O.T. Jackson
*O.T. Jackson was born on this date in 1862. He was a Black businessman and entrepreneur.
Oliver Toussaint Jackson was born in Oxford, Ohio. He was one of eight children born to Hezekiah Jackson and his wife Caroline, both of whom were former slaves. He was educated in Ohio and had an entrepreneurial spirit from an early age. He began his career in 1876, working at restaurants in Cleveland, Ohio, and became a caterer.
After hearing stories of Blacks resettling in the West, Jackson relocated to the Denver, Colorado area in 1887, where he worked as a caterer. Two years later, he married Sarah "Sadie" Cook, the sister of his brother James's wife and the paternal aunt of composer Will Marion Cook. By 1894, Jackson had made enough money to purchase a farm near Boulder and lived at 2228 Pine St. in Boulder. He opened the Stillman Cafe and Ice Cream Parlor on 13th St. in Boulder in December 1892. The cafe was described as "one of the most select dining resorts and one not usually found outside of metropolitan cities." Jackson became a manager at Boulder's Chautauqua Dining Hall in 1898, where he supervised 75 employees.
Jackson's first wife died in 1904, and he remarried schoolteacher Minerva J. Matlock in 1905, returning to Denver to work as a messenger for Colorado governors. He later operated a popular seafood restaurant at 55th and Arapahoe in Boulder that remained open until the city went dry in 1907. He had helped elect John Franklin Shafroth governor of Colorado in 1908 and, in return, was appointed messenger for the governor's office. Jackson would serve under four other governors of Colorado.
Jackson read Booker T. Washington's autobiography Up from Slavery (1901), becoming captivated with Washington's socio-political stance on Black land ownership. Jackson fully embraced Washington's views and lobbied Governor Shafroth for support of his plan for an agricultural settlement for Blacks. Shafroth helped him take advantage of the Homestead Act to apply for land for homesteading. In 1909, Jackson purchased 320 acres (130 ha) of land in Weld County and modeled the community after Union Colony, founded in 1870.
A year later, Jackson's agricultural settlement for Black Americans, named Dearfield, was officially established, attracting settlers from Denver, Minneapolis, and Kansas City. Early groups struggled: some were forced to live in tents or makeshift shelters in the nearby hillsides, and there were continual shortages of fuel and water; bitter winter conditions in the first year nearly claimed the lives of settlers. All the water rights to the land had been purchased, so there was no water available for irrigation. Early homesteaders had to carry water from a river almost a mile away.
Over time, the community prospered with crops such as corn, melons, and squash, which experienced a surge in price during the First World War. By the end of 1917, the population had grown to 500 residents. Minerva served as the unofficial mayor of Dearfield while Jackson continued to work in Denver and promote the community. By 1921, Dearfield was valued at $750,000 and had a population of 700. Jackson sought to capitalize on the town's success by erecting a cannery and soap factory.
Over the next 10 years, a series of natural disasters hit the community, including a crash in commodity prices, the return of soldiers from WWI who didn't want to live on farms, and a transition from wet to dry conditions. In the 1930s, the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl decimated Dearfield, forcing Jackson and settlers to sell their homes for lumber. By 1940, only 12 residents remained. Jackson stayed, seeking a young Black man to reestablish the community.
Oliver Toussaint Jackson died in the Weld County Hospital in Greeley, Colorado, on February 8, 1948, at the age of 85. Dearfield became a ghost town after the last resident left in 1973, and the site was included in the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.
