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Written in pencil on the back is "Mabel Jackson".
The front of the card is embossed with the photographer's signature,
Flint  WATERLOO, IOWA

The photograph appears to have been taken in the 1890's.
It was found in a box of old photos that my father had collected of his ancestors from Kellogg and other towns in Iowa.

MYSTERY SOLVED

I recently found out that the web site of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, www.FamilySearch.org, has a searchable index of the 1880 U.S. Census on line. I did a search for Rachel Jackson, wife of William Jackson, and found her in Waterloo, Iowa. She and William were living in the home of John L. Jackson, their son, and his wife Mary P. (Capwell¹) Jackson. In 1880, John and Mary Jackson had two daughters, May R. Jackson age 6, and Mabel C. Jackson age 8 months, born Oct. 1879. This Mabel C. Jackson would be 21 years old in 1900 and was a neice of Dell Ann (Jackson) Braley, my great-grandmother. She is the Mabel Jackson in the photograph above.

UPDATE: Ancestry.com has now posted the 1895 Iowa State Census and this family is still living in Waterloo, Iowa. In 1895 May Jackson is 20 and Mable C. Jackson is 14.

Background Information

My great-grandfather, Alson Henry Braley, married Dell Ann Jackson in Waterloo, Iowa, on May 28, 1872. He had come to Waterloo by wagon from Kellogg, Jasper County, Iowa. They went home to Kellogg in his wagon after the marriage. I now know that her family was living in Waterloo, Black Hawk Co. in 1870. Her obituary, written in 1929, says "Dell Ann Jackson came to Waterloo, Iowa, with her parents when she was 8 years old," she was 8 in 1856.

On a May 2001 trip to Ohio and Iowa, we found an 1850 Federal Census record of the family of William and Rachel Jackson, with four children, in Kenton, Ohio. We also found a grantee deed recorded in Hardin Co., Ohio, for the sale of property in Kenton by William and Rachel Jackson of Columbia Co., Wisconsin, on 30 Jan. 1854. The Jacksons were represented by an attorney at the signing of the deed. In October 2001, we found the family in the 1860 Federal Census living on a farm in Waterloo Township of Black Hawk Co., Iowa. In this census the family has two more children, one born 1852 in Ohio and a second born 1854 in Wisconsin. William Jackson and Rachel apparently moved their family from Kenton, Hardin Co., Ohio, to Columbia Co., Wisconsin, between 1852 and January 1854, and then to Waterloo Twp., Black Hawk County, Iowa by 1860. In the 1870 census most of the family is living in the city of Waterloo.

According to the 1850, 1860 and 1870 censuses, this Jackson family included:
William Jackson, Wagonmaker, 1850; Farmer, 1860, Wagonmaker, 1870; b. abt. 1810 in England
Rachel Jackson, Wife, b. abt. 1819 in OH
John L. Jackson, b. abt. 1839 in OH
Mary E. Jackson, b. abt. 1842 in OH
George S. Jackson, b. abt. 1845 in OH
Della A. Jackson, b. abt. 1849 in OH
Allie S. Jackson, b. abt. 1852 in OH
William H. Jackson, b. abt. 1854 in WI

Dell Ann Jackson was listed Idella Jackson in 1850 and 1860, and is Della Ann Jackson in the 1870 census, she was actually born Sept. 29, 1848.  According to an LDS File and a supporting Family Tree, Mary Elizabeth Jackson, b. about 1842 in Ohio, and probably Dell Ann's older sister, married Samuel M. Benight in Black Hawk Co., Iowa in September 1860. His family is also shown in Waterloo Twp. in the 1860 census. I'm certain that the William Jackson family did move to Waterloo Twp., Black Hawk Co. between 1854 and 1860.  They probably came in 1856, as reported in Dell Ann Jackson's obituary.

William Jackson's wife was Rachel (Horsman) Jackson. Rachel Horsman was the daughter of Levi Horsman and Mary Wilson and I have found 8-9 generations of her ancestry. Levi Horsman and Mary Wilson were married in 1815 in Carroll Co., OH. Carroll County is one of three Ohio counties with towns named Waterloo. Several of their children are shown in LDS files as being born in Waterloo, IOWA, in the 1820's! That is not possible. The first settlers of Waterloo, Iowa, came in the 1840's. However, their children may have been born in a Waterloo, OHIO, most likely the one in Carroll County. Levi and Mary were also found in the 1860 Iowa Census living in Waterloo Twp. I have confirmed that he died in or near Waterloo, Iowa, in 1877, and is probably the Hoseman burial in Waterloo Cemetery.

I am guessing that Mable Jackson in the photo is no older than about 25, and therefore she was likely to have been born between 1865 and 1880. She is unlikely to be a daughter of William and Rachel Jackson, but she might be a daughter of one of their sons, John L., George S. or William H. Jackson. If Mabel Jackson is the daughter of one of Dell Ann's brothers, she would be a niece of Dell Ann Jackson. That would explain why her picture was in my father's collection. I have no firm information on any marriage of these three sons.

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1. Mary P. Jackson’s maiden name is now known to be Capwell because both of the daughters of Mary and John Jackson died in California under their married names. Both of them indicated that their mother’s maiden was Capwell, and that their father’s surname was Jackson.