The Grave of the Mother of Stonewall Jackson
- Julia Beckwith (Neale) Jackson Woodson

Transcribed and Donated by Kim Torp

Taken From History of Fayette County, West Virginia
Charleston, W. Va.: Jarrett Print. Co., 1926

In Westlake Cemetery, which is located on the top of a beautiful wooded hill in the town of Ansted, is found a humble marble slab marking the last resting place of the mother of "Stonewall" Jackson. When she died she was the wife of Blake B. Woodson, the first clerk, by appointment, of Fayette county. Her former husband, the father of Stonewall Jackson, died and was buried at Clarksburg.

Stonewall Jackson was raised by his uncle, but there is strong evidence that he spent at least a part of a year of his boyhood days visiting his mother near Ansted. Mrs. Woodson died and was buried in 1831, but the slab was not erected till after the Civil War. Captain Thomas D. Ranson while on a visit to Ansted during the 80's, went to the spot in the neighborhood where the remains of the mother of Stonewall Jackson repose, and was moved by the regard he had for her distinguished son to have prepared and sent there to be placed over her grave a marble monument bearing the following inscription:

Here lies
Julia Beckwith Neale,
Born
February 28, 1798,
in Loudoun County, Virginia
Married First,
Johnathan Jackson,
Second,
Blake B. Woodson
Died September, 1831
---------------------
To the mother of
Stonewall Jackson
This tribute
From one of his old brigade.

On the foot-stone are the letters -- "J.B.N.W."

Tradition records that on the day of the funeral Andrew Jackson was passing through Ansted in a stage coach driven by Jehu Jo Perkins, and that the driver halted long enough for "Old Hickory" to pay a last tribute of respect to the departed one. The funeral services were conducted by Rev. John McElheny of Lewisburg.

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