Tourist in My Town

The Jackson Ranch Cemetary is one of the two Jackson family cemetaries located half a mile south of US 281 (Old Military Highway) in San Juan, Texas where south I Road becomes Doffin Road once you cross a levee.

The Jackson Methodist Church received a Texas historical marker in 1982 in recognition of it being the first established Protestant church in the Rio Grande Valley back in 1896. The church looks abandoned but has been restored.

Both of these cemetaries contain the descendants of Nathaniel Jackson and Matilda Hicks. Jackson was born in Wilcox County, Alabama, and settled on this land on July 27, 1857.

The weather and time have deteriorated the plot inscriptions causing them to be difficult to read, like this headstone of Rita Jackson.

The Eli Jackson Cemetary was established in 1865 and is 500 feet east of the Jackson Ranch Cemetary. The entrance to the cemetary is not visible from Doffin Road and is where the truck is parked.

When we got there on March 8, 2017, we found that the truck belongs to Jose Angel Gonzalez and his son Gabriel Gonzalez who were working on lying down a slab of granite stone and a head stone belonging to the deceased Alberto Z Jackson, a U. S. Army World War II veteran. Jose Gonzalez and Gabriel Gonzalez own their own business, Gonzalez Monuments, where they make custom-made tombstones.

I told my parents about my assignment, and they brought me here so that I could learn about my history. Here rests Adela Jackson, the eldest daughter of Nathaniel "Polo" Jackson and my great grandmother, and Eugenia Villanueva Jackson, my great great grandmother.