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LAND KING
The Story of David Jack
by
K. C. Jack
Introduction
I was aware that my family had been native to Crieff, Perthshire for many years. My father had been born in the town in 1927 so even through him I had been a ‘Crieffite’ of some years standing. At the same time, I was also aware that my grandfather and Great Grandfather were born and bred in Crieff. I did not know just how far back my family went so I made enquiry at New Register House in Edinburgh and confirmed that my branch of the JACK family went back several generations in Crieff.
One June day in 1985, I arrived in Crieff to visit my parents. It was a tradition with me during such visits, and still is, to read that week’s copy of the local rag, ‘The Strathearn Herald’. Immediately on my arrival, being aware of my interest in Jack family history my father threw me a copy of that week’s paper suggesting that there was something in it that might interest me. I opened it and soon found the headline ‘CRIEFF HAD A MULTI MILLIONAIRE!
I read on and learned that an elderly Crieff woman had been clearing out her loft, when she found an early 20th century ‘Strathearn Herald’, in which, was a fairly lengthy obituary concerning one David Jack, a multi millionaire landowner, who had recently died in the United States of America. It told of how the young David Jack from humble background and parentage, had left Crieff in 1841 and sailed to America where he eventually made a fortune, through land speculation.
This is what I had always hoped to find. That one of the Jack family from CRIEFF had not only immigrated to a foreign land, but had become rich and famous as well. The ultimate rags to riches story. The American dream writ large. Although he would only be a boy of about 14 years at this time, and a long time away from his own American dream in ‘STAR WARS’ — ‘The Phantom Menace’, film star and fellow Crieffite, Ewan McGregor, was clearly not the first person from the small Scottish town to make it big on the other side of the ‘pond’.
In any event this article piqued my interest in not only Jack family history, but in the history of this man who had made his fortune in the United States of America around the time that ‘Billy the Kid’ and ‘Jesse James’ were roaming the range. Throughout the next 15 years or so I obtained information on what appears to have been a remarkable character. He was a generous benefactor to many, but to others he was an unscrupulous land grabber. The truth probably lies somewhere between the two. I would like to share with you the details of the life of a man, who if he was nothing else, was a larger than life character who helped open up America in the true pioneer spirit of his time. As the Strathearn Herald of 1985 said." Isn’t it great to know that a Crieff man, of humble beginnings, made it, just wish he’d left the recipe behind".
Kenneth C. Jack - December, 1999
Chapter 1
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