(article originally posted in 2018)
Helen Jackson is a name known to very few. In fact, even friends and relatives of the Marshfield resident didn’t realize she was historically noteworthy at all until very recently, when she disclosed that she is, in fact, the last surviving widow of a U.S. Civil War veteran.
Jackson, 99, was only 17 years old when she was wed to Union veteran James Bolin in Niangua. Bolin, who was 93 years old at the time of the nuptials, proposed to the high school-age Jackson as a way to repay her for taking care of him in his advance age. Bolin, who was a friend of the Jackson family, needed daily care, which was provided by teenage Jackson after school each day.
Jackson recalled, “Mr. Bolin explained that he did not have any money to pay me for taking care of him. Therefore, he asked for my hand in marriage so that he could leave his pension to me.” However, Jackson never applied for the pension and kept the nuptials secret since the time of Bolin’s passing in 1939, until Dec. of 2017. They were legally married from 1936-1939.
The only records from the wedding day were safely stored in her possession in the Civil War-era Bible that Bolin had given Jackson, shortly before his passing. Since sharing her story, a witness (Dr. Tommy Macdonnell) has been identified and signed an affidavit at the 2018 Cherry Blossom Festival to the wedding day timeline of events.
Since the passing of Maudie Hopkins in Arkansas in 2008, there have been no known Civil War widows left in the nation. With Jackson’s story, a new identified connection to a long-ago time period has surfaced in the middle of the country.
Jackson is a charter member of the Elkland Independent Methodist Church (where the ladies ministry of the church is named after her), a member of the Juanita Day Garden Club of Niangua, a charter member of the Cherry Blossom Festival Auxiliary, a lifetime member of the Webster County Historical Society, a member of the Mary Whitney Phelps Tent #22 (Daughters of the Union Veterans of the Civil War), a member of the Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic and an honorary member of several civil war descendant organizations. She was the first recipient of the Cherry Blossom Medal for her work as an original volunteer with the Missouri Cherry Blossom Festival and she was a 2018 honoree on the Missouri Walk of Fame. She received an honorary high school diploma from Niangua High School-courtesy of the class of 1937.
*Helen Viola Jackson was born on August 3, 1919, the daughter of James Washington Jackson (1879-1972) and Thursa Arizona Shelby Jackson (1883-1953). She was raised in a family of ten children outside of Niangua, MO on the Jackson family farm.
*James Bolin was born on March 23, 1843 and passed away on June 18, 1939. He was a private in the 14th Missouri Calvary and is buried in the cemetery in Niangua, MO. His first wife was Elizabeth Davenport Bolin (1842-1922).
Update: Helen passed away December 16, 2020 at the age of 101.
