• Photo: Josephine Jackson 1.tif (in blue shirt)

• Photo: Earnest Jackson

Josephine Jackson was born in Boley, Oklahoma in 1910. She recalls her father, Eugene, was a teacher at the local school in Oklahoma and her mother, Louisa, made syrup for the community. Upon finishing high school, she met Earnest Jackson in the cotton fields, and they married. Josephine had four children: Ned, Maudean, Ernestine and Willie Bea. She joined Earnest in Chandler at the beginning of 1937 to pick cotton at Mr. Goodson’s farm around Chandler Heights and McQueen roads.

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The Jacksons moved to Madero, California and then El Centro, California. They came back to Chandler and bought two lots from a man named Whitten who was selling off his alfalfa field, south of Frye Road; this land became part of Delaware Street. Josephine’s family was some of the first members of the Church of God in Christ, located on Morelos Street. She recalls that before the church building was built, they would sit on boxes under the trees on the lot for their services. Josephine quit picking cotton and began styling hair for women from Chandler to Coolidge, as well as housekeeping for families, such as the Bogles, Prices and Bashas. She passed away in 2011 at the age of 101.

One of Josephine’s daughters, Maudean (Jackson) Arbuckle, has lived in Southside since 1951. She met her husband James Arbuckle in Oklahoma when they were children; after James got out of the service in 1952, they moved into a home on Colorado Street. Maudean remembers that at the age of seven, her grandmother started teaching her to cook; her first project was learning to make biscuits. Sunday dinners usually consisted of fried chicken, ham and redeye gravy, mashed potatoes and a green vegetable. Her grandmother made desserts every day, such as red velvet cake and banana cake.

• Photo: James & Maudine 1975.jpg

Maudean remembers the community of Southside being close-knit. Everybody was friendly, and lots of the families intermarried. Food brought people together. These days, her family gets together at least once a month. “It is a big necessity because we like to eat, and I like to cook,” she says. Maudean has seen the neighborhood go through many changes and is proud that Southside’s been around as long as it has. She provided recipes from her mother, Josephine, her grandmother and herself.