about

about jackson‚ ohio

Map of Jackson, Ohio

The City of Jackson, Ohio, population about 6,700, is the county seat of Jackson County, in southeast Ohio about 75 miles southeast of Columbus. Jackson is a typical small friendly Midwestern town. It has an active arts group and two local history organizations. The high school seems to care more about football than academics, which is typical for the area. After high school, many students attend the University of Rio Grande, a small college twenty miles south, or Ohio University, a larger school thirty miles east, in Athens, Ohio, or The Ohio State University, in Columbus. Over the years, lots of Welsh folk have moved into the county, especially in the southern part.

Residents have made their livings in the past in farming, coal mining, iron manufacture, and uranium processing. Nowadays most jobs are found in two frozen food plants in the county, and in various occupations related to medical care. Jackson used to have several apple orchards in its environs, and it still has a water tower dressed up as an apple. Its community festival is the Apple Festival, in September each year. Jackson is a nice place to live, and a good place in which to rear children. It is home to Aggie and me.  icon

about your author‚ william c. martin

William C Martin

I am Bill Martin, a retired local lawyer. My ancestor was the first permanent white settler in Jackson County, arriving in 1796, and his nickname was Saltboiler John Martin. Hence my interest in local history. My wife Aggie and I have also been interested for many years in local spring wildflowers and travel. In the late 1980's and 1990's I conducted a series of interviews with local World War II veterans. This web site will share these interviews, which explain the world war experiences of these men from our small town. Our small town must be typical of towns across America, so these experiences in turn suggest how the world war affected our nation and our community and its people.  icon