The Sheldon Jackson Manuscript Collection (Concerning Alaska, 1878-1908)

1834 May 18

Born, Minaville, New York

1855

Graduated, Union College

1855-1858

Student, Princeton Theological Seminary

1858 May 5

Ordained, evangelist, Presbytery of Albany

1858-1859

Missionary, Choctaws

1859-1864

Home missionary, La Crescent, Minnesota

1864-1869

Pastor, Rochester

1869-1870

Superintendent, Western territories, Presbyterian Board of National Missions

1870-1882

Superintendent, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Montana, Presbyterian Board of National Missions

1874

Awarded honorary doctor of divinity, Hanover College

1882-1884

Business manager, Home Mission, New York City

1884

Superintendent, Alaska, Presbyterian Board of National Missions

1885-1909

United States general agent, education, Alaska

1897

Moderator, General Assembly

1909 May 2

Died, Asheville, North Carolina

Sheldon Jackson was born in Minaville, Montgomery County, New York on 18 May 1834, graduated from Union College, Schenectady, New York in 1855, and from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1858. He was licensed by the Presbytery of Albany, New York that same year; and a year later was ordained an evangelist by that same Presbytery. For a year he was a missionary to the Choctaw Indians. From 1859-64 he was a home missionary in La Crescent, Minnesota. He served as a pastor in Rochester, Minnesota in 1864-69. From 1869-82 he was Superintendent of the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions in the Western Territories (Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Montana). Jackson served as special government agent to gather and bring to the Indian School at Carlisle, Pennsylvania and elsewhere children of Pueblo, Pima, Papago and Apache tribes of New Mexico and Arizona. From 1882-1884 he was business manager of the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions, New York City. In 1884 he became superintendent for the Board of Home Missions in Alaska, and the following year took on the additional duties of United States Government General Agent for education in Alaska. He lived and worked in Alaska until 1908. He died in Asheville, North Carolina, May 2, 1909 and was buried in Minaville, New York.

Jackson received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Hanover College, Indiana in 1874 and an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Union College, New York and from Richmond College, Ohio in 1897. He owned and edited the Rocky Mountain Presbyterian (published monthly in Denver, Colorado from 1872-82) and later the North Star (published monthly in Sitka, Alaska from 1887-92). During the summer of 1863 he served as an agent of the U.S. Christian Commission in the hospitals of the Army of the Cumberland. He was principal founder of the Woman's Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church, 1870-1879. In 1877 he became the first ordained missionary to Alaska. During his years in Alaska he established numerous schools and missions. In 1887 he founded the Alaskan Society of National History and Ethnology. He served as special agent of the U.S. government to survey the agricultural possibilities of the Yukon Territory. In 1883 he established the first canoe mail service in Alaska. In 1891-92 he was instrumental in introducing Siberian reindeer to Alaska as a supplementary food supply for the Eskimo population, and founded a reindeer mail service in 1898/1899. He was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in 1897. During the early years of the Alaska gold rush Jackson imported herds of Lapp reindeer to prevent starvation in the Yukon territory, and brought a colony of Laplanders to oversee the herds. He belonged to more than forty religious, philanthropical, historical and scientific societies. During his career he was instrumental in organizing 88 churches. In May, 1858 he married Mary Voorhees, who died in 1908. Jackson died the following year in 1909. They had two daughters, Lesley and Elizabeth.

For a more detailed account of Jackson's career, including an assessment of his impact on the missionary movement in general and the early history of the Alaska Territory in particular, see the Journal of the Presbyterian Historical Society, Vol. 30, No. 3 (September, 1952), 139-158. This article also supplies a description of the collection of Dr. Jackson's papers in the Presbyterian Historical Society Library in Philadelphia, and a complete bibliography of his published writings. One may also consult the essay by Hermann N. Morse, "Sheldon Jackson (1834-1909): Christ's Fool and Seward's Folly" in Hugh T. Kerr (ed.), Sons of the Prophets: Leaders in Protestantism from Princeton Seminary (Princeton, 1963), 82-99. The major sources for the biographical information given above are the obituary published in the Princeton Theological Seminary Bulletin (Vol. 4, August 1910), and the entry that Dr. Jackson himself prepared for Who's Who in America, 1908-09 edition, pp. 977-78. See also the popular account by J. A. Lazell, Alaskan Apostle: The Life Story of Sheldon Jackson (New York, 1960).