In 1921, Jackson married Miss Crystalina Antoinette Fabret, of Willits. In 1922, they had a daughter they named Audra Aileen. . . .
In the summer of 1920, Jackson and Crystalina met at the Mendocino County Fair in Anderson Valley, not far from the Calloway homestead. Talked into representing “his boys” (the loggers who worked on the same crew as he did), Jackson won the speed climbing competition, scrambling faster up a conveniently debranched and debarked pole than all other competitors. Of course, this was not realistic—scaling a dead and denuded tree didn’t replicate actual conditions for toppers in the woods—but it was the only practical way to demonstrate logging exploits to the fair-goers. Being literally high above the crowd and thus visible to all, Jackson caught Crystalina’s eye, although she would not normally have been overly interested in such stunts.
Crystalina herself won the beauty queen contest—although not officially. There was no such actual contest there. In Jackson’s eyes, though—and he was not alone in this assessment—she would have been the winner of such a contest, had there been one. Crystalina, though, was not the type to parade herself around in that way. Yet there was no mistaking her striking beauty. Jackson felt it would be as impossible as possible to find someone more appealing to him—physically, that is. He didn’t know what she was really like, though; that is to say, he had no inkling of her personality, her traits, her character—who she really was, above and beyond how she looked. That was of utmost importance to him, but he feared—based on how stunning she was in appearance—that she would be utterly conceited and self-centered.
Still, he had to find out for himself. Jackson wasted no time in making her acquaintance. He simply walked up to her and introduced himself. In this way, he eventually found out that her parents were originally from France, but that she had been born in San Francisco. At her request, he told her his story, in a nutshell: born nearby, at home; his brief involvement in “The Great War”; and his current work as a topper working with a logging crew in the woods—which explained his participation in the speed climbing event.
Of course, Crystalina couldn’t help but notice Jackson’s missing fingers. She wondered which endeavor had led to his losing them—the war, or his job as a logger. This lack of his didn’t repel her; on the contrary, the fact that he was able to cope so well, and so unselfconsciously and matter-of-factly, at that, impressed her.
Mr. Fabret, Crystalina’s father, was the head of the savings bank in Willits. Because of this, most of the men Crystalina was acquainted with were bankers and lawyers, local politicians and such—her family didn’t socialize much with loggers, or even give them much thought.
Crystalina didn’t care about any of that, though. Social standing and such, that is. As usually happens in matters of the heart, she knew her mind when it came to who she wanted to spend time with and get to know. Jackson was crazy about her from that first time they met, at the County Fair, and she was quite enamored with him right away, too.
To make a long story short, Jackson could not be accused of making the same mistake that the lonely howler of On Top of Old Smoky did. He wasted little time in his courting of Crystalina Antoinette Fabret, whose last name was changed to Calloway in the early spring of 1921.
The newlyweds made their home in Fort Bragg, a location suitable for both of them due to its proximity to Jackson’s “office” in the woods, and not far—but far enough—from Crystalina’s parents in Willits, who had come to accept Jackson as a son-in-law, partly because they were impressed by his steady demeanor and strong work ethic, and partly because they had no other viable option.
Beginning the next year, 1922, Crystalina gave birth to six children—like clockwork, so to speak, each being two years apart. The sexes of the Calloway progeny alternated each time: girl, boy, girl, boy, girl, boy. The first occupant of the family bassinet, Audra Aileen, was also the first Calloway to have been born in a hospital. Her five siblings would be, also. Audra was born at the Grey Whale Hospital in Fort Bragg. All of her siblings were born there, too, but it was sold and rechristened the Redwood Coast Hospital between Audra’s birth in 1922 and that of her brother, Ben, in 1924.
The chronology of births for the Calloway family would eventually turn out to be:
When Audra Aileen was born, in 1922, a grizzly bear, considered to be the last of its kind in California, was killed in the Sequoia National Forest. At the time, this was apparently considered to be a great achievement, an event to celebrate. The Calloways, of course, were celebrating something of a completely different nature, and paid little attention to the news about the bruin.
Crystal had named the girls, and Jackson the boys. Jackson had been in favor of Ben being simply Ben and Dan simply Dan, but Crystal saw to it that the birth certificates recorded them as Benjamin and Daniel. With Frank, though, Jackson put his foot down, and wouldn’t allow his wife to name him Francis or François. He remained plain old Frank Calloway. The name suited this last of the Jackson and Crystal Calloway clan to a T, as he was always frank in his speech and manner, as we will later see.
Chapter 1 can be read here.
Chapter 11 can be read here.