Cummins Jackson
Cummins Edward Jackson (July 25, 1802 – December 4, 1849) was a paternal uncle of Confederate General Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson (1824-1863). He owned and operated a grist mill at Jackson's Mill, Virginia (now West Virginia).
Jackson was born at Jackson's Mill, the eldest son of Edward Jackson (1759–1828) and his second wife. He was 26 when his father died and he inherited the mill. Some of the family members claim he seized control and refused to share any of the estate; they sued to get their fair shares, but the case was never settled. Stonewall Jackson biographer James Robertson described Cummins as "unscrupulous and vindictive ... absurdly litigious", having a strong fondness for gambling, horse racing, and drinking, and he quotes an acquaintance calling Cummins a "rascal". In 1835 Cummins arbitrarily constructed a 6-foot (1.8 m) high dam stretching 150 feet (46 m) across the West Fork River, needing additional power, but he disregarded the needs of his neighbors downstream. They also sued him, but that apparently was unsuccessful because the dam still stands.
Into this environment, 6 year-old Thomas Jackson and his younger sister Laura Ann went to live with Cummins Jackson in 1830. Cummins's brother, Clarksburg attorney Jonathan Jackson (1790–1826), had died of typhoid fever. The children's mother, Julia Neale Jackson (1789–1831), died five years later, leaving her children orphaned. Although some biographies of Stonewall Jackson portray Cummins as a "father figure", this does not characterize the relationship adequately. The young boy called him "Uncle", but thought of him more as an elder brother, one whose morals would have a notable negative effect on him. The sole positive effects of Cummins's guardianship seem to have been the work ethic Thomas developed around the mill, and the equestrian skills he learned at the four-mile (6 km) racetrack Cummins built nearby, populated with a number of blooded horses.
Young Thomas lived there until in 1842, when he was appointed to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, and he left Jackson's Mill. He later served in the U.S. Army, was an instructor at Virginia Military Institute, and during the American Civil War, became the right hand of Confederate General Robert E. Lee until he was killed during the war in the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863.
In 1844, as young Thomas was halfway through West Point, Cummins discovered a small vein of silver near his property. He began to counterfeit half-dollar coins of lead with a thin coat of silver. After several months a federal grand jury indicted him for forgery and 26 counts of counterfeiting. The forgery trial was delayed by the actions of the defense attorneys until 1848, when Cummins leaped out of a jailhouse window and escaped, traveling to California with one of his nephews and thirteen others to try his hand at prospecting during the gold rush. Cummins did quite well for himself, striking it rich at a mine near Mount Shasta. But he fell ill, either with pneumonia or typhoid fever, and suffered for almost a month before his death in Shasta County, California. He is buried there in an unmarked grave. The nephew who accompanied him is said to have gambled away all of the gold profits and returned penniless to Virginia.
References
- Robertson, James I., Jr., Stonewall Jackson: The Man, The Soldier, The Legend, MacMillan Publishing, 1997, ISBN 0-02-864685-1.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.