James Hazlett Jack was born October 24, 1831 in Knox county, Tennessee, the eighth child of Allen Jack and Elizabeth White McCouley.
Georgia Ann Horton was born May 30, 1841 in Lebanon, De Kalb county, Alabama, the daughter of Preston Betty Horton and Elizabeth Malone. the oldest of 15 children. Her father was very prosperous, and her childhood was a happy one. Her education was complete for that time. One of her teachers was James Hazlett, a mild mannered young man. She married him on July 22, 1858. T
hey had 3 years of real happiness and prosperity. Then came the Civil War. James had seven brothers in the Confederate army, most were officers, but he joined the Union army. Because of his brothers he was not put in the firing lines, but acted as home guard, scout and spy.
One day he was swimming across the river with some papers. His son was on his back hold up the papers. Someone shot James in the back. They were near the shore so he made it and his son helped him. They hid him in the bushes. James told his son to take some papers to James' wife, Georgia as she would know what to do with them. Before daylight, Georgia was back with medicine and food. She hid him a hollow gum tree. He stayed there until he was better, but he was always stooped over for the rest of his life from being crouched over in the gum tree. He was in poor health for the rest of his life.
Mr. Berry was a good friend of Jim's and was also a runner for the Union army. As soon as Jim was able, Mr. Betty helped and they went to a Mormon settlement hiding by day and traveling by night. They then wrote Georgia and Mrs. Berry and told them to come to them. Georgia had a mule and Mrs. Berry had a spring rig. They loaded just what they had to have into it and started out. When they got to the river, the guard wouldn't let them cross until Georgia showed him a letter from Jim. He told them to go back a ways, pretend to camp, feed the children, and put them to bed. In the night, they were to come back and get help from them.
They did as they were instructed. They crossed the river in Chattanooga, Tennessee and proceeded on. As they passed a grove of trees, they heard some soldiers talking about hanging five men. They said Jim Jack was through being a spy, that he was hanging to a tree. Georgia could not go on without knowing for sure. She unhitched the mule and straddled him. She took her old musket and went to the place of hanging. None of the five men was Jim. When she returned to the spring rig, the soldiers had taken everything off the rig and scattered it looking for important papers and other items. Georgia, still astraddle of the old mules said, "I just turned that old musket on those men and made them load everything back on the fig." It was unheard of for women to straddle a horse much less brandish a gun as Georgia had.
When they reached their husbands, thy were destitute for food and somewhere to stay. Their son, Bob, was only 6 or 7 years old and he got a job in a blacksmith shop running the bellows. He stayed with this many years. He learned the blacksmith trade.
After the war, Georgia states that there seemed to be a curse on the land. It didn't produce as it had before.
Elders Morgan and Lisbon brought the Gospel to them. Georgia was ready for baptism right away.
She said, "I don't see how anyone with sense could fail to see the light." Jim was slower to accept the Church but was a staunch Latter Day Saint once he accepted it. It was the final blow to the Jack family when James Hazlett and Georgia Ann joined the LDS Church. It was bad enough for them to join the Union army, to to join the Mormon Church was unforgivable.
In 1879, the James H. Jack family was called by the Church to settle the San Luis Valley. They came to Pueblo, Colorado by train. They stayed for a while, then bought wagons and teams before proceeding on to the valley. They came to the fort at Los Cerritos in April 1879. They had just been in the valley 16 days when their oldest daughter died of pneumonia. She was the first Anglo woman buried in the town of Manassa. Untold hardships were their lot in their new home. They were used to the mild climate of Alabama and Colorado was so cold.
Food was scarce. Flour was sold for 8 a hundred, but Georgia was resourceful and managed to have food when other families were without. She always shared with others.
James Hazlett died May 13 1893 following an operation performed on their kitchen table in the Jack Bend.
Georgia died January 27, 1927 at the age of 87. She was survived by only three of her eleven children.
Simeon Adams Dunn, The Mormons; 100 Years in the San Luis Valley of Colorado; 1883-1983, Compiled and Edited by Carleton Q. Anderson, Betty Shawcroft and Robert Compton, Published by the La Jara Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Adobe Press, Albuquerque, New Mexico
