Person:Joseph Jackson (80)

Col. Joseph Jackson was called "the great Iron King" of Morris County, NJ.

Sketch of Col. Joseph Jackson of Rockaway, NJ by his grandson, Edmund D. Halsey, 1883 seems to leave out a generation: Col. Joseph (Capt. Stephen, Gen. Joseph, James & Rebecca).

Copied from: http://www.rootsweb.com/~njmorris/churches/rockaway1.htm#Introduction

Source: J. Percy Crayon, Rockaway Records of Morris County, N.J., Families, (1902, Rockaway, N.J., Rockaway Publishing Co.) As with any information, please use this only as a guide, not a substitute for your own research. As diligent as Mr. Crayon was in compiling this work, there are some notable errors that have been found.

"Rockaway was settled as early as 1720, and became a place of considerable business in 1730 in the building of the Job ALLEN Iron Works. Tradition relates that this particular spot had been selected as a burial ground, God’s acre, by the early families, but their names have not been recorded outside of the ALLEN and JACKSON families. At a later period, 1740 and 50, we have a goodly number in the immediate vicinity, and those connected with the building of the Church, 1752, and later those connected with the church, 1758 to 1768, the number of names increased rapidly. . .

"The first records of a family plot was in 1807. Joseph JACKSON was permitted to 'enclose in a fence twenty-eight feet square in the grave ground at the Meeting house where his wife is buried, for a burying ground for his family, and such of his father’s family as may choose to bury their dead'.”

I notice this permission was granted in the same year that Joseph's wife Elizabeth Platt Ogdin died.

Colonel Joseph Jackson, of whom it may be said he was the founder of Rockaway village, was a son of Stephen Jackson and Mary Burwell, and was born March 8th 1774, in the log house on the north bank of the river a mile above the village, where his grandfather Joseph Jackson had lived and died. At his birth there were but five houses in Rockaway. His early education was conducted by George Harris, of whom mention has been made, who taught the first school in Rockaway. He was one of the six children of Captain Stephen Jackson, who headed the school subscription list. December 10th 1792 his name was entered on the roll of the Morris Academy (of which his father was a proprietor), and while at the academy surveying and French were part of his studies. He made practical use of his surveying, and became skilled in the use of the compass. Having left the academy in April 1793, he engaged in his father's business, at first as assistant and subsequently as his partner. May 13th 1802 Colonel Jackson was married in New York to Eliza Platt Ogden, eldest daughter of Robert Ogden, of Sparta, N. J. On the 29th of November 1796 he succeeded in getting a post-office established in Rockaway, and was postmaster until 1843, when President Tyler removed him. February 26th 1801 he was appointed major of the 1st battalion 3d regiment Morris militia, and in 1804 lieutenant colonel of the 3d regiment N. J. militia; as such he was ordered into service by the governor in the war of 1812, and did duty with his regiment for two or three months at Jersey City. He resigned his commission as colonel in 1817. He was actively engaged in mining and manufacturing iron. The Swedes mines between Dover and Rockaway were worked by him for several years. He was also owner with his brother William of the Allen and Teabo mines. The Rockaway grist-mill and saw-mill, store and two forges were owned and operated by him, with other branches of industry. In February 1813 he was elected by joint meeting judge of the court of common pleas of Morris county, and held this position until 1832, when he gave up the position of his own accord. He was elected ruling elder in the Rockaway Presbyterian church in 1818. Part of his iron business he carried on at Paterson, in connection with his brother William, and they were the first parties who rolled round iron in the United States, which they did as early as 1820. In that year the government advertised for five tons of American round iron as a sample lot to be delivered at the Washington navy yard. The Jacksons forwarded the lot, which was found superior to that of their competitors, and the contract to furnish 200 tons at the New York navy yard was awarded to them, and filled to the satisfaction of the government, at 6 cents per pound. In 1820 Colonel Jackson and his brother William built the Rockaway rolling-mills, and they continued in joint business until 1826, when the colonel became sole owner, and until 1834 he carried it on very prosperously, having in the meantime many profitable contracts for iron with the government. In 1828 he was elected a member of the New Jersey Legislature as a Jackson Democrat, and was returned for the two following years. He was a strong adherent of General Jackson, but in his later years was a Whig. His wife, Elizabeth Platt Jackson, died in 1807, leaving one daughter (Sarah, who married Samuel B. Halsey), and two sons, Stephen J. and Robert Ogden; the latter died in infancy. The colonel died on the 28th of January 1855, in the 85th year of his age, honored and respected by all. Source: http://www.rootsweb.com/~njmorris/munsellhistory/h-chpt34.htm

1. ↑ New Jersey, Rockaway Library Documents
   33.
2. ↑ Crayon, J. Percy. Rockaway records of Morris County, N.J., families: cemetery records, church history, military records, local history, genealogies of old families, nearly 20,000 data. (Rockaway, N.J.: Rockaway Pub. Co., 1902).
3. ↑ Find A Grave.
4.   Crayon, J. Percy. Rockaway records of Morris County, N.J., families: cemetery records, church history, military records, local history, genealogies of old families, nearly 20,000 data. (Rockaway, N.J.: Rockaway Pub. Co., 1902).
5.   Jackson, P. A. Jackson Ledger. (1887)
   83, 84.
6.   John Littell, Family Records or Genealogies of the First Settlers of Passaic Valley and Vicinity 1852, www.roo.
7.   New Jersey, United States. New Jersey, Deaths and Burials Index, 1798-1971. (2011).