Born in Virginia, Major Abner Jackson came to Texas in 1838. His first successful plantation, from 1839 to 1842, was Retrieve Plantation, now Retrieve prison farm, where he set up a sugar mill with a double set of kettles. In 1842, Jackson developed land that became the Lake Jackson Plantation, where he constructed a sugar mill that in 1852 produced sugar using horse-driven machinery. By 1858, Jackson had installed a steam engine in his sugar mill. Darrington Plantation, Jackson's third, is now Darrington prison farm. Abner Jackson and his wife, Margaret, had four sons, Andrew, John, George, and Abner, Jr., and a daughter, Arsenath, wife of Jared Fulton Groce. In 1861, Abner Jackson died, and his son John C. Jackson returned from the Civil War to manage the estate.