I hope to be with you before the middle of July. Remember me very kindly to Eben and believe me ever your true friend.

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T. J. Jackson.

The “commencement” referred to in the last letter was the day of the final exercises at Davidson College, N. C., which that year was the 16th of July. The “Eben”, to whom he sent greeting, was Rev. E. D. Junkin, the brother of Major Jackson’s first wife and my room mate, though his work was in two country churches, of which he was “Pastor”.

During our College examinations, & a few days before the 16th July, Major Jackson arrived at Davidson where he was the guest of his old friend Major D. H. Hill, then Prof. of Mathematics. He was introduced to members of the faculty and attended some of the examinations.

One morning after breakfast, he and I were strolling through the College grounds near the Old Chapel, where a few months previously I had witnessed a marriage ceremony performed by Rev. Dr. Lacy in the course of which he had used a part of the ceremony common in the Episcopal church in which he addressed the bride groom & bride by their first names – as “Do you John – “ or “do you Mary” &c. I mentioned that to the Major because I had heard Mr. Junkin say that he did not know what the Major’s middle name was and that he (Junkin) thought that for some reason the Major never referred to it and did not care to make it known. As soon as I stated to the Major the fact that Dr. Lacy had used this form of addressing the bride and groom he suddenly stopped and in his quiet way of talking said he had never known a Presbyterian Minister to use that particular form and asked if D. Lacy always used it. To this I replied that he did not confine himself to any one form – that I had seen his forms in manuscript and had heard him say that some persons preferred one & some another of his forms. He then wanted to know if Dr. L. would object to his looking at these forms and selecting one of them: on being answered that Dr. L. would make no objection to his selecting what ever form he preferred, he asked where he could fine Dr. L. at that time. I pointed out his house and he promptly went to find the Doctor who after wards told me of the interview and that after examining the forms shown him he selected one in which the names of the contracting parties were not called out in full by the minister.

The Mr. Tom Preston mentioned in Maj. Jackson’s first letter as one who had been asked to be one of the “official number”, was then visiting his Aunt, Mrs. Cocke, in Powhattan Co Va. and was then quite ill with typhoid fever. Because of his illness Major J. had asked Preston’s Cousin, Thomas P. Cocke, to officiate in Preston’s place. Cocke accordingly joined the Major at Davidson and was my guest there.

As soon as the Commencement Exercises of the College closed, the groom & D. Lacy & Major Hill & his family, Mr. Cocke & I set out for “Cottage Home”, the residence of Rev. Dr. Morrison the father of the bride and reached it before sunset. We crossed the beautiful Catawba river about half way between Davidson and the home of the bride, fording the stream at “Beattie’s ford”, where the river was several hundred yards wide and the bed of the river was covered with sand and small stones. We reached our destination before sunset and prepared to take part in the ceremony which commenced soon after dark, about “early candle-lighting” according to an expression then in vogue in the country where there was neither gas, nor electric lights. Lamps had begun to be used filled with Kerosene, then called “burning fluid”.

The bride’s maids were her two younger sisters, Susan & Laura Morrison and her two first-cousins, Sophia & Julia Alexander and the groom’s men were Wm. W. Morrison the older brother of the bride, Joseph Graham, after wards Dr. Jos. Graham, a first cousin of the bride; Thom. P. Cocke & myself. These were the parties named in the programme, but after the bridal party assembled, as I learn from Mrs. Jackson in a letter dated 18 Aug 1904, “there were, besides the bridal party, only one young lady, Miss Orr, and one young man Mr. John Graham, so I asked them to go in with us making five couples in all.”

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