"Aunt" Delinda Ann Jackson

Teaching is a profession that often appears throughout the Mower family.  For one cousin (second cousin three times removed to be exact), Delinda Ann Jackson, education was her life and her passion.

Delinda, the eldest of four children born to Joseph and Betsey Edwards (Mower) Jackson, was born on 16 January 1831 in Greene, Maine.  She never married, and lived to the age of 88, dying of apoplexy on 15 November 1919 in Lewiston, Maine.  She was in very good health for the majority of her life, suffering three shocks in the fall of 1919, after which her health failed rapidly.  Delinda is buried in the Jackson family plot in Old Valley Cemetery in Greene, Maine.

Delinda began her teaching career at the age of 16, tackling a class of 12 pupils at the school in the so-called Berry district of Greene.  She recollects that she "was small of her age and must have been child-like in appearance."  In this era, each school district hired its own teachers, often taking family connections into account.  It was commonplace for young women to gain these positions for the summer term, whereas men were typically hired for the winter term as discipline would be more challenging -boys, who had been working in the fields during the summer, would attend the winter term.  This worked well for Delinda as she would teach summers and continue her own education in the winter, attending Lewiston High School and Kent's Hill Seminary.

Once started, she decided that she "preferred teaching to house work and stuck to the profession."  Her second teaching term was at the Lane school in Greene where she managed a larger class size, 30 students.  She also taught various terms in neighboring towns - Lewiston, Auburn, Livermore, Readfield.  However it was at the Jackson School in Lewiston (a school named after her father's family) where she spent over 40 years.  Well loved by her students, she was affectionately known as "Aunt."  In total, Delinda taught over 100 terms during her career, remaining interested and involved with education in the community until the end of her life.  She retired in 1895, thereafter assuming the position of Postmaster of Greene Corner until 1900.

Aside from her career, Delinda was very active and led a busy social life.  Religion played an important role in Delinda's life.  She was  a member of the United Baptist Church in Greene and was also very passionately involved in the local Woman's Christian Temperance Union.  She was also a member of the Androscoggin Grange #8.

Line of descent: 1-Richard Mower, 2-Samuel Mower, 3-Samuel Mower, 4-Jonathan Mower, 5-John Mower, 6-John Mower, 7-Betsey Edwards Mower
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Sources

• "Maine Death Records 1617-1922 [database online]." Digital image. Ancestry.com, Ancestry. www.ancestry.com : 2016.
• Mower, Walter Lindley, compiler. Sesquicentennial History of the the Town of Greene, Androscoggin County, Maine 1775 to 1900. 1938. Reprint, Salem, Massachusetts: Higginson Book Company, n.d.
• "Jackson School Grad.: Class of three Receives Diplomas 'Aunt' Delinda Jackson a Guest." The Lewiston Daily Sun, Lewiston, Maine. 6/28/1918.
• "Veteran Teacher Dies in Lewiston." The Lewiston Daily Sun, Lewiston, Maine. 11/17/1919.
• Old Valley Cemetery (Route 202, Greene, Maine). Gravestone.