John Charles Jackson (1859-1925)

John Charles Jackson was born in Lake Forest, IL, on December 25, 1859, to John C. (1815-1896) and Anastacia Redmond Nolan Jackson (1823-1895). Witn his parents and Jackson siblings, the family moved to Benton Harbor in Berrien County, IN, in the early to mid-1870's, where his father joined his Yore family in-laws and became an orchardsman and fruit grower. In 1880, John Charles was employed as a sailor on the Great Lakes, and later left home, moving to Baltimore MD as a young man, a city where his presumed ancestor, John Jackson (1712-1791) had passed away almost 100 years before. While in Maryland, John Charles served on oyster boats which were harvesting their bounty on Chesapeake Bay. In about 1888 or 1889, he moved again, to Newburgh, NY, in the Hudson Valley of New York State, where he became an insurance man for Metropolitan Life, covering territories in Newburgh, New Windsor, Cornwall and Highland Falls, and also dabbled in local real estate. In 1889, he married Elizabeth Ann Cavanaugh (1869-1913), settled in New Windsor, and during the next 17 years, became the father of 10 children, 6 of whom survived infancy. In 1909, his young son Raymond Jackson, age 10, passed away, a victim of Bright's Disease. At that time, {{St. Patrick's Church in Newburgh]] was constructing a chapel church for its parishioners in New Windsor, and John Charles donated the vacant property on which the chapel was built. When it was all but finished, he also donated a stained glass window for the chapel, in memory of his late and youngest son, Raymond. Among his children who reached adulthood and later married were Frank, Joseph Leo, Mary Cecelia, Margaret Elizabeth Jackson and Agnes Mary ("Minnie"). His daughter Margaret married Robert J. Wilson in October, 1925, only 4 months following the death of her father. In 1926, their daughter, Barbara Jean Wilson (1926-1987), was born and in late 1934, a son, Robert J. Wilson Jr, was born, both in Newburgh, NY.