Amanda (Smith) Jackson (1808 - aft. 1861)

Born 6 Sep 1808 in Knox County, Tennessee

Wife of James Andrew Jackson — married 30 Jun 1825 in Knox County, Tennessee

Descendants

Died after 11 Sep 1861 after age 53 in Red River County, Texas

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Michael Smith [send private message]

Biography

Name: Amanda Smith.^[1][2]

She was one-fourth Cherokee through her grandmother. See Dawes Final Roll 7437, card 2988.

Born: 6 Sep 1808 Knox County, Tennessee.^[1]

Married: James Andrew Jackson, 30 Jun 1825 Knox County, Tennessee.^[3]
(11 children)

Will: 11 Sep 1861 Red River County, Texas.^[2] State of Texas.
Red River County.

I Amanda Jackson being of sound mind and disposing memory do make this my last Will and Testament revoking all former wills to wit:
     Article 1st. It is my will that my body shall be decently buried.
     Article 2nd. It is my will that all my just debts be paid.
     Article 3rd. It is my will that my daughter Mary Jackson shall have the best bed and furniture that I have.
     Article the 4th. It is my will that my sons Calvin, Thomas & Crippen Jackson and my daughter Mary Jackson shall share all the balance of my effects share and share alike.
     Article 5th. It is my will that my son Calvin Jackson shall act as my Executor to carry out my desires as set forth in the forgoing articles.

This 11th day of September 1861.
[signed] Amanda ["her X mark"] Jackson.

Signed in presence of
John H. Ragsdale
H. R. Duke

The State of Texas.
County of Red River.

County Court Pertaining to Estates.
November term A.D. 1861.

This day personally appeared in Open Court John H. Ragsdale one of the subscribing witnesses to the last Will and Testament of Amanda Jackson being dated the 11th day of September A.D. 1861 and after being duly sworn as the law directs doth declare and say that he saw the said Amanda Jackson sign said Will and heard her acknowledge that she had signed sealed and delivered the same as her free voluntary act and deed and declared the same to be her last Will and Testament and that the the said Amanda Jackson was at the time signing the same of sound mind and disposing memory and that the said John H. Ragsdale signed the same as a witness in the presence of and at the request of said Amanda Jackson & also in the presence of Henry R. Duke the other subscribing witness to said will.

[signed] John H. Ragsdale

Subscribed and sworn to before me this the 23rd day of November A.D. 1861.
[signed] J. M. Bivins, Clerk.

On which is the following Endorsement to wit:
Filed for Probate November the 7th A.D. 1861 at 11 o'clock A.M.
[signed] John M. Bivins, Clerk.

Received December the 23rd A.D. 1861 at 11 o'clock A.M.
[signed] John M. Bivins, Clerk. C.C. R.R. County.

In the Original on the 14th line from the top of the first page the word "Mary" is erased.
[signed] John M. Bivins, Clerk.

Died: aft 11 Sep 1861Red River County, Texas.^[1][2]

According to questionable tradition among some family members, Amanda became angry following a cattle raid by Union troops and organized a party of local women (most of whose husbands were away at war) to go after the perpetrators. She was captured by Union soldiers and hanged as a spy. Supposedly, she was buried by her son, Calvin, with a simple wooden marker in what is now Lone Star Cemetery.
     Such an wooden marker does exist at Lone Star (as seen on her page at Find-a-Grave), but there is not a single legible character on it anywhere, and only tradition to connect it with Amanda. Lone Star Cemetery was not established until 16 years late, in late 1878, following the deaths a few weeks apart of Calvin's infant son & his younger brother, which makes the story even more unlikely.
     Note, also, that an extensive search of the files of the Clarksville Northern Standard (the most important 19th century newspaper in the northern half of the state) has failed to turn up any mention of this supposed atrocity, which surely would have been reported, if only for its anti-Northern propaganda value.
     Moreover, there were no Union incursions at all in north Texas. Union forces blockaded Galveston and then occupied the city for three months in late 1862' -- and that was it.
     The fact that she wrote a will and that it was routinely probated also argues against sudden death at the hands of outsiders.
     Find-a-Grave also has a page for her at Manchester Cemetery, but no evidence is given and this there is no marker. And this is also extremely unlikely, since Manchester Cemetery wasn't established until 1869, eight years after Amanda's death.
     All we can say for certain is that Amanda died in Red River County shortly after writing her will, probably on the family farm, and that she was buried somewhere on the farm or nearby -- and that no marker has survived. ---Michael K., Smith.

Buried: Red River County, Texas.^[1]

Census 1860
Red River County, Texas, p. 100, dwelling/family 557/557.^[4]
Jackson, Amanda     53 yrs    Farming                                                 b. Tennessee (cannot read/write)
Jackson, Calvin     26 yrs    Farming (real estate = $480; personal estate = $500)    b. Tennessee
Jackson, Thomas     14 yrs                                                            b. Tennessee (attended school)
Jackson, Crippen    12 yrs                                                            b. Tennessee (attended school)
Jackson, Mary       11 yrs                                                            b. Tennessee (attended school)

Amanda (Smith) Jackson was a Texan.

Excerpts from "A Jackson Family History" ^[5]

James Jackson was the eldest son of Wiliam Jackson and Mattheny "Theny" Wilson. He was born in Sumner County, Tennessee, presumably while the family was migrating to the eventual home in the Knoxville, Tennessee near the town of Ritta. On June 30, 1825 James married Amanda Smith in Knox County, Tennessee. She was part Cherokee Indian and is shown on the Dawes Final Roll 7437, card 2988. Her father Alexander Smith is listed as a doctor in the 1850 census of Knox County. It is assumed that his father, also named Alexander, was of English descent and had married a full-blooded Cherokee, named Jean.
. . .
On September 1847, while living in Tennessee, the urge to move struck James just as it had his father William and his grandfather Henry and probably the first Jakson immigrant that came to America. From Tennessee land conveyance records, it appears that James sold his land from the Henry Jackson estate to Sampson Cole, a neighbor to James' father William. From all indications, James and Amanda and their family left Tennessee sometime after the 1850 census and headed for what seemed better opportunities in Texas.
. . .
James, Amanda and their family traveled by wagon from Tennessee to Red River County Texas. It was highly likely that other family members and neighbors joined the wagon train since it was unwise to travel alone especially since bushwhackers and hostile Indians were still running about. When they arrived in Texas, apparently James and Amanda bought land there. For some reason James left Amanda and the children in Texas and went back to Tennessee. Unfortunately, somewhere before 1859 James died before he could return to Texas. How he died is unknown but he didn't live to see Amanda and his family again, nor is Texas, which would be the family's new home. James is buried in the Jackson Cemetery, near Ritta, Tennessee, along with his father and brother.

In 1860 when the United States census was taken, Amanda Jackson shows up, without her husband James, in Red River County, Texas.

After James Jackson died, Amanda seems to have stayed in Red River County, Texas, with her remaining children Thomas, Crippen, and Mary. It has been said that Amanda lived on the property that was owned by her son, Calvin Gilmore Jackson and the 1860 census records reflect this. Life as a female pioneer on the Texas frontier must have been unimaginably difficult. However, things would not get easier for Amanda because in July of 1861, the Union began a blockade of the southern states. The American Civil War had begun and the Union started sending troops to all parts of the South in an effort to quell the rebels. Several of these Union soldiers rode through the area where Amanda lived on a cattle raid, stealing many head of cattle. Amanda angrily organized a group of women to go after their cattle but was captured by the northern soldiers and hung as a spy in 1861. She would be buried on land donated by her son Calvin in the Lone Star Cemetery in Red River County, Texas and her grave marker would be a very simple wooden marker

NOTE: See Amanda's profile regarding her supposed burial at Lone Star.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} Find-a-Grave Amanda Jackson
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Red River County Wills & Probate Records, Will Book B (1859-82), pp. 44-45.
3. ↑ Tennessee State Marriages, 1780-2002.
4. ↑ Census Texas 1860 Red River County.
5. ↑ A Jackson Family History: From Henry Jackson of Virginia by Jim Jackson (https://books.google.com/books?id=e0w5eNGVD7AC)

• http://www.genealogy.com/ftm/f/e/r/June-Ferguson-Portales/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-1635.html
• http://www.ancestry.com.au/genealogy/records/amanda-smith_19001101
• A Jackson Family History: From Henry Jackson of Virginia by Jim Jackson (https://books.google.com/books?id=e0w5eNGVD7AC)
• http://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/jackson/21375/
• http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=114992708
• http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=lilsister27&id=I1652