We need the stimulus that comes to us from the lives of the good that have passed on before. Every life has its fruitage. The good mold other lives so as to make them better, and of the bad it is truly said, "The evil that men do lives after them."

Miss Victoria Jackson was born in Warren County, Ky., eight miles southwest of Bowling Green, November 3d, 1841, and after a life of sixty-two years and six months died at her home in Bowling Green, Ky., May 20th, 1904. She was the daughter of Clinton Jackson and his wife, Jane Jackson. Her parents were highly respected and deeply pious. Their home, until the daughter was about grown, was upon a farm and she was reared where a running stream, green meadows and sugar maple trees were the environments. Miss Jackson early acquired an ardent love of nature and she never ceased to enjoy the grandeur and beauty of God's works.

Her large cabinet of curios and shells testify to her ever-growing delight in communion with God through His works.

When quite a child she received a hurt which resulted in a curvature of the spine, from which she never recovered. Her disposition was cheerful and bright, which was reflected in her cherry home where she lived and died.

The father died some twenty years before the daughter, and the mother some fifteen years.

Miss Vic united with the church in Bowling Green when about grown and ever proved a faithful and diligent worker.

She was remarkably successful as a Sunday School teacher. Her success was very great in bringing her classes to the Savior. She rarely taught a class two years until they were all Christians.

Upon one occasion, I remember, she gave up a class that were very much attached to her and went out and collected a class of prodigal young men, calling them her street "Arabs," and taught, labored and prayed with them until most of them, if not all, were converted. I have seen letters from more than one of these boys, after they had been widely scattered, telling her that she had been the instrument in their salvation. She often had her scholars at her home giving them little entertainments, that she might keep them out of places of temptation. Miss Vic loved young people and would often have the Christian Endeavor young folks and Y. M. C. A. at her home.

Until her failing health forbade she was active in general church work. She had a deep hold on many in the social circle, as well as in the church. For a number of the last years of her life she spared no expense in arranging and fitting up her home for an Orphanage after her death. Her heart felt deeply for the poor and she did not fail to provide as best she could for their sustenance and education.

She died at her home in perfect peace, leaning with implicit faith upon the crucified and risen Christ.

It is a pleasant thought to surviving friends to feel assured that she did not live for naught.

[Source: Cumberland Presbyterian Orphans' Home Incorporated. Bowling Green, Ky. Booklet, 15 pages]

A few years ago Miss Victoria Jackson, a native of Warren County, Kentucky, and a long resident of Bowling Green, and a devout Cumberland Presbyterian, conceived the idea of establishing a home for orphans of Cumberland Presbyterian parentage and with that cherished plan in mind, she had her beautiful home on College Street rebuilt and remodeled, and it was arranged so that it might be occupied and used for that purpose. The rooms and halls are large and well lighted and ventilated, and the house, as it now is, will accommodate thirty children. It stands on an acre lot that runs from street to street, surrounded by beautiful trees, flowers and shrubbery.

Miss Jackson died on the 20th day of May, 1904, and by her will, which was duly probated in the Warren County Court on the 23d day of May, 1904, and admitted to record, she provided for the establishment of this home. That portion of her will which bears upon this matter is as follows:

"It is my purpose and desire to establish a Cumberland Presbyterian Orphans' Home for white children only in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and it is my intention to provide for the establishment of such a home as far as my ability goes, and to this end I vest in my executors Walter H. Miller and W. F. Ennis, the title to the house and lot in Bowling Green, Kentucky, extending from College Street to Center Street, being the place where I now reside, and said executors to hold title to said house and lot in trust, as hereinafter provided."

By the will, she requested eleven named persons, including her executors, W. H. Miller and W. F. Ennis, to organize themselves into a board of managers and obtain a charter for a Cumberland Presbyterian Orphans' Home.

She then provided that "after said Board of Managers have secured a charter in general accord with my wishes, as herein expressed, and the Orphans' Home is thus made perpetual, as far as management is concerned, and when such charter is obtained and an organization is perfected thereunder, it is my will that my executors convey to said Board of Managers the title to said house and lot, and turn over to said Board of Managers the trust funds in their hands, being careful, however, to see that the persons of said Board of Managers receiving same have given bond and security for the safe keeping of said property and funds."

It was evidently her desire that the Home should be adopted, so to speak, by the church of her faith, for we find therein the following clause: "There have been steps taken by the Cumberland Presbyterian General Assembly to establish an Orphans' Home in Columbia, Tennessee. I will that Revs. J. S. Grider and J. V. Stephens make overtures to the Cumberland Presbyterian General Assembly to make the Home in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and occupy my house as an Orphans' Home."

After making a number of bequests to relatives and personal friends, it was provided that certain proceeds of her estate should go into the hands of her executors, and constitute a fund for the benefit of the Home.
[Source: Cumberland Presbyterian Orphans' Home Incorporated. Bowling Green,Ky. Booklet, 15 pages]