William H. Jackson, clerk of the county court, of Lauderdale County, is a
son of James D. and Frances (Wright) Jackson. The father was born in Dinwiddie
County, Va., in 1811, and his mother in Northhampton, Mass., in 1817. She met
Mr. Jackson in Virginia, while visiting there; they were afterward married in
Massachusetts, then moved to Fayette County, Tenn., where the father died in
1847, and in 1870 the mother came to Ripley, to live with her son, and died in
1884; both were members of the Methodist Church, and he was a Democrat; a
farmer by occupation. Our subject was born August 20, 1838, in Fayette
County, Tenn., had the best educational advantages the county schools
afforded, and at the age of sixteen entered a wholesale and retail dry goods
house at Memphis, where he remained a year, then taught school for three
years; then was book-keeper for a railroad contracting company. In 1860 he
went to Texas and Mexico for his health, but in 1861 volunteered in Company B,
Seventh Tennessee Cavalry (Confederate Army). Three of his brothers were in
the same company, and all went through the war without being wounded. After
his return, in 1865, he married Catherine E. Palmer, who was born in 1843. No
children have been born to this marriage, and both Mr. and Mrs. Jackson are
members of the Methodist Church. Soon after they married they settled on the
farm near Ripley, but two years later moved to town, and Mr. Jackson engaged
in the grocery business for six years, the greater part of the time in
partnership with Maj. Wardlaw. In 1882 he was elected to the office of county
court clerk, and re-elected in 1886. For twenty-one years he has been a
resident of Lauderdale County, and the citizens of his county have shown their
appreciation of him, as a man, and their confidence in his ability and
integrity, by electing and re-electing him to the responsible office of county
court clerk. Mr. Jackson is of a genial, social disposition, and is fond of
hunting and fishing.

Goodspeed’s Biographies of Lauderdale Co., TN