246

the head offices of the Modern Woodmen of America from Fulton to Rock Island.

As associate counsel for the order, he was largely responsible for the vindication

of the will of the order to transfer its headquarters to this city. To do so, he found

it necessary to procure special legislation and to triumph in a series of litigation

that taxed some of the country

‘

s best legal minds.

When Mr. Jackson came to Rock Island from Moline in 1862, he opened a law

office, and in January, 1864, he formed a partnership with E.D. Sweeney and

afterward with Charles L. Walker. In the first instance the firm name was

Sweeney & Jackson, afterward Sweeney, Jackson & Walker. This partnership

continued until 1883, when it was dissolved, and Mr. Jackson retired on account

of illness. The two years of 1883 and 1884 constitute the only interval between

1860 and 1925 in which he was not in continual practice as a lawyer at the bar of

this county. In 1885 he resumed his practice, and four years later he went into

partnership with E.W. Hurst, under the firm name of Jackson & Hurst. This

continued until 1903, when the firm was enlarged by the admission of John T.

Stafford and Elmore H. Stafford, later being known as Jackson, Hurst & Stafford.

That firm is now Stafford, Schoede & Stafford, although for several years Mr.

Jackson has been associated with his grandson, William P. Barth, as the firm of

Jackson & Barth.

Held Public Office

An appointment by President Grant in 1872 placed him in the office of

postmaster of Rock Island, which office he held until 1876. In February, 1897, he

was appointed by Governor John R. Tanner member of the board of managers of

the Illinois state reformatory at Pontiac, and he held this office until March, 1901.

During his days of activity, Mr. Jackson declined such places of preferment at the

hand of his party as the mayoralty, and the state senate, and although frequently

discussed in connection with the congressional nomination of the Republican

party, he never gave encouragement to the suggestion. He chose to devote his

spare time to civic endeavor other than in governmental and legislative posts,

and his refusal to accept them left him free to make the remarkable record of

achievement that is his in the record of the city

‘

s park development. He had

always been a Republican in politics, his first presidential vote being for Fremont

and Dayton. His religious association had always been with the Methodist

church. In England he was in the Wesleyan Methodist body, and in the United

States he was identified with the Methodist Episcopal church, being a church

member for 75 years.

At the first call to arms in the Civil war, Mr. Jackson joined the first military

company that was organized in Moline under President Lincoln

‘

s first