Charles S. Jackson family photographs collection, 1880-1951

Charles Samuel "Sam" Jackson was born in Virginia in 1860, and moved to Pendleton, Oregon, in 1880. He worked as a printer for the East Oregonian newspaper before acquiring it in 1882 and becoming its publisher. In 1886, he married Maria Clopton (born 1862), who had also come to Oregon from Virginia, and they had two sons, Francis Clopton Jackson (born 1887) and Philip Ludwell Jackson (born 1893). In 1902, C. S. Jackson moved to Portland to take over the recently established Evening Journal, an afternoon daily, which was failing. With a group of investors, C. S. Jackson bought the paper, changed the name to the Oregon Journal, and established it as a competitor to the Oregonian. Maria Jackson and their sons followed him to Portland and, later, into the business. The newspaper was a success under C. S. Jackson's ownership, and in 1912, it moved to a new building constructed for it at SW Broadway and Yamhill (now known as the Jackson Tower).

Francis Clopton Jackson attended the Oregon Agricultural College (now Oregon State University) and worked for the Journal Publishing Company. During World War I, he joined the merchant marine after being unable to enlist for military service due to poor vision, and died in a shipwreck in 1919. He had one child, a son born in 1914, named Charles Samuel Jackson after his grandfather. The younger C. S. Jackson served as associate publisher of the Oregon Journal before his death in the crash of the Journal's helicopter in 1947.

Francis C. Jackson's brother, Philip L. Jackson, attended Princeton and Harvard before serving in the U.S. Army during World I, and became a director of the Journal Publishing Company in 1919. After C. S. Jackson died in 1924, Philip L. Jackson succeeded his father as publisher of the Oregon Journal and president of the Journal Publishing Company. He also became editor of the newspaper in 1937, and served as editor and publisher until his death in 1953. During his tenure, in 1948, the newspaper moved from the Journal Building to the former Public Market Building on Front Street between Yamhill and Taylor.

Maria C. Jackson survived her husband, sons, and grandson. She retained an ownership stake in the Journal after her husband's death, and was active in civic and Episcopal Church affairs, including advocating for the use of the Battleship Oregon as a marine museum, and leading the organization of the George A. White Service center and veterans club during World War II. When Maria Jackson died in 1956, she left the bulk of her estate to establish a charitable organization, the Jackson Foundation. The foundation operated the Oregon Journal until 1961, when the trustees sold the newspaper to the owner of the Oregonian.

Sources: "Last Rites are Held for C.S. Jackson," Oregon Journal, December 29, 1924, page 1; "Charles S. (Sam) Jackson (1860-1924), Oregon Encyclopedia, https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/jackson_charles_s_sam_1860_1924_/; "History of Oregon Newspapers," by George S. Turnbull (Portland, Oregon: Binfords & Mort, 1939); "Francis C. Jackson Lost on Chanslor," Oregon Journal, December 20, 1919, page 1; "P. L. Jackson Dies After Heart Attack," Oregon Journal, February 15, 1953, page 1; "Tragic 'Copter Fall Occurs in West Hills" and "C.S. Jackson Grandson of Journal's Founder," Oregon Journal, December 22, 1947, page 1; "Mrs. Jackson's Life Marked by Long List of Civic Works," Oregon Journal, February 6, 1956, page 1; Jackson Foundation website, accessed October 25, 2024, https://www.thejacksonfoundation.com/js/bio