Researcher restores forgotten Black military family to Connecticut history

SIMSBURY, Conn. (WFSB) – As America marks its 250th year, researchers are uncovering stories of people whose names didn’t make history books but whose sacrifices shaped the nation.

In Simsbury, one such story centers on Esther Wallace Jackson, a woman born free to formerly enslaved parents who became the anchor of a multigenerational military family whose service spans nearly every major American conflict.

Jackson’s story was almost lost, scattered across probate records and fading documents.

Connecticut researcher John Mills spent years piecing it together, uncovering a formerly enslaved family whose military contributions include service from the Revolutionary War through the Civil War.

Mills, a genealogist and founder of the nonprofit Alex Breanne Corporation, discovered the family while tracing the family tree of a Civil War soldier from Bloomfield.

“It turns out he was a grandson of Peter and Esther Jackson. And so, I started chasing down that story and discovered that Peter Jackson had been enslaved in Simsbury,” Mills said.

The family’s military legacy runs deep. Jackson’s father, London Wallace, served in the French and Indian War.

Her three brothers fought in the Revolutionary War.

Generations later, seven of Peter and Esther’s grandsons served in the Civil War, and six never returned home.

“With every major conflict, this family is deeply involved,” Mills said.

For men who were enslaved or newly freed, military service carried deeper meaning.

“You’re fighting for the country while you also don’t have the same freedom as others,” Mills said.

Mills partnered with the Simsbury Historical Society and the Department of Veterans Affairs to install a burial marker honoring the family’s military legacy.

The marker was placed next to the headstones of Peter and Esther Jackson.

In June, descendants gathered to see their family’s untold story commemorated.

“The intent was to have every person that we knew of who fought in one of these U.S. conflicts that were a part of their family on this monument,” Mills said.

Jackson’s obituary described her as a respected community member who walked two miles to her church on Hopmeadow Street well into her nineties.

Her legacy now lives in the Simsbury Public Library, where a hand-painted portrait depicts her likeness using features of her descendants.

“We unveiled it on June 19, 2025. Now, we have something visual so that the family and the community have to align with the story of Esther Jackson,” Mills said.

Mills said the research serves a broader purpose beyond memorializing individuals.

“The information we find, the research we do, is not only for them to be memorialized. It’s to create something that the public and the community, that specific town, has something that gives them the history,” Mills said.

The Wallace-Jackson descendants say they plan to return to Simsbury this Memorial Day to place flags at the monument bearing their family’s name.

Click here for more information about the Alex Breanne Corporation.

Copyright 2025 WFSB. All rights reserved.