The Town of Stonewall owes its start to Samuel Jacob Jackson. He founded the community in 1878. 

Mr. Jackson was born in Ireland in 1848. As a young child he came to Canada and eventually settled in Ontario.  In 1871, he was a member of a survey crew which came to the Rockwood area where he was to eventually make his home. Mr. Jackson was not only to become a prominent businessman and landowner in the area, he also became a well known and respected politician. He was Speaker of the House from 1891-1895 and was one of only a select few to be given the Speaker's Chair upon retirement. He was also elected to the House of Commons in 1904 and served as Selkirk M.P. until 1908.

 

He acquired the land where Stonewall is located in 1875. He moved to Stonewall in 1881. 

He was an avid promoter of the community and would give building sites to people who promised to build a house to his specifications and plant trees. Many of the old trees planted along 2nd Ave North are the work of Mr. Jackson.

Local tradition has it that Mr. Jackson was given the nickname Stonewall for his affinity with the American confederate general of the same name. Mr. Jackson then decided to pass the name on to the new town, and that is how the town in its own way came to be named after its original founder, Samuel "Stonewall" Jackson.