Many Friends Mourn Death of Jake Jay Jackson (Nancy Jackson’s father)
Veteran Printer, beloved by Craft, Succumbs After Gallant Fight. [He died on Dec. 19,1936]
By Gene Collett
Hundreds of friends in Clarksburg and elsewhere were bowed with grief today as word came of the death of Jacob J. Jackson, 47, printer, at 1:10 o’clock this morning in St. Mary’s hospital.
When he was taken to the hospital Thanksgiving morning, Jackson had been suffering pains for five days. His
appendix had ruptured and peritonitis had developed, surgeons learned, when they operated that night.
In the more than three weeks which followed, Jackson’s condition at best could be called little more than critical.
On at least two occasions, he was thought to be dying, but both times, he rallied and seemed to improve. For more than a
week, hope was held that he would recover, but despite his gallant fight, his system was unable to throw off the poisons
which finally overpowered it.
In the course of his illness, two blood transfusions were given, one by his wife, Mrs. Anna Jackson; the other by
Harold Lynch, a printer for the Clarksburg Publishing Company. Both seemed, at the time they were made, to give him
added strength.
Funeral Incomplete
Funeral plans today were incomplete, pending word from relatives in other states.
Aside from his relatives, the blow of Jackson’s death came, perhaps as the greatest shock to his fellow workers in
the Clarksburg Publishing Company.
He had been working in the editorial room of the Clarksburg Telegram as a proof reader since 1927. Prior to that
he had served a number of months as a linotype operator. At another time in the past he had worked several years for the
paper.
In his newspaper work, he was known both for his brilliant command of English grammar and his skill in the
operation of a type-setting machine.
His ability to turn out a great amount of type daily was a marvel to the other printers with whom he worked.
Recently, when he returned to machine work briefly, after an absence of ten years, he proved his ability to set type just as
accurately and as rapidly as he had in his most experienced years of 1925 and before.
Other linotype operators referred to him as a “Swift”meaning that his type-setting speed was extremely rapid. He
was able to “hang the machine” on every line; that is, set another full line of type before the machine was able to cast the
last line in metal. His specialty was setting tabulated matter, long columns of figures, which is considered the most difficult
work an operator has to do.
Very seldom was the name “Jackson” heard about the plant. Always it was “Jake” or “Jack” for he was known by
both nicknames.
Despite the necessity of supporting a family of eight children, Jackson was never known to turn away a jobless
printer who asked for aid. Few men in Clarksburg have been so willing to aid the homeless and the needy. As he was
helpful to others, so also was he loyal to his friends; ready to fight for them, if need be. This is no idle statement; every
friend of Jackson knows it to be true.
He was a member of one of West Virginia’s oldest families. His great-grandfather, John Jackson Jr., was a near
relative of Gen. “Stonewall” Jackson.
Born in Weston
Jake was born April 2, 1889, at Weston, a son of George W. and Mattie C. Renfro Jackson. His mother is dead;
his father lives at Ripley.
He was married on his twenty-fifth birthday, April 2, 1914, at Burnsville, to Miss Anna Grace Stalnaker, a daughter
of Thomas Edwin and Julia Viola Hall Stalnaker.
The widow and eight children survive this marriage: Mrs. Jennings (Mary Elizabeth) Holbert, of Broadway, East
Clarksburg; Thomas Edwin, a member of the United States Navy stationed at San Pedro, Calif.; and Eleanor Ruth, Jacob J.
Jr., Robert Lee, William Andrew, Betty Joan and Nancy Ann, all at home, 136 Austin Ave.
Son At Bedside
The son, Thomas Edwin, was summoned home after his father’s condition was pronounced critical, arriving here
on a thirty-day furlough the morning of December 8, at which time bright hopes were held for Jackson’s recovery.
Other survivors include two brothers, Edwin and Goodloe, both printer at Charleston; and two sisters, Mrs. Lilly
Greathouse, of Lost Creek, and Mrs. Ethel Fairchild, of Pensacola, Fla. There is one grandson, Orville Jennings Holbert, Jr.
Fellow printers and members of the family alike were puzzled today when asked to list the towns in which Jackson
has worked as a printer.
His first work, however, was in another line; as an errand boy and clerk in a grocery store at Weston. He is
believed to have learned the printing trade at about 15 or 16 years of age in the shop of relatives at Charleston. Later, he
was to return to Weston to work as a linotype operator on the Democrat, a weekly newspaper, for a time.
During Jackson’s youth, good printers were well paid and an expert could get a job any time he wanted it. It was a
splendid opportunity to see the country and many took advantage of it, working a few months or perhaps a year or two in
one town; then accepting some more advantageous offer in another part of the country.
Roving Printer
Jackson was one of these roving printers, working in plants as far distant as Miami and Jacksonville, Fla.; Chicago,
Ill., and Washington, D.C.
After his marriage in 1914, he worked for a time in Ashville, N.C., later going south to Pensacola, Fla. He then
returned to Charleston, where he not only worked as a printer but also edited a brilliant comment column in one of the
capital’s leading newspaper.
Aside for one other trip, when he was employed for a time in the government printing office in Washington,
Jackson spent the rest of his life in West Virginia. Printers say they do not know in how many towns he has worked, but
included Wheeling and Grafton in the list.
On his return to Clarksburg in 1925 or 1926, he became permanently attached to the staff of the Clarksburg
Telegram and had been in continuous service for that newspaper in various capacities ever since.
In his younger days, he was a great sand-lot baseball player and might have been a professional if he had chosen
to break away from the printing trade. He was also an expert billiard and pool player, and could make many fancy exhibition
shots. The last two or three years, he had studied contract bridge and played in local tournaments. His keen intellect
dissatisfied him with the ordinary systems for the game and, at the time of his death, he was devising a new system which
he considered would have been an improvement over those now played. His daughter, Eleanor was his favorite bridge
partner.
Jackson probably was one of the best read men in Clarksburg. His library is a weird assortment of volumes,
representing the various subjects in which he has been interested in his lifetime. His keen intellect did not permit him to
read a book casually, without thought. When he found a topic interesting, he frequently read a dozen or more books on the
same subject, comparing the opinions of various writers.
Ardent Student
He was an ardent student of religious matters, both because of his membership in the Clarksburg Baptist church
and because of his interest in the reactions of his fellow men.
He was an authority on life insurance and sold insurance as a sideline. he was a member of the Order of
Maccabees.
Jackson is said to have traced his relationship to “Stonewall” Jackson on both sides of the family. His paternal
grandparents were Jacob Jay Jackson and Permelia Frances Watson Jackson. His great
grandparents were John Jackson, Jr., and Elizabeth Cozad Jackson.
His great-great grandfather, John Jackson Sr., was a member of the Buckhannon colony, which started in 1769.
Jackson was formerly a president of the Jackson Reunion Association, and organization of the “Stonewall” Jackson relatives
in central West Virginia and the surrounding territory.
Jackson was the second beloved member of the Clarksburg Telegram staff to die within three days. M. Rue
Heenan, 48, of the Gore apartments, who served nearly all his life as a printer for this newspaper, succumbed to a heart
attack at 6:45 o’clock Wednesday morning. He had been ill since November 14.
(Clarksburg Telegram Saturday Evening, Dec. 19, 1936)
[Jacob Jay Jackson was a descendant of John Jackson, Jr. (Jacob Jay Jackson(4), George Washington Jackson(3), John Jackson Jr.(2), John Jackson(1))]
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“30” For Two Veteran Printers
Death in the Last Four Days has claimed two of the Clarksburg’s veteran printers, both employees of the
Clarksburg Publishing Company, publisher of the two Clarksburg newspapers. ‘Thirty” was written Wednesday for M. Rue Heenan and the same for Jacob J. Jackson early today. Both had served at their trades with distinction and honor for more
than a quarter of a century, and numbered their friends by the legion in West Virginia and other states.
The printers’ trade and the newspaper profession both closely allied are different from most lines of work. A kind
of fraternalism exists among their members with which the uninitiated is unfamiliar. No written or oral obligation or pledge is
entered into in a formal manner like in lodges, yet a brotherhood, a comradeship exists that has no equal. Each sincerely is
his brother’s keeper.
Rue Heenan and Jake Jackson were printers of the old school, who served their trade loyally and well. They
adhered closely to the precepts and ethics of their vocation. It is a tradition that printers’ ink gets into one’s blood. Good
printers and good newspaper men – those truly imbued with the enthusiasm and spirit of getting out a good newspaper –
rarely ever quit. If they do they usually regret it.
It can most sincerely be said that Rue Heenan and Jake Jackson never really quit their trade. Both were born
printers. They liked their trade and stuck to it even until “30” came into view on the linotype machines they operated. It was
inevitable from the day they were stricken while at work that they had set their last line of type.
Today other veteran operators carry on – set these lines as Rue and Jake would have set them. That is the true
spirit of typical printers – the men and women who labor so faithfully and loyally behind the scenes for the newspapers that
the world may be informed fully of others. Yet, strangely enough, those not of the trade know little intimately about them.
Only printers really know printers. Only newsmen really know newsmen. It’s something that gets into the blood that is
indescribable and inexplainable. You have to be “in” to understand fully what we mean.
(Clarksburg Telegram Saturday Evening, December 19, 1936)