local history of jackson‚ ohio

This page will eventually contain several local history projects. The first project features oral histories of World War II veterans who resided in Jackson, Ohio. Six vets beginning in 1989 gave oral histories to me. The question–and–answer interviews were audio–taped and later my wife Aggie and my former legal secretary Bonnie Dameron very capably transcribed them. Your author removed most of the questions to turn the transcripts into narrative texts.

The veterans’ recollections remain the veterans’ own words‚ with the sometimes coarse language and grammatical errors left in. I included biographical details before and after the war so the reader can understand that these were all very capable and successful men. I was struck by the breadth of wartime experiences which folks from our small town encountered. Every town has similar stories, so imagine the actual impact which World War Two had upon our people!

The texts are quite lengthy‚ so I divided each narration into chapters and prepared extensive links to outside sources‚ frequently Wikipedia or YouTube. Each link opens onto its own window‚ so you can close the hypertext window to return easily to the original text. Just click on the x in the tab for the window. Feel free to click on the links. The photographs were intended to be taken only from the public domain. Please select an oral history below.