SAN JUAN, Texas (Border Report) — A historic South Texas church and cemetery have been named a national site that was part of the Underground Railroad that helped slaves seek freedom in Mexico in the 1800s.
The National Park Service last month added the Jackson Ranch Church and Martin Jackson Cemetery in San Juan, Texas, to the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. The only other site listed in Texas is Mission San Jose in San Antonio, according to the National Park Service.
Seventeen other sites were also listed in Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania.
But what makes the South Texas listings unique is that these locations helped slaves to go south to Mexico, where slavery was illegal.
National Park Service Director Chuck Sams said these places were sites of daring escapes and where slaves took refuge, and the listings are the results of research and documentation because history “is not complete until all voices are represented.”
Pablo “Paul” Villarreal Jr., says he looks up to his great-great-great-great grandfather, Nathaniel Jackson, who started the Underground Railroad efforts in South Texas when he arrived on the border in 1857.
Jackson was the white son of a slave owner who grew up in Georgia where in 1804 his father, Joseph, purchased then 4-year-old Matilda.
Jackson fell in love with Matilda and she became his common-law wife. The family moved to Alabama and in 1857 they trekked across the country in a caravan of five covered wagons to South Texas with the goal of crossing into Matamoros, Mexico.
But for reasons unknown, they settled on the banks of the Rio Grande in San Juan and began helping slaves to cross the river south to freedom in Mexico.
Historians estimate upwards of 10,000 people could have been helped through their Underground Railroad segment, although no official records were kept at the time.
“This area here right now means a lot to me,” Villarreal said Tuesday at the Eli Jackson Cemetery, which is a block from the Jackson Ranch Church and Martin Jackson Cemetery.
Villarreal bends over the grave of his great-grandfather Federico Jackson, who was born and died on the same day as his cousin Pauleno Caseres. Both were born on July 18, 1893, and both died in a shooting on the river on Dec. 29, 1920.
“It means so much because I’m proud of what they did,” said Villarreal, who also is the tax assessor-collector for Hidalgo County.
“The greatest creation that God created was us, human beings. And I just can’t believe that human beings would turn around and grab another human being and make them a slave. Thank God for allowing the freedom for all of them. And that’s part of my family,” he said.
Villarreal says he is glad these sites have been nationally recognized.
So is Sylvia Ramirez, a relative of the Jacksons and longtime member of the Eli Jackson Cemetery Preservation Board.
“This has been my goal: To preserve the church and cemetery. And anything that can help to do that, I will support,” Ramirez told Border Report.
The Texas Historical Commission in 2005 named the Eli Jackson Cemetery a historic Texas cemetery. The commission in 1983 listed the Jackson Ranch Church as a historic site.
When the federal border wall was being built through this part of San Juan during the Trump administration, Congress passed a law to exempt historic cemeteries from border wall construction, forcing the wall to be built just north of the small chapel, its cemetery, and the Eli Jackson Cemetery.
Nathaniel Jackson is buried somewhere at Eli Jackson Cemetery, but a flood decades ago washed away his tombstone and his family does not know exactly where.
What they do know, however, is that their ancestors were courageous and Villarreal hopes that this national recognition will help more people to realize that.
“I would love for more people in the Valley or parts of the nation or Mexico to learn more about the history,” Villarreal said. “Nathaniel Jackson was a Christian person that he built a church, to where all the people are the slaves that wanted freedom, they wanted to have a better life, they would come all the way over here to this area. And so to me, it means a lot that my great great grandfather had a great heart.”
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.
