During the Civil War, Governor Vance had purchased cotton in various counties to be sold on the state's account. In the summer and autumn of 1865 and again in 1866 Joseph John Jackson was appointed agent to demand, collect, and receive for the benefit of the state all cotton and other property belonging to the state in various counties. United States Treasury agents, supported by the United States Army then occupying North Carolina, seized 74 bales of the cotton belonging to the state and refused to allow Jackson to take possession of it. After the cotton had been sold for the benefit of the U.S. Treasury, Jackson in 1874 entered into a contract with Gov. Tod Caldwell to attempt recovery of the value of the cotton from the U.S. government, and to take as his fee a proportionate share of what he might be able to recover.

Before his death, Jackson conveyed to his son, Samuel Spencer Jackson, his legal interest under the state contract. His son continued to press the claim through the first quarter of the twentieth century. It took 54 years for Jackson and his son to prosecute the claim to a successful conclusion, but finally, in 1928, Congress settled the claims of several states, including $96,835 for North Carolina's cotton seized in 1865. Correspondents of the two Jacksons include Governors W.W. Holden, Jonathan Worth, Tod R. Caldwell, Charles B. Aycock and Angus W. McLean; U.S. Senators John Pool, Augustus S. Merrimon, Matt W. Ransom, Zebulon B. Vance and Lee S. Overman; U.S. Representatives James M. Leach, Joseph J. Davis, Alfred Moore Waddell, and Furnifold M. Simmons.

In 1848 or 1849 J. J. Jackson, William Beverhout Thompson, William T. Home, Thomas Hill, and Nathan A. Stedman purchased tracts of land on Deep River in the coal region of Chatham County, and in 1851 were incorporated as the Chatham Mining and Manufacturing Company (commonly called the Horneville Coal Company). Each man then transferred his share of the land to the corporation, becoming in exchange, holder of an equal fifth share in the capital stock of the company. In 1860 Jackson purchased Hill's share, and in 1869 began to look out for the interests of Mrs. W. B. Thompson (her husband having returned to Georgetown, D.C., before the Civil War and since died).

In 1881 John W. Scott of Sanford, N.C., secured control of 8/15 interest in the property and took over its management from Jackson whose financial situation began a decline after the panic of 1873. Eventually Jackson was obliged to take advantage of the Homestead Exemption Act in order to protect a modicum of his property from his creditors. Among the property he listed as part of his homestead was his fifth interest in the Horneville property (mortgaged by him to his sister-in-law, Elvira Worth Moffitt in 1887). This file of papers appears to have been preserved as evidentiary matter reflecting his title to a fifth-share of the Horneville property and establishing his claim against the heirs of William Beverhout Thompson for recovery of his expenses in looking out for Mrs. Thompson's interest in the property.

These warranty, sheriff, quitclaim and mortgage deeds are the muniments of title to Joseph John Jackson's town property in Pittsboro, N.C. (Lots 76, 77, 78, 79, 81, 82, and 83).

These twelve documents include an 1866 note from Jackson to Governor Worth asking him to forward as soon as possible to "Brother Jack" a box of scuppernong grape cuttings; an 1870 holograph will written by Jackson on the eve of a trip; advice written to his wife in 1875 on how to deal with such realty as remained after his financial failure; an undated manuscript drawing and description of an improved piece of equipment for cotton growing (a cotton blocker); part of a 1930 newspaper obituary of Jackson's daughter, Bettie Louise (Mrs. Henry Armand London); and a negative photostat of J. J. Jackson's certificate of membership in good standing in the Dialectic Society at the University of North Carolina, 1838.