Archie Jackson

Born of a middle class family in Virginia, Archibald Jackson never saw himself winding up as a Judge, he just didn't want to wind up in the family business. Mom was an accountant and dad was a trader, and as the youngest son of three brothers...who also went into the family mercantile business...the pressure was on for him to stay in Virginia and help expand the family business. Out of love for his family and adoration for his father, he did what was best for them. He graduated from college and returned home, worked in the family business, falling back into the same routine with the same people. It was safe, but boring. One day, he came across a letter to his father from a woman 3 counties over. She asked when he would be home to see their family and that she missed her dear husband. It shook his world to know his father had a whole other family. The man he had looked up to for guidance was all but a fraud. He confronted his father with the letter one day, to which his father confessed to his sins and begged Archie to stay quiet. Archie knew this would devastate his mother so he agreed, but left, knowing he couldn't face the man he thought he knew anymore. So he joined the Army. The civil war had been over for a few years now and the military had moved westward chasing bandits and thieves preying upon settlers heading out for new riches and opportunities with the silver and gold booms in Colorado and California. He served happily in Oklahoma and Kansas, picking up skills as a medic and an interest in the skills of the lawmen that he worked alongside. After serving 4 years, a marshal he met once offered him a job in Denver, which he gladly accepted. There he met his first wife who was a school teacher. They wed and after one year they were expecting their first son. Archie had been working a case to bring down a gang of thieves, and had caught them dead to rights. What he didn't count on was a corrupt judge who had been taking money from them, and let the gang walk. The next day they kidnapped his wife and took her deep into the mountains, where she was found 3 months later, frozen to death. Archie made it his determination then and there to study law and root out that corruption. He was able to make a case against the judge that damned his wife and child, and after passing his BAR exam, moved to start a new life. He was a district attorney in Oklahoma for a bit when an old friend, Raylan Givens, reached out to him to help run the courts in a county he was living in at the time. There he started a new family with his wife, a marshal. The Jacksons were a strong name in law there, which of course drew the ire and hate from the criminals. The Jacksons and the Givens spent their days chasing down these gangs and trying to bring peace to those lands, but once again faced a corrupt Government that let the criminals go at every turn. The harassment and lack of respect for the balance of law and crime became unbearable, and the Jacksons were scattered. Archie and his wife roamed for a while, hoping to find a new home, but failing to find that right fit. Then another letter came from his friend Raylan. He had acquired the rights to a land and wanted to start a new place. A place founded on balance and equality for all. The Jacksons settled there, bringing some of the remaining family into the fold as he settled in to being a Judge, rancher, and sometimes calling back to his Army training as a medic when doctors were short handed. Now, with his wife having disappeared inexplicably, he buries himself into serving the county and the newfound family he has found at Emerald Ranch. Along side the remaining members of the Jackson family, and the other families like the Bloodraynes, Seasons, and the Givens that he has grown close to, he finds contentment in healing wounds, whether it be through injustices served or bodily harm, in hopes of steadying his feet and finding a life that will let him find happiness once more.