of higher education in the country to educate women. Coeducation itself was in Jackson’s time a fairly recent innovation. As a result, the hostility of male undergraduates toward coeds was fairly widespread across the country. Roger Geiger notes that on many campuses women were resented, ostracized, and ridiculed, and Pamela Roby holds that this hostility was spurred in part by the fact that women with college degrees were marrying and having children at a lower rate than their noneducated counterparts, fueling racist hysteria about the engulfment of the white race by immigrants from Italy and Ireland and people of other undesirable ethnicities. This hysteria was soon to fuel anti-immigration laws, racially motivated violence, and a one-sided reinterpretation of the mountain people of Appalachia that played into one of the major endeavors of Jackson’s life.10
Jackson attended Ohio Wesleyan only from 1897 to 1898, according to her student record card. She graduated in one year and nine months.11 Nevertheless, a great deal is revealed about her from her time at the university. For one thing, she rejected the idea of a limited collegiate role for women. Instead of taking just the “ladies’” literary track course of study, she completed that track plus extra course work and earned a bachelor’s, completing the more rigorous “classical” course of study. She was not the only woman to do so. One-third of the graduates pursuing the classical track were women. Jackson even went beyond what was required for that track, taking three semesters of music courses that did not count toward either degree. This indicates a high personal motivation to better her music skills and knowledge, which were to come in handy within the next decade or so.12
Second, there is evidence that she thought outside the box. In March 1898, the senior women issued The Senior Girl’s Edition of The Transcript, for which Jackson served as business manager. It was not customary for women to work on college newspapers at that time (though at Ohio Wesleyan a few served in minor roles). This exclusion may have served to inculcate in the Ohio Wesleyan women a desire to seek outside validation. In a rebellious gesture, and in the kind of decision that might have come from an organization’s business manager, the editors sent a copy of The Senior Girl’s Edition to the apparently more open-minded DePauw University Palladium. Their bold move was rewarded. A critique from the Palladium reads: “It is ably edited and typographically perfect.”13
Third, Jackson was a leader. Organizations with which she was involved suggest the kind of limitless energy she brought to organizing and executing her endeavors. The year that she was named vice president of Ohio Wesleyan’s YWCA group, the university paper reported that the group had grown “in interest and influence as well as numbers” since the previous year and praised its “high standards of organization.”14 Other issues of the school paper mention personal qualities that would help her achieve her ambitious aims: vigor, energy, interest, influence, organization, and an enterprising nature.
Fourth, Jackson achieved success and recognition quickly. Though she had been at Ohio Wesleyan for not even two years, she was called on to take part in the dedication of the Slocum Library in the spring of 1898. She presented the key to the library to the junior class on behalf of the senior class and made a presentation speech. The College Transcript notes the twenty-two-year-old’s ability to conduct research, write, deliver a speech, move an audience, and even touch on a momentous event with appropriate humor. It states: “[Jackson] completely captured her audience, showing vast research and an observing eye. The rendering was characterized throughout by great smoothness. She told of our appreciation of the slow-come library, to [sic] late to aid us in our finished knowledge. ‘On the top round of our glory we look back and consider ’99 to be next worthy and most needy of the prize.’”15
Fifth, Jackson’s intelligence is evidenced by her academic record. The classical track was demanding. Compared to the “ladies’” literary track, it required more hours in difficult core subjects (like languages, sciences, sociology, and philosophy) and more difficult course work within each subject. Jackson did extremely well. Not only did she, as we have seen, pass out of her freshman and sophomore years, but her grades were invariably high.16
Sixth, her work in and experiences with English and music would serve her to great advantage ten years later when Jackson assumed the mantle of ballad collector. As part of her course of study, she had three semesters of English philology and five semesters of music classes (and was credited with two semesters before her arrival, indicating a prior level of advanced competence). In addition, Monnett House, where she lived, had a banjo club. Banjo clubs were a passing fad on college campuses at the time, but the presence of one at Monnett House is of particular interest given Jackson’s later encounter with the instrument in the backcountry.17
Seventh, Jackson threw herself fully into any activity with which she was associated. Much of her extracurricular effort during the spring of 1898 focused on Class Day. In March, she had been appointed one of three students (and the only woman) to serve on a committee to organize a series of events during commencement week. To be trusted with so prominent an activity within only one and a half years speaks to her drive and determination and to the impression she must have made on her professors.18
Eighth, she had a sense of humor, which was on display when she spoke at the Class Day ceremony. “Miss Jackson told how the girls sneaked out of Monett and went to the dedication of the Slocum Library,” reported the Transcript with tongue firmly in cheek, “and the only regret is that it cost the faculty $20,000.”19
Finally, while from the upper crust of London, Kentucky, Jackson was not particularly well-off compared to her peers, and she seemingly had a reputation for caring little about social mores and material wealth. A jesting and ironic prophecy in the College Transcript at the time of her graduation reads: “And so as we go out into the world in later years we shall expect to hear … Katherine Jackson became suddenly rich, and has given herself up to a fashionable life.”20
In April 1898, Jackson’s mother came to visit. Jackson’s father was taken ill around this time and had only eight months left to live, so this may have been the visit when Maria came to tell her daughter the awful news. It does not seem to have slowed Jackson down. She continued to take part in normal college activities. She took tea with friends. She played tennis. She went on an excursion to a “picknick” at “Magneetic Springs” with a male friend and a group of students. Whether because of or in spite of her father’s illness, she appeared determined to soak in every moment of college life that she could.21
It is not known whether Jackson’s parents made the trip to her graduation ceremony, though, owing to William’s declining health, it is not likely they did. Her sister Adelaide did travel to Ohio and was there to see Katherine Jackson receive her bachelor of arts degree in June 1898.
Jackson taught in Alabama the fall of 1898 and then spent some of the winter at home and the rest with her sister Addie in Georgia. Both Addie and Katherine came home in late December of that year to be with their dying father. William H. Jackson, who had meant so much to the town of London, died of stomach cancer on January 2, 1899. In an undated article, “JCM” avows: “The writer has never seen one endure such suffering with so much patience and resignation as Brother Jackson.” JCM also discloses: “By close attention to his own business [he] amassed a considerable competence.” He characterized Jackson’s life as “blameless” and asserts: “[Jackson] called his wife and children about him and bade them an affectionate farewell, reminding them of the joyous reunion in store for them.” He refers to “the largest crowd seen at a funeral for many years” and recounts that Jackson, an active Freemason, was buried by the chapter that he helped found.22
After their father’s passing, Katherine and Adelaide Jackson returned to Bailey Station, Georgia. Katherine then went back to teaching in Alabama, but later that year she commenced her studies for a master’s degree at Ohio Wesleyan University.23
The university had no residence
