Friday, February 02, 2007

Corrections on Mrs. Jackson

Brian Downey brought up some interesting points on Mrs. Jackson the other day. Mr. Downey brought to my attention that it appears the Mrs. Dr. Sloop was mistaken in her recollections in regards to the birth of Anna Morrison Jackson. I dug out a couple of books, Robertson’s bio on Jackson and the newer Intimate Strategies of the Civil War: Military Commanders and Their Wives. From these two sources, I put this together.

Robert Hall Morrison was born in 1798 in Concord, North Carolina. He was educated at the University of North Carolina (only one at the time - Chapel Hill) and then at Princeton Seminary (was it Princeton yet?) He ministered in the churches in the Charlotte-Fayetteville area. Morrison married Mary Graham, daughter of Gen. Joseph Graham of Revolutionary War fame and sister of William A. Graham, governor, US senator, and Secretary of the Navy under Millard Fillmore.

Anna was born July 21, 1831, the third of six daughters. Robert Morrison started to work towards the establishment of Presbyterian college in North Carolina, and in 1837, Davidson College opened its doors. Morrison was the schools first president. Anna attended Salem Academy in what is now Winston-Salem for a time. She was visiting with her sister, Isabella, in Lexington, Virginia, (who married D. H. Hill), when she met Jackson for the first time. They were married in 1857 at Cottage Hill, the plantation of Robert Morrison, sixteen miles from Davidson.

Davidson, in northern Mecklenburg County, is one of my favorite places to visit. If you ever stop by, try and visit the cemetery. It’s where Daniel Harvey Hill is buried (in the back, right hand corner).

2 comments:

Brian Downey said...

Good stuff here!

Princeton was called the College of New Jersey when Morrison was there in 1820-21. It changed its name in 1896 at the 150th birthday.

My late father was Mr Downey, by the way, not me :)

KenK said...

Michael,

I appreciated the brief summary of the early life of Anna Morrison Jackson. My wife and I are contemplating relocating to the Davidson area from Indiana. I would be interested in knowing a little more why it's one of your favorite places to visit--it that from a Civil War prospective or other?

Thanks-- Ken Knouf