Ancestor Animation, part 4: Looking out for their own

I can’t remember my Gramma Leta Bertram ever telling me a story about her past, her parents or her sisters. My mom told me that she and Dad drove Gramma B to Ohio to see her mother, Florence Scott Jackson Daniels, toward the end of Florence’s life. Beyond that, all I had to start with was my Aunt Mary’s notes about that side of the family. These included some stark references to hardship.

Chester Edwin Jackson (Gramma B’s father): “Chester was 28 years old when he was run over by a truck.”

Florence Scott Jackson: “She baked for hotels & restaurants to support [her children] after being widowed.”

Chester and Florence’s one-year-old daughter Evelyn died about six months before Chester did. Florence was left with two girls under the age of six and one on the way.

Their story echoes that of Chester’s great-grandparents Jason Thayer and Abigail Abbot Thurston (or Thuston). In the 1850 census, Jason, Abigail and their children are listed as residents of the Huron County Poor House in Norwalk, Ohio. Ironically, a couple of decades earlier, Jason had served as a Clarksfield Township overseer of the poor, whose responsibilities included sending people to that same county poor house.

Jason and Abigail’s six-year-old son Eli died in November of that year. Jason died “in a fit” exactly one month later. He was 64, so he got a fuller measure of life than his great-grandson Chester would. Nonetheless, his death left Abigail on her own with their eight-year-old son William Henry and possibly an infant daughter.

There’s evidence that Jason and Abigail had two daughters older than William Henry, not living with them in the poor house, who were later adopted by Abigail’s brother Hiram. Hiram’s adopting his nieces is just one example of the admirable way this extended family looked out for their own. By 1860, William Henry was living with his half-sister Mary Jane, the daughter of Jason and Jason’s first wife Tamar. The widowed Abigail married a watch-and-clock repairman named Manoah Hunter. After his death, she lived with a series of relatives, including, possibly, Jason’s stepdaughter, Tamar’s daughter Tamar Ann. William married Fannie Jane Cooley, a granddaughter of his mom’s husband Manoah. Fannie Jane may possibly have been related to Esther Cooley, an old lady who was living with Jason, Abigail and their sons in the poor house in 1850.

The relationships among these folks make genealogy charting software give up in despair. I think the takeaway is that life in Ohio in the mid-19^th century was exceedingly rough. People were widowed multiple times, families broke up, you took shelter with any connection of yours who would have you. You went where you had to go.

William Henry Thayer went on to serve in the 3^rd Ohio Volunteer Cavalry in the Civil War. He and Fannie Jane had 10 children.

Because I don’t have any photos from Gramma B’s side of the family, I’m heading this post with one showing her in her prime, with my grampa, my dad, my sister and me.

For More Information

On overseers of the poor

O’Brassill-Kulfan, Kristin. “Overseers of the Poor: Relief, Surveillance, and Control in the Early Republic Northeast.” Journal of the Early Republic, vol. 44, no. 2, Summer 2024, pp. 239-250. 10.1353/jer.2024.a932149

The Joseph Smith Papers, Warrant, 21 October 1833 (accessed Nov 13, 2025). See the historical introduction for an overview of the office of overseer of the poor and how its powers were used to exclude people from the town on a basis other than poverty.

Wiles, John S. “Front Face! Quick Step!!.” The Hamilton Intelligencer, Hamilton, Ohio, April 12, 1838, p. 3. An Ohio overseer of the poor announces his intention to use the powers of his office to enforce the state’s Black laws and remove Black people from the town.