also for remarkable energy and perseverance. Her life was unusually protracted. At the advanced age of 105 she died, leaving behind her abundant proofs of that activity and vigour of mind which shone so conspicuously in her descendants.

The travels of the young couple in search of a suitable locality where they might settle down, extended through numerous countries. First the south branch. of the Potomac was the favoured spot-the particular place of their choice being now known as Moorefields. There they remained for a time-a young family springing up round them; but quitting at length this most lovely valley, they pushed on into wider lands in search of more hopeful fields of enterprise. Crossing the main Alleghany ridge into north-western Virginia, they settled eventually on the Buchanan River, in what was at first Randolph, but is now known as Upshur County, and for a long time bore the name of Jackson's Fort. There the great-grandsire of our hero spent an active life, and reared his family.

He is set forth as having been spare and small, in character resolute, in manners and pretensions simple and unassuming, of sound sense and stainless reputation. His wife we have already in a measure described. The contrast in their appearance must have been remarkable, as she seems to have been of masculine stature, with strength and courage quite equal to her proportions. At the time they settled in their picturesque home, the neighbourhood was

ELIZABETH CUMMINS.

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very disturbed; the Indians still contesting keenly with the white men the occupancy of the country. Many a siege had the enterprising emigrants to encounter, many a sally to brave. No sapper and

miner had more need of his scientific art and appliances than the would-be colonist of that time in that place. Stockade forts for families and cattle had frequently to be erected, in the prospect of savage incursions. It was at this crisis, and under these stirring circumstances, that Elizabeth Cummins displayed herself with "the stomach and mettle of a man,"--rendering valuable service by the aid she afforded in dismaying the assailants and inspiriting the defenders. Nor were her services left unrewarded. Many a patent still exists, conveying to her, in her own name, lands which were afterwards inherited by her posterity.

True to his Scotch-Irish sagacity, John Jackson addressed himself to endowing his children by the purchase of adjoining lands while they were unoccupied and cheap. In this endeavour he appears to have had great success. After a long and active life the two removed to the residence of Colonel George Jackson, their eldest son, at Clarksburg, where, in quiet and tranquil seclusion, the old man died. "His long life," writes one of the most distinguished of his descendants, "was spent in those noble and virtuous pursuits which endear men to their acquaintance, and make their death sincerely regretted by all the good and virtuous."

The very great age to which his widow lived we have already recorded. Their immediate successors, numerous and prosperous, established effectually the reputation, now fairly started in the new country, for conspicuous merit and capacity. In short, they reflected worthily the excellences of the founders. Success, too, marked their several careers, and the forethought of those who went before them reaped a full reward. Their lands were the widest-their dependants the most numerous--their positions the most influential. All were useful; some were invariably to be found in the Hall of Congress.

But there is no rule without an exception, and Jonathan Jackson, the general's father, could hardly have been described as a prosperous man. Such, indeed, he might have been, for his profession of a lawyer was embraced under the most favourable auspices; while to the prosecution of it he brought a strong distinct understanding and sound knowledge and judgment. But unhappily he scarcely seems to have inherited the Jackson reputation for sturdiness of moral purpose. A too easy temper betrayed him into dissipation, while incautious engagements and high play completed the ruin. His estate rapidly melted away, leaving him in the end nothing but the house he lived in and his professional income. But under all the darkness there was light. A malignant fever struck down his little girl; he watched its course with the tenderest assiduity. His exertions at this time, and his grief at her death, combined with

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his business anxieties, brought him down, and within a fortnight of her burial he followed her to the grave. His widow was left penniless, and but for the Masonic Order, of which her husband had been an officer, would have been houseless also. That society gave her a small cottage of a single room, where, by her needle and the labours of a little school, she endeavoured to earn a living.

She was a lady, we are told, of "graceful and commanding presence," spare and above the ordinary female height, of a comely and engaging countenance. Her mind was cultivated and intelligent, and it is probable that much of the talent of her children was inherited through her.

She was a true Christian: her illustrious son ascribed to her his earliest religious impressions, and cherished her memory with tenderest reverence. After a three years' widowhood, she received the addresses of a Mr Woodson, a lawyer of Cumberland County, Virginia, a gentleman many years her senior, -a widower, without property, but of fair character. The idea of this marriage was so distasteful to her relatives that they threatened, if it was persisted in, to withdraw her children from her protection. On her eventually consenting to the union, she was compelled to submit to this separation as the income of her new husband was not sufficient for the maintenance of her previous family.

She survived this second marriage but one year. "I have known few women of equal, none of superior

merit," is the widower's somewhat sententious, but doubtless genuine eulogy. Her son Thomas closed her eyes, and many a time in after years was heard to bear testimony to the peace and triumph of her death. He loved to recall her, as his ideal of feminine grace and beauty; and used to detail frequently, never without emotion, his departure for his uncle's at the time of her second marriage, "when she had him mounted behind the last of his father's slaves, good old Uncle Robinson, and recalled him so anxiously to give the last touch to the arrangements for his comfort."

In

The children, now orphans, fell to the care of their father's sisters, Mrs White and Mrs Brake: Thomas, it would appear, being received by the latter. He is described as having been at this time "a pretty and engaging child, with rosy and almost feminine cheeks, waving brown hair, and large pensive blue eyes.' the full sense of the term, however, he was no child; waywardness and levity, we learn, were in him unknown. His quiet, thoughtful resoluteness was as conspicuous as his delicate courtesy; indeed, he seems from the very first to have been gifted with a marvellous faculty of estimating and acting upon any emergencies by which he might be beset.

As an instance of this precocity may be quoted his sudden appearance one morning at the house of his father's cousin, Judge Jackson of Clarksburg. To Mrs Jackson's gaze of astonished inquiry he vouchsafed no reply, beyond saluting her as aunt, according