On the Border with Andrew Jackson

by John T. McIntyre

Slowly the settlers took up the land all about; but the hunting grounds remained as they had been for many years. And through the aisles of the mighty forests, across the streams which wound like silver threads among the trees, Jack Davis, with Frank Lawrence and the Cherokee brave, Running Elk, often wandered with rifle and bow, stalking deer and hunting bear and panther. Peace was upon all the border-land—a peace which they knew would not have come for many years if it had not been for the invincible resolution of Andrew Jackson.

CHAPTER XV
LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON

In the year 1765 an Irish workman of Scotch blood, and of the name of Jackson, made up his mind that the grind of poverty in his native land was too great for endurance. So, with infinite labor, he scraped together a little store of gold; and with his wife and two children he took ship for the colonies of America of which he had heard such glowing tales.

George III had been five years king of England, and the French war which gave Canada to the British had just ended when the little family of Jacksons landed at Charleston in South Carolina. Having no money with which to purchase land, they set out with some others for the interior. Here, one hundred and fifty miles from civilization, and in the midst of a wilderness of dark pines, a little clearing was made near Waxhaw Creek, a log cabin erected, and a home established in the new land.

But the clearing bore only one small crop. Then the head of the house sickened and died; the widow was left with fear in her heart as to the future of herself and her two children. However, after the burial, she drove across the border into North Carolina, where her sister had established a home; and there in a log house, only a few days after her arrival, was born Andrew Jackson, seventh president of the republic, and one of its greatest soldiers.

This was on March 15, 1767. About a month afterward Mrs. Jackson with her children set out for the home of her brother-in-law, named Crawford, who lived some distance away. Her sister, Crawford’s wife, was an invalid; and for ten years Mrs. Jackson lived with them as a sort of housekeeper.

In this frontier home Andrew Jackson grew up into a rather ungainly, rough, hot-tempered boy. Among his comrades he was something of a bully. It has been long said of such boys that they are usually cowards; but in Andrew’s case this was not true, for there was no more resolute spirit on the border than his, even at that early day. Andrew’s mother had some thought of making a minister of him; at any rate he was sent to the little log schoolhouse, and was taught to read; his handwriting was wretched and during the whole course of his life he never learned to spell.

During the boyhood of Jackson great questions were on the verge of settlement; the colonies revolted and England set about crushing them under the weight of her trained regiments. During the boy’s ninth year the Declaration of Independence was signed; and in a little while Marion, known on the border as “the Swamp Fox,” Sumpter, known as “the Game Cock,” and other heroes of the wilderness were up in arms and stemming the tide of the red-coated aggression. Amidst the Tory outrages, the assaults of the ferocious dragoons of Tarleton, Hugh Jackson, Andrew’s elder brother, took up his rifle and joined the defenders. He met his death in the fight at Stono.

The old log church was used as an hospital, and Mrs. Jackson was among the women who nursed the wounded Americans. Not long afterward the terrible Tarleton and his men made a rush at Waxhaw; at another time the army under Cornwallis attacked the same place, and the settlers fled from his fury. Six months later the Jacksons returned to the ravaged section. Andrew was now fourteen, tall and thin and seething with the desire to take part in the fighting going on all around him. His first chance was when, as one of the guard of a place attacked by the Tories, he helped to beat them off. Dragoons arrived in time to save the Tories, and among the captured were Andrew and his brother.

It was while he was with the British that Jackson was slashed by a sword in the hands of an officer whose boots he had refused to blacken. Afterward, wan and wasted by neglect and disease, the two boys were exchanged. From this experience the brother died; but the stronger constitution of Andrew carried him through and he recovered. Mrs. Jackson then heard that her nephews were suffering in the British prison pens at Charleston; she hurried to their aid, but was attacked by the fever and died.