Name/Title
Obituary of Margaret Jackson & Dedication of portrait of Robert McLeod JacksonEntry/Object ID
002996Tags
Robert McLeod Jackson, Margaret JacksonScope and Content
Obituary
Margaret Crawford Jackson
Mrs. Jackson died at her apartment in New York on the morning of May
15th, after having grown steadily weaker since January.
Mrs. Jackson was born on August 17, 1852, near Stony Ford, in the Town
of Wallkill, on the farm adjoining the William Bull homestead on the south.
Her father was Andrew Wilson, VI., son of Andrew Wilson, V., and Melinda Ann Bull, both of the Town of Wallkill. Her mother was Annie
Stavely Crawford, daughter of the Rev. Samuel W. Crawford, D. D., of
Philadelphia, and Jane Agnew, of New York city. In 1882 Miss Wilson was married to Robert McDowell Jackson, whose homestead in the
Town of Hamptonburgh lay directly across the Wallkill from her own.
Here their married life was an ideally happy one until Mr. Jackson's
death, on April 21, 1888, as the result of an accident. Mrs. Jackson was left with two small children, and a farm which she knew nothing about running. Her heart, however, was bound up in this place to which she had come as a
bride and in which her happiest years had been spent. Never for an instant
did she waiver in her determination to keep her home, although for many
years such an aim would have seemed impossible to a less dauntless soul.
Mrs. Jackson ever put first things first; her perception of spiritual
values was unerring. Mere externals never deceived her; to her they were
at best but symbols of an inward meaning. Hence she counted her
friends in every walk of life, among the learned and the unlearned alike.
With her friendships were ended by death alone. A sincere and unsought illustration of the impress made by Mrs. Jackson upon those with whom she
came into contact in the days of her strength came to her family in the
summer of 1926. Shortly after her marriage Mrs. Jackson had a maid with her for some time, but 40 years had gone by and that maid was only a kindly memory. She had worked elsewhere, lived in the West, married and become a widow. Again she was in Orange County, and again she sought service
with Mrs. Jackson. In speaking to a member of the family with affectionate recollection of her gentle and considerate mistress of those earlier
years, she said: "I have never met anyone like Mrs. Jackson since."
Mrs. Jackson had both literary and artistic ability, and throughout her
life, while strength was hers, she ever sought her recreation in pen or
water color. She was a born hostess, and at the same time accomplished
in all a housewife's duties. Practical difficulties never defeated her.
Whenever they faced her she surmounted them. At her death and for
many years she had been a member of the First Presbyterian Church of
Hamptonburgh. Until her mental vigor began to fail her in later years, Mrs. Jackson took keen interest in religious and philosophic subjects. Her nature revealed itself in a number of her writings, but in none more fully than in
the verses entitled "Hill-Hold." Her husband used to refer privately to
their home as "pied-a-terre," or small country house, but as the expression
was not English he did not consider it suitable for general use. After her
husband's death, finding no translation of his term which suited her, she
adopted "Hill-Hold" as a substitute.
Hill-Hold
Hill-Hold, our home, no hoard of gold
Could buy your wealth to-day;
Earth's richest treasures are not sold,
Profaned they fade away.
Deep hidden in our hearts they lie,
Bartered they cannot be,
For money cannot check a sigh
And love is as the sea.
It bathes your meadows, rises far
And sweeps your strong stone wall,
No power within, without, can bar
Its blessed rise and fall.
Impoverished though your acres seem
In memories they are rich;
Here sunlight casts enchanting gleam,
All things the heart bewitch.
The flowing water graces you
With sparkle and with fret,
It mirrors skies and mountains blue
With light and shadows set.
Your trees with stately beauty gird
The soil which succors us
Their branches sheltering the bird
Who sings his song to us.
They round our borders broidering run
In woodland arabesque,
Each shadowy stem stands one by one,
Clear cut, still, statuesque.
No spot so mean where is not spread
A garb of tender green,
Wrought here and there with many
a thread Of color in between.
The clouds which sail upon your sky
Have sailed the world around,
But never as their course they ply
Such depth of love have found.
The stars have never shone as here,
With soft and lustrous glow,
They shine throughout the whole long
year,
Through summer and through snow.
Here in this window have we talked
With true friend long since dead,
With each other down this path have
walked,
Treasuring each word was said.
And here we stooped to pick a flower,
There stopped to snatch a sketch;
Once found a shelter in a shower,
Where dense those oak trees
stretch.
Each step we take finds rooted here
Some joy or sorrow deep,
Growths out of which spring straight
and clear,
Those acts the angels keep.
The sun and moon which on you shine
Adorn the heavens wide,
Yet falls on you a light divine,
Falls nowhere else beside.
They say that to all hearts are given
The things they most have craved:
In mine all names in earth or heaven
With yours are intergraved.
The stone house, which after her
marriage, was always Mrs. Jackson's
home, was built in 1769 by Thomas
Bull, son of William Bull and Sarah
Wells, and an ancestor of the late
Robert McDowell Jackson.
Mrs. Jackson is survived by her
son, Robert McLeod Jackson, her
daughter, Margaret Eleanor Jackson,
of the Town of Hamptonburgh, and
by her brother, Andrew Wilson, VII,
of Scarsdale, N. Y.
Funeral services were held Thurs-
day morning at ten o'clock at the
Morningside Presbyterian Church, in
New York city, which she attended
when in New York. The Rev. George
Barrow-Neilson, the pastor, conducted
the services, assisted by the Rev. Wm.
T. Crocker, Rector of the Church of
the Epiphany and a friend of Mrs.
Jackson's. The choir of the Marble
Collegiate Church sang the hymns
chosen by Mrs. Jackson herself, "How
Firm a Foundation," and "Jerusalem,
High Tower Thy Glorious Walls,"
arranged for quartette by Dudley
Buck.
Burial took place in the family plot
in the Neelytown graveyard on Thurs-
day afternoon at 2:30 o'clock. Rev.
Mr. Crocker conducted the committal
services there.
From Independent Republican, Goshen
N. Y., May 22, 1928.
Although the William Bull and Sarah Wells Family Association's annual picnic Saturday drew a drenching downpour that forced the picknickers indoors for lunch and the annual meeting that followed, spirits were far from dampened at the event. Robert McLeod Jackson, who has served as association secretary for 41 years, was guest of honor with more than 300 of the members on hand to toast him. In a brief ceremony preceding the lunch, President Earl Dickover of Thompson Ridge dedicated a new oil portrait of Mr. Jackson, painted by Mrs. Ruth Mutchler of Monroe. The painting will be
hung in the historic 1722 Bull Stone house, which has been the scene of the family gathering for a century. Miss Sarah Wells Duffy took part in the presentation ceremony. Hamptonburgh Grange Hall, adjacent to the Stone House property, was opened for use as a dining hall and meeting place.