Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-06-15
WAS JACKSON
AN AMERICANA
Charge That He Was Born in i.
land Given Color by Dis
agreement About Birth.
place Here
By JOHN ELFRETH wArr,,,o

1
MTHEN the cheroSees threater.a
w bloody uprising, in 1855, bod- .
British troops was sent to the imps,,s,
region, about the boundary betwesr ~
Carolinas. With them came Hugh 49,
son, an Irish soldier, who fell in love ~,
the country. Returning to his home r,.-
Carrickfergus, on the north coast Of n.
Emerald Isle, he persuaded his bro,...
Andrew, Andrews wife and that Iss,.
sisters to migrate TO that garden spot wb,.s
he admired in the New World.
The immigrants were very poor folk !,
the tenant class. But Andrew and A.
young wife, Elizabeth, were Of the best r.-
material for the making OF a future "a.
He had toiled in field and forest. m.
sinews were like steel and he feared =.
foe. Elizabeth. weaver by trade. couta
do mans work and was not afraid Of N.
perils Of motherhood. They were of N.
class Of immigrants that we needed th.s
and need far worse today Their two ~
tie sons, Hugh and Robert, came along piM
them on the slow-sailing ship. Some hay,
said that they brought along third son.
who later had reasons for keeping secras
the place of his birth.
These modest folk landed at Char,s..o,
and pushed up, by wagon train, through
the pine forest Businesses to the waxhav
settlement, in North Carolina, near IA.
South Carolina line. Andrew jackson
squatted on tract along Twelve Mn.
Creek, in what is now Union County. For
| two years he toiled as newer of wood ana
a drawer of water, built for his family
log cabin and cleared some fields for Ira
| plowshares. But before he had raised hs
second crop he ruptured blood yesss
while lifting the trunk of forest giant
which thus avenged itself after falling
victim of his ak. 1t was the first foe that
| had ever conquered him. The nearest doc
tori was too far to come in time. So
neighbors placed Andrews corpse in rude
| farm wagon and carried It to waxhav
churchyard He was but 2s when he gave
UP his ill-spared soul.
Widowed On the Eve of Motherhood
| From the graveyard his weeping widow
refused to go back to the little cabin which
her husband had cut for her out of the
wilderness. She could not endure to lay
| eyes upon It again. After seeing the earth
| heaped upon her good mans corpse she took
her little boys by the hand and struck out
| into the forest-no one knows whittier
There were very serious reasons why she
should reach some friendly shelter very
soon. Wherever she went, she gave birth
to child few days after her husbands
funeral. 1t is generally supposed that this
baby was named for his father and was
that one of her children who became PresI.
dent of the United States
Elizabeth had two sisters, whom we win
hereafter call young Andrew Jacksont
Aunt Crawford and Aunt McKemy. Aunt
Crawford dwelt on waxhaw Creek. in
South Carolina, seven miles from the Jack
son cabin, while Aunt McKemy lived two
and half miles beyond little way over
the line. in South Carolina. 1t is supposed
that the heart-broken widow set out for +
one or the other of these cabins. built by
her brothers.in.law. Some say that before
she reached either she stopped by the way.
side, at a strangers house, and there gave
to the world the child destined to make her
one of the worlds celebrated mothers
About the mystery has revolved, for gen
erations, the vortex of a bitter controverg
between the two Carolnas-each common
wealth claiming credit for having given
"Old Hickory" to the nation.
"T was born in South Carolina as have
been told, at a plantation whereon JAMES
Crawford lived, about one mile from the
Carolina road and on the waxhaw Greek"
President Jackson is quoted as having said
This James Crawford was his Aunt craT.
ford's husband. On a map prepared by ].
Boykin. who surveyed the Waxhaw settle
ment in 1920, the Generals birthplace q
very definitely located IN South Carolina
upon hump of Twelve Mile Greek" that
barely escaped the North Carolina lima
Conflicting Testimony
But another of the Presidents aunt.
Mrs. Sarah Leslie, and her daughter MrA
Sarah Latham. always insisted that their
world-famed kinsman was born at his Aunt
McRemys house, in North Carolina-that
they remembered well because they haa
both been summoned thither in the night 70
assist Mrs Jackson, and because they hAa
actually witnessed the birth. Until her
old age, Mrs. Latham repeatedly related
how she and her mother had hurried that
through the fields" Three other neighbors
are known TO have testified that they also
were present at McKemy's when Andrew
was born there, And patriarch OF thar
region. one James Faulkner, used to 90
clare that once, while they were sleeping 70
gether at McKemy's house, Andrew JACK
son had told him that It was his birsn
place.
In 1854. Col. S. H. walxup. OF union
County. North Carolina. secured from -
witnesses afhdavits whose substance ~aa
that Elizabeth jackson, from WaxhAW
Cemetery started for the Crawford CABIN
In South Carolina. but on the way had 70
take the nearer way 70 the MeKemy CABIN
in North Carolina. where she remained un'
til after the birth of her child. when sns
proceeded on to crawford's there to maze
her home.
When asked by Francis p, Blair Il ne
ever visited his birthplace. General JACK
son once replied:
mo, couldn't bear to! II would sne