he was well-known.

His brother-in-law William W. Wright was a frequent contributor to the Northwestern, writing about "ye olden days," and may have been the one who encouraged Jackson to write his story. W.A. Gordon, who married the Jacksons' daughter Helen and became head of what would become Winnebago Mental Health Institute, was also a writer of note. With two seasoned writers in the family, Jackson may have been reluctant to present his own thoughts in writing. He was, however, a storyteller and sat for hours reminiscing about times gone by. There was hardly an event or a person in the history of Oshkosh about whom "Uncle Joe" could not add to the local lore.

A familiar and well-respected figure along the streets of Oshkosh and throughout the Fox Valley, Joseph Jackson participated not only in the founding of the city, but in drawing others to settle and work in the area. Known for his generosity and his geniality, he was a man of honor. He could have been wealthy. He had the makings for it, in terms of land: At one time, much of the central core of the city of Oshkosh belonged to him and his wife, from the river along Main to Irving and over to Jackson and back to the river. He also once owned a tract north of Washington, as well as his first claim of land in the Oshkosh Avenue area. His own generosity, coupled with the fire of 1859, made him, perhaps, financially unstable, but a man for whom respect in the community never wavered. He was an active and involved citizen and church member, both hallmarks of First Congregational Church today, 150 years later.

When Joseph and Emeline moved back to Oshkosh in 1840-1841, ¹ they built their log cabin on the west side of the river, on Jackson's eighty-acre claim. ² The largest house in the community (Jackson was, by trade, a carpenter), it measured 18 x 24 feet, and 18 feet high. At the edge of the settlement and surrounded by woods, the homestead was visited frequently by Indians. Jackson had employed the Indians to help build the house, paying them in tobacco, and they were quite interested in it, as well as in the rug that had been Joseph's wedding present to Emeline. The colors of the rug, they discovered, did not run through, so that when a person put a finger on one spot, carefully turned the rug over and examined the opposite side, a different color showed on that same spot. The Indians, not having seen this type of material before, could not get enough of examining the rug, traipsing through the Jackson parlor to view it time after time. The Jacksons remained patient with this natural curiosity for quite a while but eventually had to put a stop to it.

Church services were generally held at the home of Webster Stanley, but Emeline's parents also opened their home for meetings, a Methodist circuit rider conducting services when in the area. Her mother, Mrs. Wright, was Presbyterian ³ but accepted Methodism as an available substitute. Emeline's brother William was instrumental in founding the First Methodist Church in Oshkosh. After his marriage in 1843, church services were held in his home, called "The Grove," located on the site where the Oshkosh Recreation Department now stands. The younger Wrights also organized a Sunday school, with class members sitting on logs in the clearing for their lessons, at least in the summer.

The Jacksons most probably attended the services held in the Stanley and Wright homes. In 1845, having moved into the village proper and built a frame house on the corner of what is now Algoma and Main (Algoma was then called Main and Main was called Ferry) ⁴, the Jacksons began holding services in their own home for those with either a Presbyterian or Congregational bent of mind. The Presbyterian leaning can be attributed to Emeline and maybe to Joseph, who, though born in Ireland, was of Protestant-Scotch ancestry and could have been brought up Presbyterian. He may have come under Congregational influence through his adopted parent, Stephen Leonard. He certainly did from the visit of the Reverend O.P. Clinton, of the American Home Missionary Society of the Congregational Church. In 1843, when Clinton visited the village of Oshkosh, he was greeted by Joseph Jackson and taken to the Jackson home, where he baptized their infant son, Robert.

On January 10, 1845, "some thirty-five or forty of the people gathered in the house of Joseph Jackson to hear a sermon and worship God. That was the beginning of what is now the Congregational Society." ⁵ So writes Reverend Thomas Grassie as he in 1875 was telling the history of our church. The Reverend O.P. Clinton preached once a month for the next two years. The Jacksons arranged chairs along the walls of two rooms and set up pews made of planks set across the top of a stack of blocks. (Oh, for a few of Gene Williams' pew cushions!) Reverend Clinton stood in the entry between the two rooms, exhorting first on one side, then on the other.

" The people came," Reverend Grassie said, "from a distance of seven miles," no small journey in those days, when roads were mere paths through the woods. Then--in its beginning--as now, First Congregational was not a neighborhood church. "They got up early in the morning," Grassie continued, "did their chores, put some bundles of hay on ox-sleds, drove in, [and] fastened their teams to the forest trees." The method of transportation and the parking facilities have changed, but the membership is still drawn from throughout the city, and beyond.

In 1847, services shifted to the schoolhouse on the corner of High and Division streets, where Reverend Lewis Bridgman preached for a year, followed by Reverend Hiram Freeman, with the meeting place being moved to the courthouse on Ceape Street. Prior to the move, however, a formal step was taken to found a church.

On July 11, 1849, fourteen people gathered in the schoolhouse for the purpose of organizing either a Congregational or a Presbyterian church, to be determined by vote of those assembled. Assisted by the Reverend Hiram Freeman and the Reverend Cutting Marsh, who was a missionary to the Stockbridge Indians, the twelve congregants presented their credentials for church membership, examining each other in the faith, as the custom then was. They also assented to the Confession of Faith and to the Covenant. That list included four men and eight women: Noadiah and Hannah Sacket, Joseph and Emeline Jackson, William and Martha Anderson, Homer Barnes, Christiana Ternouth, Sophia Ternouth, Fanny B. Kellogg, Achsah Chapman, and Esterann Nichols.

Then came the roll call and the response, either "Congregational" or "Presbyterian." The vote was ten to two, for Congregational. Although it isn't recorded how each person voted, one would suspect Emeline Jackson, given her family history, coming in on the Presbyterian side. And Joseph? Well, he did bring a Presbyterian minister all the way from Green Bay to perform his wedding ceremony, but that could have been based on availability, or on the desire to please his bride. However it may have been, both Emeline and Joseph Jackson remained active and faithful members of First Congregational Church throughout their entire lifetimes. Of the other founding members, all eventually moved away except for Christiana Ternouth, who married John Hallam and remained a member throughout her life.

The 1840s were busy years in the lives of the Jacksons. Emeline doubtless occupied herself in making a home and in child rearing at a time and in a place where the work was hard and the basic necessities of life difficult to come by. Supplies had to be brought by water from Green Bay or overland from Milwaukee. Roads were minimal, water travel hazardous. Joseph frequently made the necessary trips, not only for his own family, but for his neighbors as well. Supplies, when received, were not always in tip-top condition. Jackson once bought flour that was so hard that he had to break it up with a mallet before it could be used.

Emeline suffered the loss of several family members during these years--her father in 1841; her seventeen-year-old sister, Electa, the following year; and her sister, Betsey Finney, in 1845; and then in 1847, her mother. Their graves can be found in Riverside Cemetery on Laurel Lane, in sight of the Fox River.

Another sister, Henrietta, ⁶ was the subject of a favorite family story, told by their brother William Wright in his unfinished autobiography. The Wrights owned a wily little pig that was the terror of the neighborhood. One day when Nettie was feeding the chickens, she set the pan of chicken feed down for a moment. In a flash, the pig grabbed the dish in his mouth and took off, with Nettie in hot pursuit. The pig could run faster than Nettie, and, when he'd put enough distance between them, plunked down the dish and snuffled away at its contents. When Nettie got close, the pig snatched up the dish--carefully, though--and took off again. When he'd managed to finish off the chicken feed, the pig let Nettie have the pan.

Joseph continued to work as a carpenter, helping with the construction of Morgan Martin's house in Green Bay and Governor Doty's residence on Doty Island in Menasha. In 1844, he built the first frame house in Winnebago County. ⁷

Jackson was also occupied with the acquisition and disposition of land during these years. When Emeline's father, George Wright, died in March 1841, Emeline's brother, William Wright, inherited the land. He, however, deeded a strip of twenty acres (from the river north to Irving, east to Main) to Robert Jackson, Emeline and Joseph's young son, which may have been a way of passing it on to his sister. Although as a married woman, Emeline may not legally have been able to own land, she must have had a say in its disposition, since several sources state that she gave the land on which the Congregational Church was built.

Joseph and his brother-in-law William Wright platted their land into city lots in 1846-1847, which was the beginning of the city. With this holding, plus land in the Fifth Ward (the Oshkosh Avenue area, which was called Algoma then) and land north of Washington Avenue, Jackson was in a position to grow wealthy by wheeling and dealing. Instead, he chose to help grow a city. Known as a man who was "always free with what he had," he gave or sold at a nominal price a lot to any skilled workman who would promise to build a house on it, thus helping to draw a work force to the area. ⁸ He and Morgan Martin had also bought some land along the river that they disposed of to anyone who would build a mill on it. Jackson and Wright built a wharf at the foot of Main Street (then called Ferry Street) and gave a couple of lots to Webster Stanley to build a house and tavern on if he would move his ferry to that site, which he did. (Stanley's was the first tavern in the city, which is interesting in that Jackson consistently voted against allowing liquor to be sold in the city; perhaps a tavern then was no more than a hotel, rather than what we think of as a bar.) In 1847 Jackson offered a lot for the site of the county courthouse, but a different site was chosen. He hired men to chop wood on his property at the edge of town, and much of it was given to the poor.

Involved politically, Jackson served as chairman of the county board of supervisors in 1846. It was that year that Winnebago County recorded the first instance of paupers, and a family was ordered relieved at county expense, under the supervision of Jackson and Dr. Whipple. Jackson was also a candidate that year for delegate to the state's first constitutional convention. Opposed by former territorial Governor Doty, Jackson was defeated by two or three votes. He frequently told how he came to lose the election by sending his vote via two friends who made the trip to Butte des Morts, where the balloting took place. The friends became lost in the woods along the way, their votes and that of Jackson never reaching the polls.

Appointed treasurer of the state land office for the area in 1848-1849, Jackson received funds for the river improvement project then underway. During his tenure, someone with a duplicate key to the safe stole money from the state funds on several occasions. Described as a man "who had explicit confidence in everyone," Jackson took responsibility and replaced the missing money from his own pocket, thus draining his own financial resources. ⁹

In 1849, Joseph was among a group organizing a steamboat company. He also was elected director of one of the railroad companies springing up in the area.

Having been among the prime movers establishing the Congregational Church, the Jacksons now became involved in the construction and furnishing of a house of worship. Services continued to be held in the courthouse, where several denominations or groups met. By the summer of 1850 the number attending grew so large that something had to be done. A subscription paper for a Congregational building was circulated--a kind of pledge campaign--but the amount promised was so small that construction had to wait. ¹⁰

Church records state that Joseph Jackson donated the lot, "besides contributing liberally" toward building the church; however, the site on the west side of Ferry (now Main) and south of Church (about where Kitz and Pfeil Power Center now stands) was part of Emeline's inheritance, and other sources say that she gave the lot. However it was, the two of them doubtless agreed on donating the lot and providing materially for the building of the church. The Commemorative Biographical Record states that Joseph traveled "all the way to Milwaukee on horseback to borrow $300 at 15 per cent interest," in order to buy materials. He also "drew the plans, and his team hauled the lumber." Emeline was among the group of women, the Ladies Sewing Society, furnishing the interior of the building. ¹¹

This, the first of our four sanctuaries in our fifteen decades of existence, was not completed till June 1851, with a $200 debt owed on it at that time. Described as a "small, cheap edifice," it seated two hundred people and was already outgrown by the time of its completion. Two wings added in 1853 gave the building the shape of a cross. In 1857, a new building was begun on the corner of Main (now Algoma) and Bond (now Brown), and the old building was sold. Although the original building served its purpose, it apparently was not among the beautiful structures of the city: The July 15, 1859, Courier called it an "architectural curiosity" whose appearance was improved by the partial razing it was then undergoing. The reporter went on to say, "if the owners would keep on reducing its unsightly proportions, and not stop until the entire edifice was used up, the improvement would be still greater." Escaping the fire of 1859, which leveled Ferry Street from Ceape to Washington, the building was used to house the high school from May 1, 1860, until January 1867. The city directory of 1868-1869 states, "The building is now occupied by Richard L. Harding as a variety store, at 139 Main Street."

During the early 1850s the Jacksons built their own home on the corner of Jackson and Main (now Algoma), a building that stood until the mid-1930s when it was razed to make way for our present county courthouse (a rather poetic ending, since Jackson had offered a site for the courthouse almost a hundred years earlier). They lived in the house for a number of years, eventually selling it, perhaps after the fire of 1859 that destroyed much of downtown Oshkosh and is said to have financially crippled Jackson. An article in the Northwestern on January 11, 1936, reported that Mrs. Gilbert Knapp (Martha, youngest daughter of the Jacksons), then living at the Clairmont in Oshkosh, was born in the house but did not remember living there, because they had moved when she was very young. She did remember visiting the house later on, "knowing it to be her birthplace." Church records show that Martha Virginia Jackson was baptized in 1858 at the age of one year. So it seems likely that the house was sold not long after the fire of 1859. The house came into the possession of James L. Clark, owner of the Star Match Company (later Diamond Match), and a sketch of the house can be found later in this book. Herb Clark, a current member of the church, remembers visiting this house that belonged to his grandmother in the 1930s.

The 1850s saw Joseph Jackson at the height of his political powers. The land deals over, for the most part, he had helped Oshkosh become a population center. The city directory for 1866 lists the population for 1849 at 496, for 1850 at 2,500, for 1855 at 4,121, and for 1857 at 8,041. Now Jackson would do his part to make the city a good place to live. Elected the second mayor of Oshkosh in 1854, he was re-elected in 1855 and again in 1857. The Courier of April 11, 1855, printed the proceedings of the Common Council of April 9, that year. In his inaugural address, Mayor-elect Joseph Jackson reported on "matters connected with the public interest," many of which still concern citizens of Oshkosh today. The $6,000 spent on public works in the two years since the city government had been organized included such improvements as "675 rods of good plank side walk" in the first ward, along with 400 rods of streets "graded and partly turnpiked." Similar improvements had been made in the second and third wards. He made several recommendations for the coming year:

+ Laying sidewalks on all residential streets and planting shade trees along them all "as an improvement . . . which will adorn and render pleasant the streets of our town, and be gratefully remembered by those who come after us."
+ Extending Ceape Street westward to Division, turnpiking Miriam between Division and Wisconsin, laying a sidewalk immediately on the east side of Wisconsin, and grading Rosalia Street.
+ Appointing someone to oversee the cemetery and enclosing it in "a good substantial fence."
+ Finding a reliable person to take charge of the bridge across Ferry Street (Main) and attend to the raising and lowering of the draw, as well as a substantial addition to the support of the draw.
+Enlarging the schoolhouse, to be completed by July of the following year.

Jackson reported the commercial and manufacturing climate to be in excellent condition, several firms exceeding sales of $40,000 in the year past. An increase was noted in the "mechanic arts," steamboat industry, and, most importantly for Oshkosh, the lumber trade, which saw ten million feet of pine lumber manufactured in the city the previous year. Jackson then made appointments to standing committees, which included a Committee For the Poor.

In addition to his duties as Mayor, Jackson ran a dry goods store during the 1850s. An 1854 ad for Jackson's Old Settlers' Store, published in the Courier, shows not only the range of goods offered for sale, but the importance of character to him and the image he wished to portray. In the three-quarters column, he thanks the people of the city for their "very liberal" past patronage, a common advertising ploy of the day, and assures them that he remains "prepared to supply all their reasonable wants" at very reasonable prices. He declares his aim to be to buy low and sell at a reasonable or fair profit, and, in large print, says he will do it by "Dealing Fairly and Honorably." He carried an assortment of domestic and foreign dry goods, including:

Heavy & Shelf Hardware	Family Groceries
Table and Pocket Cutlery	Axes
Crockery and Glassware	Door Trimmings
Dress Goods	Iron, Steel, Nails, Glass, Saws
Shawls	Chain Pumps, Bench Tools

The "unsuspecting nature" described in his obituary some forty years later was not entirely evident, though kindness was: "Produce of every kind taken for goods, but NO CREDIT given in any instance."

That Jackson valued honesty and personal honor is reflected in the watchword of the Bonded Collection Agency that he established in 1853: "My word is as good as my bond." That agency apparently was connected with the position of Justice of the Peace, which Jackson held in 1851, in 1853, again in 1879, and probably other years, as well. The Bonded Collection Agency continued as a viable Oshkosh business at least to 1953, when a description of it appeared in One Hundred Years a City, still quoting Jackson's phrase as indication of its good standing.

When one reads in the obituary notice for Joseph Jackson, upon his death in 1881, that "seldom has a funeral taken place in this city where there seemed to be such universal respect shown the memory of the deceased," the tendency is to suspect the words of praise as being part of the flowery custom of obituary writing. Early in Jackson's career, however, the community of the time concurred in their respect for him. The Oshkosh Daily Courier of August 7, 1856, reports on the organization of the Democratic Club, an extensive gathering of people "anxious to show their devotion to the cause of the Constitution and the Union, and to rebuke the spirit of fanaticism and disunion." The club was organized to support the Democratic slate of candidates for the upcoming national elections. Club officers were elected, with Joseph Jackson president. Jackson, "on being conducted to the chair, was greeted with a spontaneous outburst of applause which fairly shook the building, evincing not only the high regard entertained for him as a democrat, but a thorough appreciation of his personal character as a man and a citizen."

Sometime during the 1850s, the Old Settler's Store either closed or was sold. The city directory of 1857 lists Joseph Jackson as a farmer, residing on the corner of Main (now Algoma) and Jackson. With his third term as mayor completed by April of 1858, Jackson continued in public service in the field of law enforcement. He was City Marshal in 1859 and again from 1861 through 1867; he was also County Coroner during those latter years. The city directory of 1866 shows his residence on the south side of Otter between Broad and Bay; the business directory lists him as City Marshal and as an auctioneer, with offices in the First National Bank Building. By the next year's directory, the Jackson residence had changed to 11 Union Street. Jackson served as the city's first Chief of Police in 1868 and again each year from 1871 through the spring of 1878.

An indication of Jackson's physical appearance is found within a story that appeared in the Weekly Northwestern January 8, 1880. (A portrait of him hung, at one time, in the Historical Society at Madison, from when he held the office of treasurer of the land office.) That issue contains several biographical sketches of early Oshkosh figures. The year was 1857. The Menominee chief, Os-kosh, was passing through the city on his way to Milwaukee from the reservation in Keshena. This was the last time he visited Oshkosh. Jackson, ever the genial host, hitched a cutter to a fast horse he owned and went to see the old chief. The two men had known each other in the early days when Yankee settlers had first come to the area. In the intervening years, Jackson had put on quite a bit of weight. When he stepped down from the cutter to greet Os-kosh, the chief took one look at him, motioned with his hands around his own ample waist, and said, laughing heartily, "Mushuk! Mushuk!" which means "big."

The story has a rather poignant ending. Jackson took him into the cutter and sped north along Ferry (Main) Street. Stopping at the corner of Ferry and Merritt, the two men turned and looked back over the city of eight thousand that Jackson had helped carve out of the wilderness. Looking at the area his people once passed through to their summer planting grounds near the lake, Os-kosh commented, "Mushuk wigwam! Mushuk wigwam!"

Apparently Jackson remained a portly figure for the rest of his life. In a newspaper account of his death in 1881, the reporter remarked how the congregation proceeded past the casket to pay their last respects to "Uncle Joe." His features, it was said, looked "very natural" after his two-month bout with illness, though "much thinner than his friends had been accustomed to seeing them in life."

Jackson, involved in the intellectual and aesthetic development of the city, was on the board of directors of the Young Men's Association, according to the Oshkosh Democrat of December 20, 1850. Their goal was "the promotion of Science, Literature and Self-Improvement." The February 25, 1853, paper reports him as president of the Northern Wisconsin Musical Association, which held its annual meeting in the city that year, at the Methodist church with over two hundred present in spite of extremely cold weather. The association promoted the "critical performance of Church music," with the program for the convention including selections on the dulcimer and by quartets in Welsh and German. The Stockbridge Indians sang hymns in their own language for the occasion. In June 1852, Jackson had been appointed by the Congregational church as its delegate to the Winnebago District Convention (a religious organization), to be held at Stockbridge. He could well have arranged at that time for the Indians to be part of the program for the Musical Association.

Jackson's long career in law enforcement had a sort of parallel in his church life. Frequently on the committee to examine prospective church members for their doctrinal views and character before being admitted to church membership, he was also appointed to the disciplinary committee, which in the early days visited and encouraged those who did not meet the church's standards for moral behavior. Swearing, partaking of intoxicating beverages, keeping improper company, not attending church services on a regular basis--any of these could be cause for trial and expulsion from membership.

Jackson seems to have been consistent in his expectations of a high standard of behavior while maintaining a sense of compassion. In 1857, when a certain Brother Voorhees was cited to appear before the church on the first three charges listed above, Jackson was appointed to the committee designated to visit and exhort with him. After the first visit, the brother made promises to reform and the committee requested "further time to labor with him." March 1859 found the committee recommending that he be discharged from the church, since he had shown no effort to change his ways. However, "Bro. J. Jackson desired to give Mr. Voorhees one more opportunity to reform, and at his own request he was appointed to visit him and report the result at some future meeting." Jackson's efforts proved fruitless, and Voorhees was expelled on July 2.

It could be that Jackson was not present at that meeting, or that his attentions were diverted by family matters. Two days after the expulsion of Voorhees, on July 4, 1858, the church records report the "funeral of Leonard, son of Bro Joseph Jackson was held this morning." No mention is made of the age of the son, the nature of his illness, nor whether he died at birth (Emeline was forty-two in 1858) or was a young man. No mention is made of Emeline Jackson, his mother, which gives an indication of the status of women in society and in church. ¹²

References to individual women in early church minutes are sparse. There is one record that shows Martha Virginia Jackson, aged one year, daughter of Joseph and Emeline, was baptized on October 3, 1858. Mrs. Jackson was mentioned in church records for October 1859 as being appointed to a committee of ladies to visit newcomers and invite them to church if their preferences were Congregational or Presbyterian.

Emeline was also a horsewoman of note, having won first place in horsemanship at the Winnebago County Fair in 1856, as reported in the September 27 Courier of that year.

In June 1857, Jackson was elected a Trustee of the church and was involved in the sale of the old church property and the purchase of a lot on Main (now Algoma) and Bond (now Brown) Streets for building a new church. The building was begun and the basement enclosed so that services could be held there. The Civil War intervened, and it was not until April 1864 that the matter was taken up again, with Jackson being appointed to the building committee as well as the finance committee. At the outbreak of the war, Jackson had been among a group of citizens calling for a mass meeting to encourage service in the defense of the Union, and Mrs. Jackson served on a committee of ladies providing supplies for departing soldiers.

Though not elected a Deacon of the church until 1860, Jackson was frequently tapped to help serve Communion in the absence of one of the elected Deacons. Jackson was noted for faithful attendance at church functions. The church records, upon his death in 1881, state that he was chosen Deacon on April 27, 1860, "and for nearly or quite every Communion Service [Communion was served every Sunday] during the last 21 years he has officiated as Deacon," which he did up until two and a half months before his death. Annual Meetings were rarely well-attended, but Jackson was one of the faithful few. One of only five present for the Annual Meeting of July 9, 1860, he presided as the meeting was adjourned to another date. Another time, at a reconvened Annual Meeting, when still not enough members were present to elect officers, Jackson proposed that current officers continue serving for the ensuing year.

Strong drink was always a concern of Jackson's (in spite of the fact that wine was one of his wedding gifts to his bride). Active in the temperance movement of the day, he helped organize various temperance meetings throughout the 1850s. The Weekly Courier of June 18, 1857, reports on a meeting held that day at the Congregational Church in which a resolution presented by its pastor, Reverend Marble, was adopted to organize a temperance society and to circulate "a pledge of total abstinence from all that can intoxicate." Jackson was one of five appointed to a committee to draft a constitution and a pledge.

In 1868 the temperance question came to the forefront when the church was in the process of adopting a new manual. Always opposed to intoxicating drink, Jackson entered into the church debate regarding the clause in the Covenant that forbade membership to those who used or "trafficked in" intoxicating liquors. Having served as Chief of Police in 1868 and City Marshal in 1859 and 1861 until 1867, Jackson had plenty of experience with the rough and rowdy atmosphere of a lumber town and would have been well acquainted with the effects of strong drink on those who partook, as well as the effect on the surrounding community.

When the church convened in January of 1868 to consider the report of its committee revising the Articles of Faith and the Covenant, Jackson was, as always, an active participant in the debate. The Articles were considered one by one and agreed upon fairly readily, with much discussion of the topics of infant baptism and predestination. The real stumbling block to accord, however, came when some wanted to amend the clause in the Covenant that required members "totally to abstain from the use and traffic of all intoxicating drinks as a beverage," the intent being to replace it with a milder clause. Over the course of several meetings and several months, an amendment to an amendment was proposed, defeated, reconsidered, brought to a tie vote, with the minister/moderator, Reverend Roe, according to the church record, refusing to cast the tie-breaking vote because of "his twofold position."

On March 27, 1868, church minutes show the meeting opened with prayer by Deacon Jackson. After several votes on the question, the original motion as originally amended was passed eighteen to fifteen, removing the stricter clause. The Covenant enjoined members to walk "in Christian love, faithfulness, circumspection, meekness and sobriety" and to abandon the "sinful pleasures and amusements of the world. . . ." Church minutes rarely record who voted which way on a particular question, but in this instance the Clerk included a notation that "Dea Jackson desired his vote recorded as opposed to the change."

On the motion of Deacon Bartlett, an article was added to the Articles of Faith, stating a belief that "the steady practice of . . . sobriety, chastity and temperance are the indispensable duties of every Christian." A resolution was offered immediately to appoint a committee to draft a series of bylaws governing the discipline of the church and to instruct the committee in spite of the majority vote that had just occurred, "that it is the will of this church that no one shall be admitted to its membership who shall use intoxicating liquors as a beverage or traffic in them as such" and, furthermore, anyone so doing would be subject to the discipline of the church.

The committee's report, adopted May 9, 1868, included such an article. It seems, then, that a member could subscribe to the Articles of Faith and to the Covenant and, in all good consciousness, imbibe (moderately). According to the bylaws of the church, though, such member could be disciplined by the church, and most likely would be, given the closeness of the vote. On July 20, 1868, Mr. Roe resigned as pastor. No reason is given in the church minutes. However, the Weekly Northwestern of July 30, 1868, reports that Roe's letter of resignation cited grounds of "poor health and overwork."

This situation--with the Covenant softening the stand on temperance and the bylaws requiring abstinence--lasted until July 10, 1871, when, at the Annual Meeting, Deacon Bartlett moved that the third clause "in the Standing Rules for Membership relating to intoxicating beverages be taken from its present place and entered in the Covenant of the Church." The motion carried unanimously. Annual meetings traditionally were poorly attended. No official count for that meeting is included in the minutes, but in the vote for Clerk only nine votes were cast.

The church minutes show Jackson involved (along with a number of others, of course) in the calling and retention of ministers throughout the years. As church and society membership rolls swelled with faculty from the State Normal College and with professional men moving into the growing city, various members of the "old guard" found themselves frequently, if not in conflict with the newer members, at least on opposing sides of issues. This is not to say that there was animosity, but there definitely were differences of opinion.

A case in point involved a doctor who, along with his wife, joined the church by letter from Eliot Church in Newton, Massachusetts, on November 27, 1868. Dr. William H. Sanders (church minutes spell his name "Saunders" at first) is described in the Oshkosh city directory for 1869-1870 as a "homeopathic physician and surgeon," with offices in his home at 25 Washington Street. Specializing in lung and throat disease, he used an inhaler to treat his patients. Other directories show him and his wife as being very active in the community, he an officer in the Good Templars and she secretary of the Ladies Aid Society and a solicitor (for funds) for the North Western Orphan Asylum.

Dr. Sanders is first mentioned in church minutes on November 23, 1868, when he opened a meeting of the Church and Society with prayer. The purpose of the meeting was to select a minister to replace Mr. Roe who had resigned in July. At a September 22 meeting, Deacon Jackson had moved that the Trustees of the Ecclesiastical Society be empowered to "supply the pulpit," as the process was then called. The motion was voted down, and a committee of three was appointed. After several months and several rejections of proposed candidates, a meeting was called on March 8, 1869, Deacon Jackson in the chair. This meeting resulted in a motion to call Reverend Norton of Janesville as pastor for one year. Remarks about Norton from Mr. Payson, who had recently moved to the Oshkosh church from Janesville, were so favorable that the motion was amended to call Norton as permanent pastor. After remarks by Dr. Sanders and Deacon Danforth, the motion was carried unanimously. Reverend Norton quickly accepted and became pastor of the church. Sanders would remember this occasion of the calling of Norton and use it later on, in 1875, during the debate over calling Reverend Grassie to the pastorate.

After Reverend Norton left, Jackson moderated the meeting of September 5, 1871, inviting Reverend Chamberlain, who had served as pastor for one year, to become permanent pastor. There was some controversy over this call, a certain "Pewholder" writing a letter to the editor of the Northwestern complaining of the church leaders not giving adequate notice and say to Society members in the selection of a permanent pastor.

Jackson is not mentioned in church records again until September 1873, when he was appointed to a committee of five to solicit funds for the completion of the new church building. One wonders what his reaction was to the fire of July 1872, which totally destroyed the building that was begun in 1858 and had only been completed a few years before it burned. He was, of course, busy with his duties as Chief of Police. The Northwestern of May 1, 1873, reported that Reverend Chamberlain preached a "vigorous" sermon on the evils of prostitution that "drew forth an explanation from Mr. Joseph Jackson, Chief of Police, who explained that upwards of 100 cases had been disposed of outside of Judge Pulling's court since he had been in office."

On August 30, 1872, shortly after the fire, Emeline and Joseph Jackson's daughter, twenty-two-year-old Helen, united with the church. Helen was married that year to Dr. W.A. Gordon, who became superintendent of the Northern State Hospital for the mentally insane (later called Winnebago Mental Health Institute). Helen, an accomplished musician, frequently sang in church. Dr. Gordon was a popular after-dinner speaker and writer, and a contributing editor to the History of Winnebago County, published in 1908.

The next time Jackson appears in the pages of the church minutes in a significant way is July 1874, when the church was again searching for a new pastor, Reverend Chamberlain's pastorate having ended the previous December. Six months had passed, during which the church remained without a pastor. A call extended to Dr. Merrill of Ripon had been declined. The annual report, issued at the end of July, noted "no visible religious interest in the church since we have been without a pastor, and not a single addition" to the membership. This tenor in the church must have concerned its leaders. On July 5, Jackson headed a list of five men, none of whom were on the pastoral supply committee, who took matters into their own hands and called for a church meeting (as any five members can still do) to consider the Reverend Myron Reed as pastor for the coming year. Reed had preached for the church a couple of times and had been well received. A meeting full of controversy ensued, resulting finally in a motion to call Reed to the pastorate.

The Annual Meeting of July 13 was twice postponed due to poor attendance, and the third meeting was "so thinly attended" that Deacon Jackson proposed that the current officers simply hold over for another year.

No entry was found in the church minutes from July 27, 1874 (the Annual Meeting), until January 11, 1875. It is assumed that Reed declined the invitation. On January 11, an informal meeting of about twenty church members occurred, where the pastoral committee submitted both a majority and a minority report, the qualifications of both Reverend Millikan and Reverend Landon being examined. Jackson's name again appeared on a list of eight men calling for a meeting of the church to consider choosing a pastor, this time upon the recommendation of the pastoral committee. Deacon Danforth presented a preamble and resolution, with a second by Jackson, recommending Millikan for the position. Dr. Sanders then presented, as an amendment to the motion, a second preamble and resolution that a call be extended to Reverent Grassie of Appleton, seconded by Mr. Bean. After much debate and informal voting, the amendment was accepted. The question as amended then passed thirty-two to eleven, and a call was extended to Grassie.

The church Clerk did not record the debate. The Northwestern, however, did. An article dated January 21, 1875, opened with a picture of twenty deacons and officers trying to impose the action of an informal meeting upon the general membership of 250 who attended the official meeting. (Note the sudden blossoming of interest from the summer before when the Annual Meeting had to be twice postponed for lack of attendance, and the church Clerk recorded "almost no visible religious interest." Controversy, then as now, draws a crowd, even--or maybe especially--in the middle of winter!)

Dr. Sanders took an active part in the discussion, as he had in all church matters since his arrival. When there was objection to his bringing up the name of a third candidate--that of Dr. Grassie of Appleton--before the motion for Dr. Millikan had been attended to, he then offered his own "Preamble and Resolution" as an amendment to the main motion, thus getting his candidate onto the floor for discussion. With the question suddenly shifted from Millikan to Grassie, Millikan's proponents began to look for objections to Grassie.

" Here," the newspaper reports, "Deacon Jackson wanted to know whether Mr. Grasse [sic] could be hired; didn't like the idea of taking a pastor from his flock. At this point Dr. Sanders set a trap down on Deacon Jackson by holding that he had done the very same thing himself at an election of a former pastor, Reverend Mr. Norton." One can imagine the fur flying at this lively debate. It seems the New Guard lined up against the Old, skillfully using the tool of parliamentary procedure and, one suspects, a gentle mockery.

The main motion, presented by Deacons Danforth and Jackson, to call Reverend Millikan was amended by a vote of thirty-seven to fifteen to extend a call to Reverend Grassie instead, the motion as amended passing thirty-seven to eleven. A maximum of fifty-two votes were cast during the meeting. What about the other two hundred in attendance? They were either women or members of the Ecclesiastical Society only, neither of whom could vote on Church matters. The Society met immediately afterward and voted to concur with the action of the Church.

Grassie accepted the call and, the following summer, helped draw up a compact that clearly delineated the duties and powers of Church and Society. The minutes of that meeting quote Deacon Jackson as being one of those participating freely in the discussion, all seeming "disposed favorably for its adoption." Again, this meeting to conduct important church business was sparsely attended, and of the thirty-four who finally showed up, only fifteen cast their votes, all in favor of the measure.

The next we hear of Joseph Jackson in the minutes is on April 29, 1876, when his name appeared, along with Prof. Albee, H.L. March, S. Bartlett and W.H. Sanders, calling for a special meeting of the church "to act on important business." That business was to affirm that Reverend Grassie had originally been called as permanent pastor and not as a temporary supply, as some members of the Society now claimed. The vote on the resolution so stating was forty to zero, with only one person speaking against the motion. We can be fairly sure that whoever that one was, it was not Joseph Jackson, whose motto was, "My word is as good as my bond." In the minutes recording the letter from the church calling Reverend Grassie on January 22, 1875, it is clearly stated that he was to be the "regular pastor." Although Jackson had supported another candidate, he would have abided by the majority rule.

In the upheaval that followed the Society's action of cutting the pastor's salary and treating his position as one of temporary supply, little is mentioned of Jackson. As a Deacon, he would have been one of the four designated by the Trustees (a body of the Society) to inform the pastor of the salary cut. Two of the Deacons, according to Reverend Grassie's later statement in the church records, came to him "with much confession of shame and mortification and a third told me afterward that he was so ashamed of the business that he would have nothing to do with it." When Reverend Grassie resigned, a meeting was called on June 21 at which Professor Graham offered a resolution that the resignation be returned and Reverend Grassie remain as pastor. The minutes record that a full discussion by members ensued, all expressing high regard for Reverend Grassie. "Dea Jackson spoke in favor of the resolution," which was voted upon favorably by every one "except Dr. Sanders who voted against it. There were about seventy present." This is interesting since Sanders was one of those who maneuvered to get Grassie in the first place. Reverend Grassie had not, at the time of the vote, submitted reasons for his resignation.

After the summer of 1876, which was consumed with Reverend Grassie's resignation and the Council that was called to dissolve his pastorate, Joseph Jackson's name rarely appears in church and Society records. At the end of May that year, he had, with the other Deacons of the church, signed a letter to the U.S. Centennial Commission in support of closing the exhibition on the Sabbath. At that same time, the church took a collection for the American Board of Missions for Foreign Mission; as was the custom, a Deacon was thereby made a life member of the organization's mission board. It was moved that Deacon Bartlett be granted this honor, but he graciously declined in favor of Jackson, referring to the "valuable service rendered by Dea Jackson to this church for so many years."

Jackson, a diabetic, may have begun to suffer ill health by this time. He continued to serve as Chief of Police through 1878. In 1879 he was elected Justice of the Peace, a position he had held several times in the past. The Oshkosh city directory of 1879-1882 congratulated voters for having filled this particular office with someone who carried out his duties with "honesty, wisdom and promptitude." After detailing his years and positions of public service, the editors ended with the statement, "For his kindly disposition, his interest in the city's prosperity and his personal merit he holds a high place in the estimation of his fellow citizens."

Although his name does not appear in church records again until his death in May 1881, various members of Jackson's family are mentioned. Emeline Jackson was on the committee for the annual meeting of the Congregational and Presbyterian Convention of Wisconsin, which was held at First Congregational Church on September 28-October 1, 1876. On January 7, 1877, the Jacksons' twenty-year-old daughter, Martha Virginia, was accepted into the church by profession of faith. Almost two years later, on January 5, 1879, the Jacksons' grandchildren, William Alexander and Kate Gordon, were baptized.

And then on May 31, 1881, the church minutes record: "Dea Joseph Jackson Died. Funeral June 2d, 1881. Bearers R. Graham, S.M. Hay, Mr. Derby, J.H. Weed, J.H. Porter, G.W. Roe." The church had lost Deacon Bartlett to death earlier that year. The minutes of the Annual Meeting of July 13, 1881, lament the passing of these two longtime leaders. At a meeting of the church on October 5, 1881, the following preamble and resolutions were adopted:

Whereas, by the affictive [sic] dispensation of Providence in the removal by death of the much respected and greatly beloved member of our church and Society, Deacon Joseph Jackson, the whole community and Society are stricken with grief,
Therefore, Resolved, That his integrity of character, purity of morals, and consistent Christian deportment united with his unostentatious liberality and great benevolence in all public and private charities, embalm his memory in the hearts of all connected with this church and society.
Resolved, That while we bow with submission to this affictive [sic] dispensation, we tender our heartfelt sympathy to the bereaved family of the deceased and mourning his loss, we would commend his example to the living as eminently worthy of imitation.
Reverend K.C. Anderson, Pastor O.E. Carrier, Clerk

Jackson's wife, Emeline, lived until 1899. Her passing was noted in the papers mainly as the widow of an old pioneer. Her death was perhaps overshadowed by that of three prominent Oshkosh residents that same week: G.W. Pratt, Albert Morgan, and Frank C. Challoner. The February 1899 issue of The Pilgrim, a monthly magazine published by the church's Young Ladies Society, paid tribute to her as a "woman of great executive ability and an ardent church worker."

The Jacksons were survived by six grown children: Martha Jackson of Oshkosh, Helen Gordon of Winnebago, Electa Emiline Rhodes of Denver, Robert of Shawano, George of Sacramento, California, and Joseph of Creighton, Nebraska. Joseph and Emeline Jackson are buried in Riverside Cemetery, their resting place designated by a large stone marker bearing the simple epitaph, "Pioneers." Within feet of them lie Joseph's lifelong friend--William W. Wright--who in 1838 had brought Joseph to Oshkosh in the middle of the night to propose to his sister Emeline.

When Jackson's term as Justice of the Peace had ended in April 1881, the Common Council had appointed him Overseer of the Poor. During April and May, he was confined to his bed, ill from the effects of diabetes, and it became obvious that he would not recover. Still, when he died on May 31, the city was shocked. He had become a kind of landmark, one of the few original settlers whose memory and vivid storytelling were relied on for details of people and events that made up the history of the area. His death, the City Times reported, was "like removing the link, which connects two massive chains--the past and present." The Northwestern pictured him as one who had "stood upon the trackless prairies . . . in an unbroken wilderness, . . . [and] heard the wild winds roaring in an unhewn forest," a scene that had been erased from the Oshkosh area and replaced with "the busy life of a great metropolis."

Joseph Jackson was known as one who had always promoted the best interests of the city. He had seen it grow from the dozen settlers who attended his and Emeline's wedding in 1838 to a city of 16,000 by the time of his death in 1881. The reporter for the Weekly Northwestern lamented not only the passing of a pioneer but the fact that people do not write down their memories, and thus much is lost. That reporter's prophetic words ring in our ears today, more than a century later: "In a hundred years from now the historical recollections of the few pioneers now living will form a story of romantic interest to the generations of that day."

Reverend O.P. Clinton, who, on first crossing the river into the small settlement of Oshkosh in 1843, had been met and welcomed by Jackson, preached the funeral sermon. The church was filled, the police force attending in a body. Clinton paid tribute to Jackson as "a man, a neighbor and a friend." The Madison Journal, in a paragraph reprinted in the Weekly Northwestern on June 9, 1881, described Jackson as "an open-hearted, broad-souled, public-spirited man, a quaint gentleman of the old school, a rare wit and conversationalist . . . a walking encyclopedia of pioneer lore." He was, the paper stated, "too good-natured a man and not selfish enough to become rich." The Commemorative Biographical Record refers to his industry and temperance, his "active benevolence" that brought him not monetary success but "the larger revenue of happiness."

There were other men of his time who rose on the wings of lumber and finance and cheap labor to higher planes of service in city, state, and national affairs. Joseph Jackson chose to put his energies into building a city and a church, staying firmly grounded, according to the City Times of June 4, 1881, in the values of "honesty, integrity and uprightness. . . . To his friends he was ever generous to a fault, and those applying for assistance never left empty-handed if he had anything to give. Socially, he was genial and kind, personally honorable and full of justice; publicly, modest and faithful to every trust." He was, in short, "a good, honest, true man."

When he died on the last day of May 1881, Joseph Jackson held two posts that characterized his life and of which he would have been most humbly proud: Overseer of the Poor of the City of Oshkosh and Deacon of First Congregational Church. His life had been an acting out of the words of that other carpenter, Jesus of Nazareth, who, when asked which is the greatest commandment quoted two: love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind; love your neighbor as yourself.

Footnotes

1. It was by that time officially named Oshkosh, although the official name did not reflect the true name. When the settlers gathered to vote on the name of the city, several names were proposed--Athens, Galeopolis, Osceola, Fairview, Stanford. Robert Grignon proposed naming the place for the Menominee chief Os-kosh (accent on the second syllable) and brought along some Indian friends who, voting with him, swung the vote. In recording the name for the post office, however (which was why they'd had to choose an official name), it was misspelled and thus became "Oshkosh." [back to the sentence you were reading]

2. Coles Bashford, the first Republican governor of Wisconsin (1856-1858) would later build his house on the site; Senator C.W. Davis would occupy the house later on, and today it houses part of the Davis Child Care Center. [back to the sentence you were reading]

3. Publius V. Lawson, editor in chief, History, Winnebago County, Wisconsin (Chicago: C.F. Cooper, 1908), 214. [back to the sentence you were reading]

4. That corner, later occupied by the famous Beckwith House, is now the site of the New Moon Coffee House and the Christian Book Nook. [back to the sentence you were reading]

5. Rev. Thomas Grassie in the Weekly Northwestern, November 4, 1875. [back to the sentence you were reading]

6. Henrietta later married T.E. Crane and, according to 1896 and 1899 issues of The Pilgrim, rented FCC pew #23 during those years. [back to the sentence you were reading]

7. Numerous sources cite Jackson as building the first frame house in the county. However, William Wright, in his unfinished autobiography, states that he built the first frame house and that Jackson built the second. Reuben Gold Thwaites in his series of articles to the Northwestern in the 1870s also states that Wright was first. Thwaites said he consulted the old settlers in writing his account of the history of the Fox Valley. He would have had access to both Wright and Jackson; thus, it is hard to reconcile the two conflicting accounts. One possible explanation is that the first frame house built belonged to Wright, while Jackson, the carpenter, actually built it. [back to the sentence you were reading]

8. Weekly Northwestern, June 9. 1881. [back to the sentence you were reading]

9. Weekly Northwestern, June 9, 1881. [back to the sentence you were reading]

10. Emeline's brother, William Wright, that same year donated land on the corner of Church and Division for a building for the Methodist Church; the building was completed in 1851 and was later sold to the Presbyterians (who still occupy the site) when the Methodists put up a new building on the northeast corner of Main and Washington. That building still stands and is today occupied by Father Carr's Wellness Center. [back to the sentence you were reading]

11. Commemorative Biographical Record of the Fox River Valley (Chicago: J.H. Beers & Co., 1895), 1166. [back to the sentence you were reading]

12. No grave was found for Leonard in the Jackson family plot at Riverside Cemetery, nor in the Wright family plot adjoining. This may indicate that the son was an infant who died at birth, or soon thereafter. [back to the sentence you were reading]

Copyright, First Congregational Church, Oshkosh, 1999