William T BREWER Leonard BREWER Samuel Westfall JACKSON Alvin Theodore JACKSON William Andrew JACKSON William Robert BREWER Charley L BREWER Vera Ethel BREWER Myrtle BREWER Thelma BREWER Mary LESTER Mini tree diagram
Estella BREWER

Estella BREWER2,5,6,1,3,4,7

15th Sep 18832,3,4,1 - 27th Jun 19191

Life History

15th Sep 1883

Born in Tennessee.2,3,4,1

about 1901

Married Samuel Westfall JACKSON in Ft Gibson, Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory.1

24th Jan 1904

Birth of son Alvin Theodore JACKSON in Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory.1,8,2,7

24th Apr 1909

Birth of son William Andrew JACKSON in Nash Township, Muskogee, Oklahoma.9,2,10,11,1,8

1910

Resident in Nash, Muskogee, Oklahoma.2

1918

Resident 1918 City Directory; Sam's 1178 E 5th St;  918 WWI Draft Registration Card as wife in Riverside, Riverside, California.5,6

27th Jun 1919

Died in Riverside, Riverside, California.1

30th Jun 1919

Buried in Riverside Cemetery, Riverside, Riverside County, Califorrnia.1

Notes

  • Stella Brewer was born in Tennessee in November 1883.  We do not have details about the time in Tennessee.  From the births of the children in the 1900 census, we can see the Brewer family moved from Tennessee to Indian Territory between 1889 and 1897.

    In the 1900 census her name is reported as Estelle.  Later sources, including her obituary, record her name as Estella.  She is commonly known as Stella.

    1900 Federal Census, Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory, 21 June, Township 15, District 40, page 9B, Hse/Fam #173
    Brewer, William Head W M Aug 1857  42 Married 20 yrs  TN AL TN Farmer Rents
    Brewer, Molly Wife W F Oct 1864  35 Married 20 yrs  9 child/6 living AL TN AL
    Brewer, Leonard  Son W M Mar 1882  18 Single  TN AL AL Farm Laborer
    Brewer, Estelle Dau W F Sept 1883  16 Single  TN TN AL
    Brewer, William Son W F Oct 1887  12 TN TN AL
    Brewer, Charley Son W F Nov 1889  10 TN TN AL
    Brewer, Vera Dau W F July 1897  2 Indian Terr TN AL
    Brewer, Myrtle Dau W F Mar 1900  2mos Indian Terr  TN AL

    Brewer, Myrtle Dau W F  Mar 1900  2mos Territory TN AL
    1910 Federal Census, Nash, Muskogee, Oklahoma, 2 May, District 107, Page 14A,  Hse/Fam #107
    Jackson, Sam Head  M W 36 Married 8 years OK TX GA  Farmer
    Jackson, Stella Wife  F W 26 Married 8 years 4 children/2 living TN TN AL
    Jackson, Alvin  Son  M W  6 OK OK TN
    Jackson, William  Son M W  11mos  OK OK TN

    Stella married Sam Westfall Jackson about 1902.  In the 1910 census we find that after 8 years, Stella has had 4 children, but only two of them are still living.  This means Stella had a child about every 2 years, but two of them died in this 8-year period.

    Note that both the living children were born in Oklahoma.  Their son Alvin would have been born about 1904 and William himself tells us in a postcard to an aunt that his birthday was 23 Apr 1909.  (April was the census month, so his age of 11 months in the 1910 census matches that birth date.)  During these five years between 1904 and 1909, family sources tell us they were in Parker County, Texas.  While Sam and Stella lived in Parker County, Texas, two children died in infancy, one male and one female in 1907-8.  No names are given on the graves.  The last one died in 1908.  Only the year is given on the gravestone, no specific date.

    Betty Jackson Hess makes reference to the child who died in 1908.

    Some notes on a picture shared by Linda Martin Hanks are somewhat helpful here.  In October 2007, Linda shared with Green-Jackson family researcher Cindy Beam some letters and the picture from Betty Jackson Hess, a daughter of James Toliver and Elizabeth Tate Jackson.  These documents were written about 1985.  Cindy shared with me and her brother Marion Mixon the basic transcriptions she made of these documents.  We three worked on the analysis and interpretation of these valuable family notes from Betty.

    ---------------------------------------
    NOTES ON THE BACK OF A PICTURE POST CARD
    Written by Betty Jackson Hess to Linda Martin Hanks
    Transcription by Orville Boyd Jenkins

    =========
    [Betty Jackson Hess:] Uncle Sam Jackson and two sons. The oldest Alvin M was about 5 when they left Weatherford to go back to Okla in 1908. They lost a little boy.  He is buried in the cemetery where my  mother and little sister is buried, in the Curtis Cemetery at Weatherford.

    His name was Haskle.  Aunt Stellar had died when this was taken.

    [left side writing, Betty Jackson Hess:] I have a picture of all 4 so you can keep this one.

    [center lighter writing, William Andrew Jackson:] I Will send this card we had taken of us at Whits Park.
    Andrew Jackson.
    I was 12 years old I am now 14 will send better picture latter [sic]

    [right side writing, William Andrew Jackson:] birthday 24 April 1923
    ---------------------------------------

    This means that they were still in Muskogee, Cherokee Nation, in 1904 when Alvin was born, but then in Parker County, Texas, by 1905 or 1906, to match the date of death of their first infant there in 1907.  Following the death of their second infant in Parker County, they had to be back in Oklahoma, presumably in Muskogee County, by the end of 1908 or early 1909, depending on whether they were traveling after Stella was pregnant with William.  This is a long distance to be going back and forth in those days.  Muskogee is in east central Oklahoma, and Parker County is west of Ft Worth, Texas,

    Note that Betty memntions only one infant lost in Parker County, saying that Sam and Stella had lost a little boy named Haskle and that he is buried in the Curtis Cemetery in Weatherford (Parker county), Texas.

    There are two Jackson infants in the Curtis Cemetery, but both are listed only as "Baby Jackson."  Neither has the names of parents.  The infant Betty remembers is most likely that second one, dying in 1908.  Another cousin and researcher, Mary Jo Bledsoe reports that Sam and Stella lost two infants, not just the one boy, in Weatherford, Texas, matching the grave records.

    In 1910 we find Stella's widowed father living in Wagoner County, Oklahoma.  Wagoner is the county north of Muskogee County where Stella and Sam Jackson are living.  This is still in the lands of Cherokee Nation.

    1910 Federal Census, Wagoner County, Oklahoma, 22 April, Blue Mound Township, District 235, page 2B, Hse/Fam #35
    Brewer, William T Head M W 52 Widowed TN AL TN Farmer Rents
    Brewer, Charley M W 20 Single TN TN AL
    Brewer, Ethel F W 12 OK TN AL [matches Vera in 1900]
    Brewer, Myrtel F W 10 OK TN AL
    Brewer, Thelma F W 8 OK TN AL

    According to notes from Betty Jackson Hess, it appears Sam and the family went back to Parker County after the 1910 census, either to visit or to live.  Since we know they were in Riverside, California, by 1918, they probably went to Weatherford to visit on their way to California.

    Andrew's note on the photo postcard seems to say he was sending the card after his 14th birthday, on 23 April 1923.  But Andrew says the photo on the other side of the card was taken actually when he was 12.  Note that Betty comments that Stella had died before the photo was taken.  That would mean Stella had died before 1921, which matches the 1920 census report in Riverside, California, that Sam was a widow.

    In one of her letters, Betty Hess says Stella died when she was 12 (meaning about 1912, since Betty was born in 1900).  But records found later tell us that Stella did not die in 1912, but moved to California with Sam and the boys.  But Stella had died when the photo discussed above was taken in 1921.

    In March 2012 I found what a record for Stella in 1918.  The location matches the census location, though the street address is different.  Stella's name here is Estella, matching closely the name Estelle in the 1900 census.  Estella could be either the full name, for which Stella is a short form, or a formalized version of her name Stella.

    This reference to "Estella Jackson" is given in Sam's 1918 draft registration for WWI in Riverside, California.

    World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918
    Samuel Jackson
    Residence 178 E Fifth St, Riverside, Riverside County, California
    Birth Date: 8 Jan 1876
    Farmer
    Wife Estella Jackson
    6' 1", Slender Brown Hair and Eyes
    Registered 12 September 1918 Riverside, California

    This reference to another form of Stella's name led a cousin Kati Jackson to find some more missing pieces in late April 2012.  She found the Brewer family in Cherokee Nation, in the same Township 15 where Sam's cousin Jacob Green and his wife Susan Barnett were enumerated in the 1900 census.  This matches the 1910 census where Sam and Stella were in Nash Township, near Muskogee, also with Jacob and Susan.  Jacob and Susan also moved to California after 1910.  The picture was coming together.

    Our coresearcher Butch Mixon then found a listing for Sam and Stella for that same year in the recently posted city directories for Riverside, California.  Here she is called Stella.

    U.S. City Directories 1918
    Riverside City Directory, p 111
    Jackson Saml (Stella)   Rancher  Home 178 E 5th

    In January 1920, the census, which I had found a long time before, had reported that Sam was a widower, still in Riverside City, Riverside County, California.

    1920 Federal Census, Riverside County, California, 5 January, Riverside City Ward 2, District 118, Page 3A,  Hse #47, Fam #55
    Jackson, Sam W  Head  M W 45 Widowed  OK GA GA  Farm Caretaker
    Jackson, Alvin Th. Son  M W 15 OK OK GA
    Jackson, Wm Andrew  Son M W 10 OK OK GA

    Now with the information from the 1918 Draft Registration, I could say that Estella/Stella Brewer died between 12 September 1918 and 1 January 1920 (census date) in Riverside California.  Along with finding Stella's 1900 census with her parents, Kati found the record of her death in the California Death Index on FamilySearch.org, though we had not found it on Ancestry.com.  This confirmed that Estella Jackson died 27 June 1919.

    California Death Index, page 5293
    Jackson, Estella  Spouse's Initial S
    Age 35
    Died County 33 (Riverside)
    Date 6 27 19
    State File Number 25671
    --  FamilySearch, https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1951-26181-11354-78?cc=1932433&wc=14216746

    This listing of her name as Estella in the death record would seem to indicate that the proper form of her name was Estella.

    Thanks to my cousin Beverly Mixon Hill, for a clipping of Stella's obituary, published in a Riverside, California, newspaper.  Unfortunately this obit does not say in which cemetery she was buried.

    -------------------------------------
    Obit for Estella Brewer Jackson
    Courtesy of Beverly Mixon Hill
    Obit Column "In the Shadow"
    Riverside Daily Press, Riverside, California, [Tuesday] 1 July 1919
    (Transcribed by Orville Boyd Jenkins, punctuation and capitalization transcribed as is)

    Mrs. Estella Jackson

    Funeral services for the late Mrs. Estella Jackson, wife of S. W. Jackson of 178 East Fifth Street, were held yesterday [30 June 1919] from the chapel of Ward, Amstatz and Glenn and were attended by a large company of friends of the bereaved family.  Rev. Richard Day, pastor of the First Baptist Church, of which Mrs. Jackson was a member, had the services in charge and the pallbearers were members of the Westside Friendship Circle -- Mesdames C. N. Sheldon, James Kidder, H. A. Mumy, C. W. Fliekinger, R. D. Perkins and Miss Martha Babel.

    Mrs. Jackson was born in Tennessee September 15, 1883 and when quite young moved with her parents to Oklahoma, where at the age of 18 years she became the wife of S. W. Jackson, the wedding taking place at Fort Gibson, Okla.  To this union were born four children, two who died in infancy, Alvin, 13 years, and William, 10 years, survive.  The father of Mrs. Jackson, three brothers and three sisters, also survive to mourn her loss.  They all reside in Oklahoma.

    Mr. and Mrs. Jackson came to California in 1912, and for three years they made their home in West Riverside, where Mrs. Jackson was a favorite member of the Friendship Circle.  Of later years, they have made their home on East Fifth street, and Mr. Jackson has been in the employee of the city park department.

    For several years Mrs. Jackson has been in feeble health, and has lived the life of a semi-invalid for many months.  She passed away Friday morning [27 June 1919*] at 2:30 o'clock, death bringing grateful release from suffering.  She was a devoted member of the Baptist church and through all of her years of illness lived the Christian faith of which she was a devout follower.

    *Date of death from California Death Index
    ----------------------------------

Sources

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