THE STORY OF SARAH AND ABIGAIL JACKSON
CHAPTER ONE - APRIL, 2005
by Janie Kimble

At one time, I had Sarah, Edward Jackson's daughter married twice; once to Jonathan Hughes and once to John Flesher.  I got the Hughes data from charts at rootsweb and the Flesher info from Larry Flesher's web site.  I took both because the 1887 Jackson Ledger had said "Sallie may have married a Flesher or Hughes or she may have been twice married."  (So even in 1887 the author of the Jackson Ledger was uncertain whether it was either or both.)  But later I saw from the dates that these two marriages were not possible for one woman, so I began to dig a little deeper.

I read that Edward Jackson's Will named his daughter, Sarah Fletcher as an heir in 1807.  So she couldn't have been married to Hughes at this time!  This called for a re-examination of Larry Flesher's data.  I didn't know if there were two Sarah Jacksons or if the dates I had were wrong and she actually was married twice.  I was becoming  more certain that there were two different women!! 

I checked the Flesher site again and saw that the author has two different dates for Sarah's birth:
"Sarah Abigail Jackson was born in 1765 in NJ."
"She was born on 30 Nov 1786." 

Assuming she was born 1765, she would have been 21 yrs old when she married Hughes in 1786; and would have been 39 years old when she married John Flesher in 1804.  That's why I first thought she was married twice, until I realized that Hughes had not died until 1849.  This is long after she was supposed to have married John Flesher in 1804; or after Sarah Fletcher was named in her father's Will in 1807!

Then I remembered the notarized statement from Roy B. Cook (on this site in 'Resources') that Sarah was born in 1786 - the same date as Larry Flesher's second date.

So perhaps the 1765 birth date for Sarah is wrong and the 1786 date on Flesher's site and by Roy B. Cook is right. That would make Sarah born in 1786 and marrying John Flesher in 1804 when she was 18 years old. (See Chapter Two for update on this!)

But the clincher was when I studied the location of the family of John Flesher and his wife Sarah.  Mr. Flesher's site also had data on Sarah's sister, Lucinda.  The sisters apparently married brothers; Sarah to John Flesher and Lucinda to William Flesher.  Sometime after marrying,  Sarah and John Flesher, and Lucinda and Wm. Flesher - both families moved to Lebanon Township, Meigs County, Ohio, where Sarah and Lucinda's brother, Samuel, was living at that time.  This same Lucinda was later found in 1850 in Salem Twp, Warren County, Ohio, where her other brother, William Jackson, was living with his wife Hannah Bennett.  These locations leave me to believe this is Edward's Sarah.   And according to Larry Flesher, Sarah & John later moved to Illinois.

I have since found both Sarah and John Flesher and Lucinda Flesher in the 1850 Census.  Lucinda is living with her son, Elias, in Warren County, OH.  She states that she was born in New Jersey.  Sarah and John Flesher are in Iroquois County, Illinois and she also states that she was born in New Jersey.  (All but the youngest of Edward's children were born in New Jersey.  In this Illinois census Sarah's son, Lemuel J. Flesher, has named his youngest daughter, Lucinda.)

Now if we need another verification, I have found a copy of the marriage bond of Abigail Jackson and Jonathan Hughes.  It is signed by William Jackson, Edward's brother who 'finally settled' in Tennessee.  I believe this Abigail, who married Jonathan Hughes is not the daughter of Edward Jackson and Martha Miller.  His Will would have called her Sarah Hughes if it had been so; but he called his daughter Sarah Fletcher.  (See Edward's Will on this site.)  The 1850 Warren Co. Ohio census lists Lucinda Fletcher living with her son Elias Fletcher.  So Fletcher for Flesher was a common mis-spelling.

Abigail Jackson, did marry Jonathan Hughes.  Best conjecture is that she is the daughter of William Jackson, brother of Edward, who signed Abigail's marriage bond in Wilkes County, North Carolina in 1786.  (I have found no evidence that Edward was ever in North Carolina.)  Therefore, I have added William's daughter Abigail, her husband Jonathan Hughes and many of their descendants to the data base in September, 2008.

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