In 1878 a family moved into the area south of Driftwood near the Speeds, the Butlers and Smiths. This was the John Thompson Jacks family and they came from Lavaca County, Texas in a covered wagon, driving their stock as they came. Their second daughter Beulah, told about this trip in later years and said that she was ten years old at the time and helped drive the stock. Their land was located north of the first crossing of Onion Creek on the Kyle road below Driftwood and they built their home on a hill overlooking the creek.
Mr. Jacks was born in Tennessee in 1837 but moved with his parents to Lavaca County, Texas and was living there when the Civil War broke out. He enlisted in the Confederate States Army and served throughout the war.
After the war he returned home and married Leah Abigail McGonagill and they made their home in Lavaca County for several years prior to their move to Hays County. They became the parents of eight children, six girls and two boys. One boy died in infancy but all the other children grew up in the Driftwood area.
They had been living in this area but a few years when Mr. Jacks was killed by falling off a high bluff near their home. He had gone to hunt some goats that had strayed from their pasture and evidently had lost his footing while trying to retrieve one that was part way down the bluff. He was buried in the graveyard that was back of the Homer Cearley place but later his body was taken up and reburied in the present Driftwood Cemetery. (See Cemeteries)
The Jacks children ranged in ages from sixteen to two years when their father died; Dave the only boy was barely four. With the help of these children Mrs. Jacks carried on with the farming and stock raising and all the children grew to maturity on this place. By 1900 all the children were married but one girl Beatrice Bea) and Dave. In 1904 Bea died and was buried in Driftwood Cemetery.
Dave and his mother lived on the home place until his marriage to Miss Nannie Dement in 1912. (See Miss Nannie’s Story). After this marriage, Mrs. Jacks broke up housekeeping and lived with her children until her death. She was living with Dave and his family in San Marcos when she passed away in 1934. She was buried in the Driftwood Cemetery.
The eight children of the family are as follows:
Ola Belle, b. 1866, d. 1936, married Reese Speed in 1886
Beulah Amelia, b. 1867 d. 1963, married J. M. Stinson
Roena, b. 1869 d. 1953, married J. W. Ward
William Martin, b. 1871 d. 1871
Eula Lee, b. 1873 d. 1893, married Simon Stinson
Beatrice Corinne, b. 1876 d. 1904
David Crockett, b. 1878 d. 1938, married Nannie Dement
Frances Adella, b. 1880, married Joseph Walter Votaw
Beulah Jacks Stinson came back to live in Driftwood in the early 1930s. She bought the house that had been the Dement home for many years. She loved flowers and had a beautiful yard, something was always blooming in it the greater part of the year. When she was no longer able to work in her yard she moved to San Marcos, Texas and passed away there in 1963. She is buried in the Driftwood Cemetery.
Source, DRIFTWOOD HERITAGE The History of Driftwood, Texas Copyright 1970.
