Side A: James Cemetery
Major John James (1772-1854) established James Cemetery in 1828 on and around a Native American mound that is the only significant ancient mound remaining in the city of Jackson. The mound is about 70 feet in diameter and nearly six feet tall. In the late 1800s, this mound comprised one point of three ancient mound groups forming a triangular configuration along East Broadway Street, formerly known as James Street. One group was a few hundred feet northeast of here on the Watson farm and a second was just to the northwest on the Warnicke farm. These mounds were built by the Hopewell Culture, prominent in southern Ohio from about 100 BC to 400 AD. Major James, his wife, and several immediate family members are buried on the mound including Jackson County pioneers Andrew Long, Daniel Hoffman, and David Mitchell.
Side B: Major John James
John James arrived in Marietta in 1788 with his parents and siblings, some of the first settlers of the Northwest Territory. His father was a member of Rufus Putnam's Ohio Company and the family lived in a blockhouse near Belpre. In 1791, his brother William was one of twelve settlers killed at the Big Bottom Massacre, a tragedy that touched off the Indian Wars. During that time, the James family retreated to what became Blennerhassett Island in the Ohio River, where they built another blockhouse, later bought by Harman Blennerhassett who built a mansion nearby in 1798. Major James became a renowned Indian scout and explored what would become Jackson County. He settled here in 1807 and as a prominent salt boiler became for a time the "proprietor" of the Salt Licks. He went on to become an early Ohio legislator and the first treasurer of Jackson County.
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