The Jackson Sisters of Hillsboro
(Editor’s Note: The following excerpt is from a Museum Notes book written and compiled by J.S. Wilson in 2008 and 2009. It is reprinted here with his permission. Copies of the books are available at the Monticello-Jasper County Chamber of Commerce on the Square.)
This is a remarkable historical story of another family from the Sugar Hill area near Hillsboro. This information was obtained from Jill Dyer from an article by Frances Meredith Reid in 1970 for the Georgia Magazine and referred to as “The Amazing Jackson Sisters.”
Note: They never married, but they each lived a lifetime of enormous labor with independence and grace…
The five ladies shown in the picture above grew up about the time of the War Between the States. Research reveals they were descendants of a connection of the family of Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States. They asked no favors of anyone and never forgot to repay any preferred assistance of debt.
They literally put their small white hands to the plow handles and never looked back. They farmed 300 acres of land near the Sugar Hill community for almost a century. Sugar Hill is a few miles south of Hillsboro near the Jasper/Jones county line. This land is now government owned.
In 1863 Luis Jackson, their father, Joined the Confederate Army and served near Lookout Mountain. Death by jaundice claimed their father near Dalton. He was survived by his wife, Margaret, and six daughters born between 1847 and 1861. Margaret and the daughters did most of the farm work with very little help thus acquiring the knowledge so necessary for their future.
In July 1864, the Yankees came. The mounted soldiers plunged across the fields trampling down the cotton, corn, and vegetables eliminating any chance of food for the family for the coming winter. The soldiers killed the turkeys and chickens and took Luis’ stallion, the filly and colt with them. Fortunately, they did not burn the house.
Perhaps seeing the widow and little girls stirred compassion in them and having done all the damage possible they galloped away. Later came the sound of the battle of Sunshine Church which took place on July 31, 1864 and only a short distance away.
In 1871 Mrs. Jackson developed typhoid fever and later died. After Mrs. Jackson’s death a controversy ensued with relatives auguring that the sisters must not stay alone without a man to care for them. There was talk about taking the sisters away but they vetoed the proposal led by Miss Julie, age 25, very tiny but very much the leader.
By the end of the decade the sisters ordered a new house. The contractor came with a small sawmill. Trees were felled on the place and were dragged to the house site by oxen. With some neighbors help the house was finished. It consisted of two large rooms downstairs with a stacked chimney, providing a fireplace for each room and a narrow stairway led to two low ceiling rooms upstairs and the kitchen was built a short distance away. A garden was in the back and the yards were swept clean with “brush brooms.”
Next, the sisters cut down trees and trimmed them into rough planks and built a barn, cow shed, pig sty, a cotton storage house, and a smoke house. In the summers five of the sisters did the field work leaving home shortly after sun-up. Miss Betty stayed at home and cooked the meals on the fireplace consisting of corn pone, biscuits, cake and pies and vegetables. She blew an ancient hunting horn to summon them from the fields.
It was not until 1918 that a wood burning cook stove was installed. The ladies made all of their clothes, shearing the sheep for wool. They knitted their own gloves and stockings.
All the sisters were popular and when young attended all the country dances. One of the girls’ suitors came to the house one evening and when about to leave he tried to kiss Miss Sally. Miss Julie came a running chasing him outside and when he tried to jump over the fence she cut off his coat tail to teach him a lesson. As time passed the dances were discontinued and the sisters turned more to religion and attended several country churches. Miss Margie rode side saddle every Sunday to the County Line Primitive Baptist Church. Miss Julie would always read the Bible to the sisters.
Every year they cut wood for heat and on one occasion a large tree fell on Miss Sally. She went into a coma that night and died the next day. Each sister made their own burial gown of black homespun and white cuffs and collar. Miss Sally was accordingly arrayed. In 1928 Miss Julie, 81, had a stroke while cutting wood. By this time all the sisters were failing and later had to depend on a neighbor Rufus Garland to move into their house and attend to them. He later was named sole beneficiary of their estate for his dedication and care of the older sisters.
What a fabulous story and we have the full account posted in the Museum of Jasper County Heritage. I hope that someday everyone gets a chance to read the full story. I am told that hundreds of articles and letters relating to the Jackson Sisters are presently on file in the Georgia Archives Department in Atlanta.
Mrs. Jill Dyer of Hillsboro is a descendant of the Jackson Sisters. Mrs. Carol Dumas is also a descendant and has the sisters’ old spinning wheel which she plans to loan to the museum.
