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 requirement for a master’s degree, and Jackson apparently lived at home while working on hers. In fact, of the eighteen graduate students that year, only three were in residence.24 It usually took at least a year to complete the degree, “depending on the amount and quality of the work done [rather] than upon the time spent in residence.”25
Still living in London, Jackson continued to engage in social events popular among young women of her time and class. In July, she attended the International Epworth League in Indianapolis, and, finding time for recreation, she went on a foxhunt in December.26
The Jackson Family: Siblings Lou Jackson Eberlein, John Jackson, Mayme Jackson Catching, Moriah Louise McKee Jackson (mother), Adelaide Jackson, Annie Jackson Pollard, Robert Jackson, Katherine Jackson. Courtesy of Kay Tolbert Buckland.
No grades or work are accessible from Jackson’s master’s studies at Ohio Wesleyan, but, in 1900, four out of thirteen master’s degrees were awarded to women. And one of those women was Katherine Jackson.27 She completed her work in one year and attended the commencement ceremony in June 1900, although she had been present on campus so infrequently that the school paper listed her as “one of the visiting alumni.”28 She received her degree either at that ceremony or later that year.29
True North
After obtaining her master’s degree, Jackson was offered a full scholarship at Yale University in 1900–1901 but elected instead to teach English and history at Belhaven College in Jackson, Mississippi, which she did from 1900 to 1902.30 She then made the highly unorthodox decision to pursue a doctorate and, in the fall of 1902, headed north to New York City.31
Jackson attended Columbia University from 1902 to 1905 as a student in the “School of Philosophy, part of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences,” a little more than fifteen years after the first doctorate was earned by a woman at the college. The preface to her dissertation records that she studied in “the departments of English and Comparative Literature.” While attending Columbia, she lived on West 123rd Street, just down the hill from the campus and across from the newly designed Morningside Park. She listed London as her permanent address, indicating that she still considered Kentucky home.32
One can only imagine what it must have been like for the young woman from Kentucky to find herself in the middle of bustling New York City in 1902 and at a large university like Columbia.