Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 06.djvu/34

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

JACKSON


JACKSON


serving until 1847, wlien he resigned. He was instrumental in opening up the great copper re- gion of Lake Superior and developed the emery mines in Chester, Mass., the first to be worked successfully outside of the Grecian archipelago. He claimed the discovery of the production of anaesthesia by ether in the winter of 1841-43. It was not till Oct. 16, 1846, that his discovery was made public through the operation performed by Dr. JohnC. Warren (q.v.) at the Massachusetts General hospital, which at once led to its general use by the profession. Dr. W. T. G. Morton (q.v.), a dentist and pupil of Dr. Jackson, 1844, obtained a patent for its use in November, 1846, and in Europe, in December, 1846. Dr. Jackson and Horace Wells (q.v.) contested Morton's pat- ent. The French Academy of Sciences gave Morton 2500 francs as the first to use it, at the same time awarding Dr. Jackson the Montyon prize of 2500 francs as discoverer. In 1852 a bill was introduced in congress appropriating $100,- 000 to Morton. Meantime Dr. Jackson had learned through Senator Dawson of Georgia that Dr. Crawford W. Long (q.v.) had used sul- phuric ether in surgical operations as early as 1841-43. He went to Georgia and satisfied him- self of the priority of Long's discovery, and in 1854 the bill before congress was amended so as to include the names of Jackson, Long, Morton, and Wells. Among Di-. Jackson's other scientific discoveries is a powerful blast-lamp for alkaline fusions. He was a fellow of the Ameri- can Academy; a member of the Geological Soci- ety of France; the Impei'ial Mineralogical Society of St. Petersburg; the Boston Society of Natural History; the Academy of Natural Science of Philadelphia; the Lyceum of Natural History of New York; the Albany Institute; the Natural History Society of Montreal; the Providence Franklin society; the American Society of Nat- uralists, of which he was chairman, 1845-46, and an honorary member of the Maine Institute of Natural Science. He was made Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur; Caviliere dell Ordine dei S.S. Maurizio e dezzaro; Ritter des Rothen Ad- ler; Knight of the Turkish Order of the Mejidich, and received the order of the Red Eagle from the King of Prussia. His was one of the sixteen names submitted in " Class D, Inventors," for a place in the Hall of Fame for Great Americans, October, 1900, and received one vote, three names in the class securing a place: Fulton, Morse and Whitney. He is the author of: A DescrijMon of the Mineralogy and Geology of Nova Scotia (1828; revised 1839); Three Reports on the Geol- ogy of the State of Maine (1837, 1838 and 1839); Reports on the Geology of the Piiblic Lands Be- longing to the two States of Massachusetts and Maine (1837-38); Report on the Geological and


^. ^^U^^^


Agricultural Survey of Rhode Island (1840); The Geology and Mineralogy of New Hampshire (1844) • The Copper of the Lake Superior Region (1849); Report on the Geological and Mineralogical Sur- vey of the Mineral Lands of the United States in the State of Michigan (1849); Manual of Ether- ization (1861). He was mentally deranged, 1871- 80, and died at Somerville, Mass., Aug. 29, 1880, JACKSON, Claiborne Fox, governor of Mis- souri, was born in Fleming county, Ky., April 4, 1807. His parents were natives of Virginia, who settled in Kentucky. They subsequently re- moved to Missouri, and he was a merchant ia Howard county and commanded a com- pany of volunteers in the Black Hawk war, taking part in the decisive battle of Bad Axe, Aug. 1-2, 1833. He retired from business with a fortune, in 1837. He was a representa- tive in the Missouri legislature, 1836-48; speaker of the house for one term; a member of the state convention, 1845, and a state senator, 1848-49. He helped to found the banking system of the state, and was bank commissioner for several years. He was elected governor of the state in August, 1860, and in the national election of that year supported the Douglas ticket. When South Carolina seceded, Governor Jackson declared himself a secessionist, but failed to secure from the Missouri legisla- ture that assembled, Dec. 31, 1860, the passage of such an act. He then determined to use his power as governor to secure possession of the U.S. arsenal at St. Louis, then in command of Capt. Nathaniel Lyon, U.S.A. He sent commis- sioners to Montgomery, Ala., and they obtained siege guns by order of President Davis, which were shipped from Baton Rouge to St. Louis. Meantime he organized Camp Jackson on the hills overlooking the arsenal, and placed it in command of Gen. D. M. Frost, supported by a small brigade of volunteer militia. When Presi- dent Lincoln called upon Missouri for her quota to support the government, he replied that in his opinion the requisition was " illegal, unconstitu- tional and revolutionary in its object, inhuman and diabolical," and that Missouri would not furnish one man " to carry on such an unholy crusade." He shortly after convened the legis- lature and called for 50.000 volunteers for the defence of the state from invasion. As soon as