Unlike the Hurfords, we do know that the next owner of the Stone House actually lived in the property. And because he died while he was living there we also have a record of his material possessions and household furnishings at the time of his death in the county probate records. These probate records also shed light on the relationships he had with some of his slaves. To begin, when Naomi Hurford sold the Stone House in 1802 to the young Henry Jackson, Henry was already a resident of the town along with his mother Sarah Jackson. Henry’s name appears on the 1799 petition to the Virginia House of Delegates along with other known residents of that time requesting that the boundaries of the town be enlarged northward. The Personal Property Tax Records of Frederick County list Sarah Jackson among the residents from the southern area of the county as early as 1797. Like the Hurfords, the Jacksons were originally from Maryland and (according to the 1830 census) Henry was born sometime between 1781 and 1789. It is more likely that he was born around 1781 as later birth dates would have made him a bit young for the time in question. As noted below, his father passed away in February of 1786 so he could not have been born any later than that year. In fact, if Henry was born in 1781 he would have been around the age of twenty one when he purchased the Stone House property. Even so, it is entirely likely that Henry Jackson received the money and guidance from his mother in the purchase of the Stone House property. Perhaps Sarah Jackson, sensing her own mortality, preferred having the property title in her son’s name so as to avoid having the Stone House tied up in the probate process when she passed away. As discussed below, Sarah Jackson appears to have been a very shrewd businesswoman. There is even a chance that Henry and Sarah Jackson were Naomi Hurford Brown’s tenants at the Stone House, and as we will see, there appears to have been some kind of blood or marriage relationship between the Jacksons and the Hurfords.
Henry and Sarah Jackson originally came from Charlestown, Cecil County, Maryland. (As stated above, Naomi Hurford Brown was married to her first husband at Deer Creek Meeting on the other side of the Susquehanna River in neighboring Harford County, Maryland.) According to the will of Henry’s mother Sarah Jackson, Henry was the son of Edward Jackson who had died over twenty years before in Maryland, and that Henry had at least one living brother named Nathaniel Jackson who served in Maryland as Sarah Jackson’s agent for selling family properties. Henry also had an older sister named Elizabeth who (according to the 1850 census) was born around 1776. It is through Henry’s older sister Elizabeth that we see a tentative connection with Naomi Hurford Brown. When Elizabeth Jackson was married in Frederick County, Virginia, during November of 1799 to her husband Joseph Longacre Jr. the bondsman listed for the union was Joseph Pool, the husband of Hannah Hurford Pool mentioned in the article on Naomi Hurford. In this period men who served as marriage bondsmen were generally relatives of the bride. While this was not always the case, it is possible that Joseph Pool was Elizabeth Jackson Longacre’s closest male relative in the area at that time who was able to serve in that role as bondsman. Joseph Longacre Jr. also had ties to the Society of Friends’ Mount Pleasant Meeting (just west of Stephensburg) near Marlboro, Virginia.
The Jackson family paper trail starts at Charlestown, Cecil County, Maryland, Henry Jackson’s original hometown, where his father Edward Jackson, a carpenter, wrote his will in February 1786. In his will Edward names his wife Sarah as his executor and leaves his estate to her for the “schooling and support” of their children. Edward Jackson also takes care of some unfinished business by stating that he has received the “consideration money” for the “Easterly half of Lot No. ninety four” in Charlestown from a “George Hamilton of Charles Town,” and that Edward Jackson therefore conveyed that property to George Hamilton in that will. The next time we see the family of Edward Jackson is in the 1790 census. Sarah Jackson is listed as the head of her household in Charlestown, Cecil County, Maryland, with three free white males under the age of sixteen, one other free white female, and three slaves. These numbers and the ages of the boys coincide with what we know of the Jackson family at that time with the exception of the third boy under the age of sixteen. Apparently there was another male member of the Jackson household who passed away, or who was left out of Sarah’s 1809 will.
Though Edward Jackson identified himself as a carpenter in his will he seems to have been interested in owning properties as an additional source of income. In 1773 he purchased the eastern half of lot number twenty six in Charlestown, Maryland. It is likely that this was the location of his home. In 1781 he purchased lot number ninety four, and in December of 1785, shortly before his death, he purchased lot number nineteen, both in Charlestown, Maryland. Evidently, it was because of these properties that Sarah Jackson was able to support herself and her children after the death of her husband in 1786. Sarah Jackson then held on to these properties for the next twenty years. She finally sold them in 1806 while she was living in the Stone House for $250 with the aid of her son Nathaniel Jackson “of the City of Baltimore in the State of Maryland” acting for her in Maryland with power of attorney.
It is difficult to imagine Sarah Jackson leaving these properties in Charlestown, Maryland, and moving west to Frederick County, Virginia, without some family ties to this new area. This is one more factor that points to a possible familial relationship with Naomi Hurford Brown. As noted above this moved happened at least by 1797, two years before the marriage of her daughter Elizabeth Jackson to Joseph Longacre Jr. Even though Henry Jackson does not appear in his mother’s household as a tithable male (able-bodied, potential income earner over the age of sixteen) for the first few years, he apparently signed the aforementioned petition the same year as his sister’s marriage to Joseph Longacre. The first year that Henry does appear in his mother’s household as a tithable is 1801. (Incidentally, if that was the year Henry turned sixteen that would mean he was born around 1785.) Prior to that year of 1801 Sarah had only paid the tax for a slave over the age of sixteen. Even though Henry is listed as the purchaser of the property in 1802 his mother Sarah continues to be listed as the head of the household in the personal property tax lists. The dendrochronology report on the log side of the Stone House indicates that it was after the property was purchased by Henry Jackson in 1802 that the log side was raised to its current height. Specifically this second phase of log side construction began with the felling of trees in the winter of 1803-1804.
As early as May of 1798 Sarah Jackson had obtained a license to operate a store in Frederick County. If we combine this bit of evidence with the other facts already mentioned above, it is possible that Sarah Jackson was operating her retail shop out of the Stone House as many as six years before the northern log addition of the property was raised to its current full two stories in height. Sarah Jackson’s name appeared on the tax lists as the head of the household until 1806. In that year Henry “farmlets” or rents the Stone House on Lot 48 to his mother for “one ear of Indian corn yearly.” This was a colloquial expression used in that period to say that Henry, who officially owned the property, was not charging his mother any rent. Until she passed away in 1809, Sarah and Henry Jackson were apparently operating a dressmaking and millinery business out of the Stone House. Her 1809 probate inventory lists large amounts of fabric lengths, shawls, and bonnets as well as her household furnishings. Most of these textiles were practical in nature like muslins, calicoes, and chintzes but some were luxury fabrics such as “satin,” “lutestring,” and “cassimere.” Sarah Jackson’s name appears in the lists of merchants who paid the tax to receive a retail store license from 1798 until 1806. The next year of 1807 Sarah’s name is replaced for the first time by Henry Jackson’s name on the list as the one paying the tax to receive the retail license.
The year of 1806 appears to have been a pivotal year in the lives of Sarah and Henry Jackson. Not only do we see the events that have already been mentioned (including Henry “farmleting” the Stone House to his mother Sarah, and the sale of the properties in Charlestown, Maryland) Henry took on more responsibilities. In January of 1806 (nine months before Sarah sold the family properties in Charlestown, Maryland) Henry Jackson purchased the in-town half acre Lot No. 71 in Stephensburg on the southeast corner of Fairfax and Mulberry Streets. He paid $132.00 for this property. A photograph from the mid-twentieth century corroborates the oral tradition that there was a hewn log single story house with a stone chimney at its eastern gable there at the corner of that lot facing onto Fairfax Street. Currently there are no known records that indicate what Henry Jackson used this property for during the time he owned it. It is likely that he leased it to tenants. He sold this property in 1820.
A year after Sarah Jackson passed away the 1810 census listed Joseph and Elizabeth Longacre living in Frederick County on a farm with their children and one slave, presumably the boy named Tom that Elizabeth inherited from her mother. The adjacent names on that census record indicate that the Longacres lived west of Stephensburg near Marlboro. In that same census record Henry Jackson is listed as living in Stephensburg, presumably at the Stone House with one slave. In her will Sarah Jackson had “bequeathed all the residue” of her estate to Henry Jackson. This “residue” encompassed the property listed in Sarah’s probate inventory and included a 36-year-old slave woman named Hannah who was valued at $250.00, and a slave girl of unspecified age named Ann who was valued at $150.00. It is probable that the slave noted in the census was one of these females.
In 1810 Henry is listed as paying the tax on the store. We do not know if Henry continued to operate the store as a millinery shop. In fact, this was the last time that the store tax lists were included in the personal property tax records. In the same year he paid the taxes for himself, one slave over the age of sixteen, and one horse. The following year he only payed the taxes for himself and a horse. He does not pay a tax for a slave again until 1813 when he is listed as having an African American between the ages of twelve and sixteen. The following year the age of the slave he owned is listed as being over sixteen. In 1815, the year that the list of taxable items increased dramatically, he paid the taxes for himself, one slave over the age of twelve, one horse, one head of cattle, one unspecified piece of mahogany furniture (either a sideboard, tea table, or card table), and a mahogany bedstead. It is likely that these items had been inherited from his mother who had owned a bedstead valued at $25.00 in her probate inventory.
In 1815 Henry Jackson purchased Lot 47 next door to the south of the Stone House, paying $445 to Andrew and John Pitman who had purchased it from Peter Upp back in 1794. This reunited the Stone House lot with this neighboring lot to the south and restored the relationship that had begun back in 1767. That was when George Cabbage had purchased the undeveloped Lot 47 just two months prior to selling it and the Stone House lot to Daniel Benezet that year. (See section on Daniel Benezet.) The price that Henry Jackson paid the Pitmans also indicates that this property had improvements made to it prior to this sale. In Henry Jackson’s probate inventory the structure on this lot is referred to as the “red house.” (See below.) We do not have any indications as to what Henry Jackson intended to use this Lot 47 property for other than possibly leasing it to tenants as he was most likely doing with the property on Lot 71 at that time. In fact, other than his purchase of Lot 47 next door to the south from Andrew and John Pitman in 1815, we see little evidence of significant changes in Henry’s life until the mid-1820s, when he starts to buy tracts of farmland in the areas south and west of town.
Since Henry Jackson died while he was living in the Stone House, probate records were created by court appointed officials to document the disposal of his estate. Fortunately for us, these probate records have survived in the court office of Frederick County, Virginia. As we have examined them, we have gained a remarkably detailed glimpse into Henry Jackson’s economic situation and the material objects he owned at the end of his life. In addition to the Stone House property and the livestock mentioned above, Jackson also owned three other farm tracts outside of town, and the in-town Lot 47 with its “red house” next door to the south of the Stone House. Jackson may have built the “red house” that he mentioned in his will on that lot but the price he paid the Pitmans in 1815 indicates that there were already structural improvements on that lot by the time of that sale. Despite the fact that Henry Jackson owned so many other properties, we do know that he lived in the Stone House at the time of his death because he specifically referred to it as “my residence” in his will.
In addition to the livestock, lands, and other material possessions listed in Henry Jackson’s probate records, we also find information about his slaves. The 1830 census shows Henry owned a total of eight slaves. When Henry died three years later the number had reached to at least twelve, not including these slaves’ youngest offspring. They include women named Winney, Vine (Lavina), Henrietta, Jane, and Hannah. Winney had a girl named Anna Samenta, Vine had a son named Enoch, Hannah had an unnamed baby daughter, and Jane also had an unnamed child. There were also young men named John and William (called “Bill” and about sixteen at the time), and boys named Hiram (a mulatto), Legrand or “Lee” (a mulatto), Lewis, and Anthony. Upon Henry Jackson’s death he freed his “servant boy” John and gave Hiram and Lee to his friend Simon Carson, a respected wealthy man in the community, with the stipulation that these young men should be freed at age twenty-one. Lewis, Anthony, and Bill were given to Henry Jackson’s nephew Andrew Shannon Longacre. Vine and Jane, along with their children were given to his niece Evaline Longacre Watson who would later marry Jacob Mytinger, the next owner of the Stone House Property. Henrietta, Hannah, and Hannah’s daughter were given to Jackson’s other niece Sarah Longacre.
Winney and her daughter Anna were freed upon Jackson’s death and given the “red house” next door on Lot 47 where 5436 Main Street is today. Henry also directed that Winney be allowed to select all that she needed from among his household furnishings before they were auctioned off so that Winney could “comfortably” outfit the house he had given her. Henry Jackson did not acknowledge any children in his will, but it is evident that he sincerely cared for Winney and Anna. This aspect of Henry Jackson’s life coupled with the other factors already mentioned makes him, for our educational mission, one of the most interesting occupants of the Stone House. He is one of those rare examples in American social history where enough information survives about key areas of his life that we can begin to get a sense of who he was and what he was like as a man.
It is also important to note that based on architectural evidence it appears that it was during the ownership of Henry Jackson that both the log side and the stone side of the structure were altered considerably by remodeling campaigns. These alterations brought the oldest parts of this historic structure into their present form. As mentioned above we know that the second floor of the log addition was raised from a half story to the full story that it is today by adding additional courses of hewn logs on top of the ones that were originally laid when that side of the house was first constructed by Peter Upp. We also know that the interior woodwork and plastering of the second floor walls on the log side was done after the roof and ceiling was raised to their current heights by Jackson. Other modifications also include changing the fenestration pattern on the log side, the possible enlarging of windows on the stone side, and the creation of the rear cellar bulkhead entrance on the stone side of the structure. The date year “1828” appears to have been lightly chiseled into a stone at about eye level on the southeast corner of the building above the current bulkhead stairway door. This corresponds to the time in Jackson’s life when he was experiencing great economic prosperity.