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HARRISON COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
Valerie & Tommy Crook
vfcrook@earthlink.net
July 9, 2000
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 455
Harrison
STEPHEN G. JACKSON. In the midst of a busy career
whose substantial achievements promised greater fulfill-
ment Stephen G. Jackson died January 3, 1922. His asso-
ciates and friends knew and appreciated his keen, logical
mind and sound judgment, enthusiasm for the law and a
ready capacity for hard work, and recognized in him an
able member of the Clarksburg bar, who had built up in
thirteen years a professional reputation extending over
Harrison County. Thoroughly trained in the highest
schools of his calling, he had justified his years of study
by success in practice, and he commanded respect as an
honorable lawyer of the bar and the public alike.
Stephen G. Jackson bore a name well known in American
history both in public and military life. The founder of
the family in New England in Colonial days was Robert
Jackson, who was born in England, of Scotch-Irish an-
cestry, and took a prominent part in affairs relating to the
early settlements. Stephen G. Jackson was born at Jane-
lew, Lewis County, West Virginia, March 6, 1884, a son
of John G. and Martha J. (Bassel) Jackson, the former
of whom was born in Lewis County, March 7, 1857, a. son
of James William Jackson, of Harrison County, Virginia,
and Sallie Ann Goodloe, of Albemarle, West Virginia, and
a grandson of Stephen Pomeroy Jackson, also born in
Harrison County, Virginia. The next direct ancestor,
Stephen Jackson, was born in New Jersey, a son of Edward
Jackson, also born in New Jersey, and a son of Joseph
Jackson, born on Long Island, a son of James Jackson,
also born on Long Island, who was a son of John Jackson,
of Long Island, son of Robert Jackson, the original set-
tler. Of these ancestors both Edward and Stephen Jack-
son, father and son, served in the Revolutionary war, and
Stephen Jackson served also in the War of 1812. Both
served as Indian scouts and both were wounded at the
battle of Yorktown. They were pioneer settlers in what
is now West Virginia, and the late Stephen G. Jackson
owned the land on which they settled immediately after the
Revolutionary war and bought in 1792.
Stephen Jackson, the military hero, married Elizabeth
Pomeroy, a member of one of the old New England fam-
ilies that has been notable in its contributions to American
citizenship of the highest order, an example of the present
day being found in that distinguished statesman, Hon.
Elihu Root.
John G. Jackson, who is president of a bank at Jane-
lew, West Virginia, has been a merchant and banter for
many years and prominent in political affairs in Lewis
County. At one time he was the democratic nominee for
the State Senate and for other important offices. On ac-
count of his temperance principles and pioneer advocacy
of prohibition at a time when such opinions were new and
startling, he was forced into leadership of the prohibition
party in his section, and at one time was the prohibition
candidate for governor. He married Miss Martha J. Bas-
sel, who was born in Harrison County, January 19, 1856,
and died March 15, 1908, leaving two sons: James Henry
and Stephen G. She was a daughter of Henry Bassel, a
brother of the late John Bassel, a prominent lawyer in
West Virginia.
Stephen G. Jackson, who was in the tenth generation
from Robert Jackson, attended the local schools in his
native place and prepared for the University of West Vir-
ginia at Morgantown Academy. He entered the university
in 1903, received his B. S. degree in 1907 and his LL. B.
degree in 1908, and the same from Yale College in 1909.
He immediately entered into practice at Clarksburg, in
association with Edward G. Smith.
In 1907 Mr. Jackson married Miss Jessie Moorhead, who
is a daughter of William and Alice (John) Moorhead, of
Morgantown, West Virginia. Their one daughter, Alice, is
yet in school. Mr. Jackson was a member of the Methodist
Protestant Church and of the Masonic fraternity, and kept
an active interest in Sigma Chi and Phi Alpha Delta
college fraternities of Yale and the University of West
Virginia. In politics he was active as a democrat, but to
the law he gave the fullest efforts and enthusiasm of his
all too brief life.
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