Sounds like your cassandra server isn't running. Check that the server is running via the task manager or telnet 127.0.0.1 9160
If you get the below cassandra isn't running:
telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection refused
As for the jdbc library, 1st piece of advice, use the DataStax driver (you can just add a maven dependency), second piece of advice... use maven for jdbc too. Add the dependency into a maven project and then used the code page on the wiki.
Dependency:
<dependency>
<groupId>org.apache-extras.cassandra-jdbc</groupId>
<artifactId>cassandra-jdbc</artifactId>
<version>1.2.5</version>
</dependency>
