The Elms Mansion

On March 26, 2017, a beautiful Alabama spring Sunday, in the shade of a magnificent magnolia tree, numerous descendants of Absalom Jackson (1805–1870) and Emma Bolling Hall Jackson (1809–1859), gathered at the The Elms of Coosada, Alabama.

The Elms was built in 1836 when the Jacksons were in their mid-to-late 20s.  They must have anticipated a large family.  Their planning was perceptive as they had 13 children; all six sons served as officers in the Confederate Army.  At one time the plantation was as large as 16,000 acres.

The presentation was made by Laura Ramsay of Birmingham and supported and organized by Joseph Judson Smith III, a great-great-great grandson of Absalom, of Alexandria, Virginia.   The current owners of the house, Peter and Janet Waldo were most gracious and served various Southern delicacies accompanied by ice tea or lemonade.

Following the War Between the States, Absalom was of the class of people that had to write to President Andrew Johnson an appeal for the restoration of his civil rights.  His brother-in-law, Bolling Hall, Jr., and his in-law, Nimrod Washington Long, also were of the class necessitating the same appeal to the President of the United States.