Jackson's Mill - Toiling under a hot July sun, students and volunteers sift the soil here for fragments of history in a two month long search to pinpoint the locations of Edward Jackson's original log cabin and the Cummins-Jackson home, where Gen. Stonewall Jackson spent his boyhood summers.
According to John Nass, coordinator of the archaeological dig, the project is being sponsored by the Jackson's Mill Restoration committee in conjunction with the sociology and Anthropology Department of the West Virginia University.
By digging random squares in the earth around the present cabin, Nass and his assistants hope to determine the location of the original cabin built shortly after 1800 by Edward Jackson who had moved to Jackson's Mill from Buckhannon.
At another location 30 yards from the present cabin, workers are attempting to map-out the foundation of the Cummins Jackson home, which was built in 1845 and destroyed by fire in 1915. (This date is incorrect - Dec. 3, 1914 is the date of the fire). Thus far, they have uncovered evidence of a chimney. However, photographs indicate that the house had three chimneys and workers are unsure as to which one they have uncovered.
Artifacts unearthed to date include pieces of imported ceramic, brass and pewter buttons, spoons, knives, brass and iron buckles, nails, clay marbles, and salt water oyster shells. "Most of the artifacts we've found date from 1800 to 1845," Nass said.
This year, however, he has the assistance of eight to twelve students and volunteers, including Tamara Atkinson, a student at West Virginia Wesleyan College.
One Buckhannon resident who has a particular interest in the project is Fred M. Wilt of Eastlawn Drive. His great grandmother, Catherine Jackson White, lived in the Cummins Jackson home when her young nephew, Stonewall Jackson came to Jackson's Mill to spend his summers.
Thomas Jackson lived at Jackson's Mill from 1830 to 1842. He was graduated from West Point, distinguished himself in the Mexican War and became a professor at the Virginia Military Institute. When the Civil War broke out, Jackson, who was not in favor of slavery, joined a unit of the Confederate Army being raised in his home state of Virginia because he believed the major issue of the conflict was that of states' rights.
Jackson initially was commissioned as a major, but quickly rose in rank to colonel then brigadier general, and finally his highest rank of lieutenant general.
He earned his famous nickname in the first Battle of Bull Run because of his brave unflinching stand in the face of over-whelming enemy numbers. Jackson's bravery so inspired the Confederate soldiers that they turned an almost certain defeat into a stunning victory.
Stonewall Jackson is credited as being "the most outstanding military genius ever produced in this country". Probably the Weston Democrat date: 6 Oct. 1982...contributed to the Jackson Scrapbook by R. Wolfe, Jr., of French Creek, WV.