GEORGE F. JACKSON, a leading furniture dealer in Altoona, and a 
prominent secret society man, who is widely known as a pleasant, affable 
gentlemen, and ranks among the best citizens and most enterprising 
businessmen of Blair County, is a son of William and Rebecca (Taylor) 
Jackson, and was born June 16, 1845, in Upper Oxford Township, Chester 
County, Pennsylvania. The Jackson's are of Scotch-Irish origin, and were 
formerly residents of Virginia, from which state a branch of the family 
removed to Maryland at an early day. In Cecil County, that state, 
William Jackson (father) was born about 1815. There he grew to manhood, 
and received such education as was afforded by the country schools of 
that day. While yet a young man he removed to Pennsylvania, and settled 
in Chester County. He was a carpenter by trade and pursued that 
occupation in Chester County until his death in 1864, at the early age 
of forty-nine years. He was a democrat in politics, and a regular 
attendant of the Presbyterian Church, to the support of which he 
contributed liberally. He married Rebecca Taylor, a native of Lancaster 
County, this state, by whom he had a family of eight children. She still 
survives her husband, and now resides in her comfortable home at 
Gloucester City, New Jersey, in the sixty-four year of her age. For many 
years she has been a devoted member of the Presbyterian Church, and is 
held in great esteem by a large circle of friends. George F. Jackson was 
reared principally in Chester County and received a good practical 
English education in the public schools of the old Keystone State. After 
leaving school, following the early bent of his inclinations, he became 
an apprentice with his father, in Chester County, and learned the 
combined trades of carpenter and cabinetmaker. In the spring of 1865, 
when only nineteen years of age, he went to Wilmington, Delaware, where 
he obtained employment at his trade in the car shops of Jackson & 
Sharps. He remained at Wilmington until the fall of 1871, when he 
removed to Altoona, this county, and accepted a gang foremanship in the 
car shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in this city. He remained 
in the employ of that company for a period of eleven years, but in the 
spring of 1882 resigned his position and engaged in the furniture 
business in Altoona on his own account. He had a wide acquaintance with 
the people here, and by strict attention to the wants of customers, an 
excellent knowledge of his business, and the energy and enterprise 
necessary to success, he soon had a large and lucrative trade. His 
establishment is located at No. 606 Seventh Street, where he carried a 
mammoth stock of fine furniture, occupying three floors of a building 
thirty by fifty feet in dimensions. He personally looks after the 
details of his extensive business, and has been very successful. On 
December 28, 1871, Mr. Jackson was united in with Alice J. Jones, a 
daughter of Rufus and Caroline Jones, of Wilmington, Delaware. This 
union was blessed by the birth of a family of five children, one son and 
four daughters: Violet S., Daisy E., Clarence E., Elda M., and Edna A, 
all of whom are living at home. Politically Mr. Jackson is a democrat, 
and is now serving his second term as school director. He is chairman of 
the school board's building committee, and served as such while the new 
school buildings were in course of construction. He is also a director 
in the Standard Building and Loan Association of Altoona, and a member 
of the Third Presbyterian Church, in which he has been trustee and 
treasurer for a number of years. He is also prominent in Masonic 
circles, being a member of Mountain Lodge, No. 281, Free and Accepted 
Masons; Mountain Chapter, No. 189, Royal Arch Masons; Mountain Council, 
No. 9; Mountain Commandery, No. 10, Knights Templar; Syria Temple, A. A. 
O. N., Mystic Shrine, of Pittsburg; and the Gourgas Grand Lodge of 
Perfection, S. P. R. S., thirty-second degree. He is also a member of 
Veranda Lodge, No. 532, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; and of Elmo 
Castle, No. 54, and Elmo Commandery, No. 30, of the order of Knights of 
the Golden Eagle, and now holds the commission of captain on the general 
staff of that commandery. Transcribed and submitted to Blair County, PA, 
USGenWeb Archives by Janet L. Gray  bmgray@dol.net