Jackson

ability of the family physician. In 1848 he re-
ceived the degree of M.D. from the Pennsylvania
Medical College and at once settled in Strouds-
burg, Pa., as a general practitioner. In 1850 he
married Harriet Hollinshead. He volunteered
for medical service in the United States Army
in 1862 and rose to the post of assistant medical
director of the Army of Virginia. That he al-
ways retained his interest in military associates
is attested by the fact that in 1889 he was elected
to the presidency of the acting assistant surgeons
of the United States Army. He was discharged
in 1864 and in the following year suffered the
loss of his wife. In 1867 he made his first tour
of Europe and chanced to be in the party of
Mark Twain, who immortalized him as the witty
and humorous "Doctor" in Innocents Abroad. It
is said that the jokes attributed to the "Doctor"
Were a verbatim report of Jackson's utterances.
For reasons not entirely clear Jackson now
made a radical departure in his career and about
1870 moved to Chicago with a view to limiting
his practice to gynecology. There was precedent
enough for this course, for the pioneer labors of
J. Marion Sims [q.v.] and others had made it
practicable to restrict one's activities to the new
specialty. In 1871, although the Chicago fire
of that year must have made the undertaking
doubly difficult, Jackson succeeded in founding
the Woman's Hospital of Illinois of which he
was surgeon in chief, and in the same year he
married as his second wife Julia Newell of Janes-
ville, Wis., a woman of great talents and social
prestige. In 1872 he received an appointment as
lecturer on gynecology at Rush Medical College,
from which he resigned in 1877. That same year
he infected himself while operating and the re-
sulting sepsis caused some impairment of his
general health. In 1882 he was a cofounder and
the first president of the Chicago College of
Physicians and Surgeons. By 1883 gynecology
had progressed so far in Chicago that a special
society was formed, the Chicago Gynecological
Society, with Jackson as its president. In 1889
he developed an attack of aphasia, attributed to
his infection many years before, and made a tour
of the world in company with his wife. Upon his
return it is known that he felt himself doomed to
an early demise but he plunged into manifold ac-
tivities: he was elected president of the Ameri-
can Gynecological Society in 1891, and his last
year of practice, 1891-92, Was the most lucrative
and successful of his career. On Nov. i, 1892,
he suffered a second stroke of apoplexy and suc-
cumbed on the I2th. He wrote many valuable
papers on gynecological subjects, characterized
by originality in thought and language, but it is

Jackson

said that this very quality of originality de-
terred him from writing a textbook, because he
would be compelled to incorporate the work of
other men. Since he was unsurpassed as a teach-
er, this attitude was deplored.

[R. F. Stone, Biog. of Eminent Am. Physicians and
Surgeons (1894); W. B. Atkinson, The Physicians and
Surgeons of the U. S. (1878) ; H. A. Kelly and W. L.
Burrage, Am. Medic. Biogs. (1920); Am. Jour. Ob-
stretics, Jan. 1893; Chicago Clinical Rev., Dec. 1892;
Chicago Medic. Recorder,^ Dec. 1892; N. Y. Jour, of
Gynecology and Obstetricsf Jan. 1893; Trans. Am.
Gynecological Soc., 1893 ; Trans. Chicago Gynecological
Soc., vol. I (1892-93); Chicago Tribune, Nov. 13,
1892.] E> p

JACKSON, ANDREW (Mar. 15, i76;-June
8, 1845), seventh president of the United States,
was born in the lean backwoods settlement of the
Waxhaw in South Carolina (Bassett, Life, 1911,
PP- 5-7)' His father, for whom he was named,
his mother, Elizabeth Hutchinson, and two broth-
ers had migrated from the neighborhood of Car-
rickfergus in the north of Ireland in 1765. Two
years later, shortly before the birth of Andrew,
the father died. Mrs. Jackson, being left a de-
pendent widow, took up residence with relatives,
and her little son started life under the most dis-
couraging circumstances. He was sent to an old-
field school, and developed into a tall, slender,
sandy-haired, tempestuous stripling. When he
had attained the age of nine years, the Revolu-
tion broke upon the country and its horrors later
visited the Waxhaw' settlement. His brother
Hugh was killed in 1779; he and his brother
Robert, though mere lads, took part in the bat-
tle of Hanging Rock, and afterward were cap-
tured by the British. The boy troopers were
thrown in prison, where they contracted small-
pox. Their mother secured their exchange and
release, but Robert died from either the effects
of the disease or neglected wounds. During 1781
Mrs. Jackson went to Charleston to nurse the
sick, and here she died of prison fever. Bereaved
of the last member of his family, Andrew at the
age of fourteen was now alone in the world.

His mother's death at that place probably drew
him to Charleston. Here he learned something
of the great world, including the racing of horses
and the manners of "gentlemen." Returning to
his native settlement, he tried his hand at school-
teaching and finally decided to take up the study
of law. This was a daring yet a sagacious de-
cision. Now seventeen years old, he apparently
had no funds with which to finance his studies,
but he possessed a horse and an abundance of
courage; and the West was in need of young
lawyers who could endure the rigors of frontier
practice. He began the reading of law under
Spruce Macay, at Salisbury, N. C, and had as
fellow student and companion John McNairy.

526