Jackson Calloway, of Fort Bragg, died peacefully in his sleep in the early morning hours last Saturday, September 11. Mr. Calloway was born at his family’s homestead in Anderson Valley of this County on December 28, 1899. He was 101 years old. . . .
According to his obituary, he was 101 years old at the time of his death. The age given was correct, but it seemed a little low to those who were aware that he had lived in parts of three centuries.
Born near the end of the 19th century—on December 28th, 1899, to be exact—Jackson Calloway died in his sleep sometime during the first part of the 21st century—in the early hours of September 11, 2001, to be precise. Thus, Calloway lived during the last part of the 19th, all of the 20th, and the first part of the 21st centuries.
So it was that Jackson’s life experiences—and his memories remained clear as gin up to the day of his death—included the “Great War” (as it was called prior to the second World War, at which time that first one, which rumbled along from 1914-1918, grinding up flesh and bone, burning up and gassing soldier and civilian alike, was renamed World War 1), the Spanish Flu, the Roaring 20s, the Great Depression, World War 2, the Cold War, the Beat Generation, Korea, Vietnam and the Hippies and Rock ‘n’ Roll, Watergate, and the onset of climate change—but not “9/11,” as that didn’t occur until a few hours after Calloway’s demise.
It all started in the boondocks of northern California, where Jackson was born on the previously mentioned date near the end of 1899 to homesteaders Will and Gertie Calloway. Will, whose family had emigrated from Ireland to Canada in 1820, and then from Canada to Michigan, and from Michigan to California about a decade prior to Jackson’s birth, was a logger in the redwoods. Gertie, who was born in Kansas and came to California in the mid-1890s with her parents by wagon train, was a homemaker. With all the chores in and around the house, which included feeding the geese and the pigs, the cow and the dog (the cats were on their own, but were given a splash of milk or cream from the cow now and then), she was every bit as busy as Will was. Besides being a homemaker, Gertie was a veritable baby machine: she gave birth to thirteen of Will’s progeny: her first, Jackson, at the age of nineteen, and her last close to three decades later, at the age of forty-six. Not all of these baker’s dozen of children survived to adulthood, as you will find out later, but the majority of them did.
In addition to farming his place and working in the woods as a logger, Will also “carried the mail” on a rural route, on horseback, crossing rivers to deliver letters and packages to far-flung neighbors in the backwoods of Mendocino county.
When Jackson was born, and for a long time after that, the Calloways didn’t have electricity, running water, or “indoor plumbing”—they used an outhouse, as did all rural families in that time and place. They did not necessarily view themselves as rustics, or their mode of living as especially spartan, because they knew few, if any, people who lived differently. Their manner of living was the norm then—for country folks, anyway.
Significant events were occurring while Jackson was a toddler, but he was not aware of them. Nor would he have cared much, had he been aware, as they did not affect his life. Not yet, anyway. In 1900, President McKinley was assassinated and replaced by Theodore Roosevelt. In that same year, oil drilling began in Persia (Iran), the safety razor was invented, and Walt Disney was born. All of these things would influence world affairs and culture in time, but Jackson was not yet cognizant of that; he was oblivious to their eventual impact.
Two years later, in 1902, both Ansel Adams and John Steinbeck were born further south in California, and Mark Twain made his last visit to his boyhood home of Hannibal, Missouri, a Mississippi River town he had made famous as “St. Petersburg” in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The latter was published just a few years before Jackson’s birth; he would read both books many times throughout his life. Also in 1902, the first “western” novel—The Virginian, by Owen Wister—was released. As a vehicle to magnify the myths propagated by the westerns, the first motion picture theater in the U.S. opened that year, too. But Jackson would not set foot in one until his teenage years.
There was no such thing as “teenagers” when Jackson was one, though. The word and the concept of “teenagers” didn’t yet exist. There were really only four age divisions at the time: Babies, who were completely dependent on their parents; Infants, who were still largely dependent on others; People old enough to work, which included almost everyone; and finally, those too old to work. The last period (when one had been relieved from employment) was not an envied time of life, for those who could no longer “pull their weight” were usually more or less on their deathbed. Free, or leisure, time was more precious, then, as all had plenty of chores to do. During the busiest times of the year (planting, and especially harvesting), free time was practically nonexistent for the majority of people, who lived on farms.
Jackson’s earliest vivid memory was from April 18th, 1906, when he was six years old. A huge earthquake struck. While known as the San Francisco Earthquake, it was felt throughout the entire State of California. Jackson had just gotten out of his warm bed to feed the chickens and gather the eggs from the laying hens when he felt the ground shake. He didn’t know what it was at first, having never experienced any such thing, nor having heard much or anything about earthquakes. The trees swayed a bit, and the chicken coop shuddered for a few seconds, causing the chickens to squawk and flap their stunted wings excitedly—which did nothing to change their elevation, but did create a slight rushing sound.
Then all was calm again. Will was already in the barn, milking the cow. He stepped to the door to see if any of the buildings had been damaged. Seeing that all was apparently well, he grumbled at the milk possibly being ruined now by the upset it had caused to “Bessie” and, after a curt wave to Jackson, returned to his morning chores.
In 1908, when Jackson was eight (he wouldn’t turn nine until the end of the year), the Ford Motor Company came out with its Model T automobile. Will saw no need for one, even if he could scrape together the $825 they cost. Jackson, though, vowed (to himself, and to his mother) that he would one day be the proud owner of such a vehicle.
Chapter 2 can be read here.