If it’s too good to be true - it probably is

Shades of Russian interference, you can’t believe everything you read! For as long as I’ve done this column, I’ve said: “ Documentation, always get documentation!” Aunt Mae may remember it one way, Uncle John another, and neither may be right!

So, of all things, even though a little voice in my head (and I have lots of those voices) was harping at me to not take everything as the truth in that little book that Lois and Bob wrote, I went ahead and wrote that Stonewall Jackson’s daughter lived briefly in McCook. Guess what, that was totally and unequivocally wrong.

That voice in my head was saying “How could a daughter of someone that famous live in McCook and it only rate @ 200-word piece in the book?” I should have listened. Juliet Jackson Walker was the daughter of a general that fought in the Civil War, but he was Brigadier General James S. Jackson, Kentucky Volunteers, Union Army.

General Jackson, who was an attorney, resigned his position as a Congressman and entered the army in December 1861. He would lead an entire division of troops into the battle of Perryville, the largest Civil War engagement in Kentucky. On October 8th, 1862, Jackson was killed in action at Parson’s Ridge while attempting to defend the Union battery of Charles Parsons. He was survived by his wife, Martha (Patsy) Buford Jackson and four children.

So, General James Jackson served in the Union Army and General Stonewall Jackson served in the Confederate Army. Could a story get more screwed up than that? Stonewall’s family consisted of one child, Julia, who was born in 1862 and married to William Edmund Christian. Here I can see where the mistake might have been made since the names Julia and Juliette could be mixed up.

When Juliette died in McCook on November 1, 1915, she was buried in Memorial Park. Her mother, who also passed away in McCook, was buried next to her in 1917. Juliette had two brothers: David Streshly Jackson and James Berryman Jackson. Neither of them lived in McCook.

Her sister, Henrietta “Etta” Jackson was married and did live in McCook. Her married name is quite familiar to the area: Galusha. Her husband was a self-employed men’s clothing merchant in 1920 and had employees according to the 1920 Federal Census of Red Willow County. None, according to Ancestry, of her four children remained in McCook. What brought them here and who they might have been related to in this area is still a mystery that will have to remain unsolved for the time being.

Juliette’s father was a famous general, just not the one indicated in the book. Consequently, the rule is listening to those voices and do your research plus document it! Family stories are just that, entertaining but not necessarily true. Compilation books, Brag books, as Tom often calls them, is just a group of family stories in a nice binding! Read them, jot down notes, and then do the hard work by documenting the “facts” contained in each one. You’ll be glad you did when it comes to having a complete, correct family genealogical history.

Our library, which is staffed by volunteers, is open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1-4. 110 West C, Suite M-3, SWNGS welcomes all visitors interested in history surrounding southwest Nebraska.