Santa Barbara County Biographies MAJOR WILLIAM JACKSON Submitted by Peggy Hooper This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm MAJOR WILLIAM JACKSON is one who has served both State and County, and was numbered among the earliest settlers of Lompoc; he was born at Newport, Cocke County, Tennessee, in 1822. His father, William Jackson, moved to Moniteau County, Missouri, in 1833, where he farmed and was also Public Administrator and Justice of the Peace. Our subject received a limited education in the log school-house of that day, and in 1854 was elected to the Legislature from Putnam County, Missouri, representing the county two sessions. During the exciting days of 1861, though a Southern man by birth, Mr. Jackson sympathized with the North, and early in 1861 he was elected from five counties as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention held at Jefferson City, Missouri, and at St. Louis, in four sessions. In June, 1861, he was one of fifty-six who deposed the Governor and all the staff officers, and elected a provisional Governor and full body of State officers, who carried on the State Government for two years, until loyal officers could be elected. In 1862 lie enlisted from Chillicothe, Livings- ton County, Missouri, and helped raise the Third Missouri Regiment, and was appointed Major of the First Battalion. They went to Springfield, Missouri, which was chief head- quarters, and was placed in the army of the frontier under General Halleck. The regi- ment was engaged in the battle of Springfield, January 8, 1863, again General Marmaduke, who it was said had 16,000 men, while the Union forces numbered 4,500, still fighting from within the fort; they were victorious and Marmaduke was repulsed. Major Jackson was in many skirmishes, and was discharged in the spring of 1863. He then went home in the spring of 1864, with his wife and five little ones, and crossed the plains for California. After four months of travel they landed in Green Valley, Sonoma County, in September, 1864, where he rented land, and farmed and teamed until 1867, when he came to San Luis Obispo, and bought a claim of 320 acres, near the town, where he farmed and dairied, furnishing the town with butter and milk, and keeping about forty cows. In 1874 became to Lompoc, where he attended the first sale and bought twenty-five acres of land, and built the first house of the colony, bringing with him a load of lumber for that purpose from San Luis Obispo. He also bought 320 acres west of the town, where he started a dairy, bringing his forty cows from San Luis Obispo; he rented 300 acres, which he farmed in wheat. In 1878 he sold his ranch and moved his house to the city lots. He then bought 1,100 acres at Arroyo Hondo, where he has since farmed and dairied, keeping about sixty cows. All his land is now rented, and he is improving his home property. Major Jackson was one of the original directors of the colony for three years, and in 1888 was elected Justice of the Peace. He was Grange Master two years from San Luis Obispo, and two years from Lompoc. Major Jackson has been twice married, first to Miss Martha J. Bruce, of Missouri, whom he lost in 1862, leaving five children. He was again married in Kansas, in 1863, to Miss Mary C. Francis, and they have eight children. Mr. Jackson is a member of Lompoc Lodge, No. 262, F. & A. M., and is a worthy Master Mason, and was delegate to the Grand Lodge in 1889. He is also a member of Robert Anderson Post. No. 66, G. A. R. History of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties, California - by C.M. Gidney, Benjamin Brooks, Edwin M. Sheridan, Vol I, II. -Lewis Publ. Co., Chicago, 1917.