and two sisters on the farm, the entire family doing their
share of the customary labor. He received his education
at the country school, and it was supplemented later by
private study during such time as he could spare from a
life of extraordinary activity. In 1859, at the age of
twenty-two years, he went to Delmar, then the terminal
of the Delaware Railroad, and started in the general
merchandising business, his sole capita] being $500 which
he had earned by toil and saved by practice of the
strictest economy. In 1863, the railroad having been
completed to Salisbury, Maryland, Mr. Jackson removed
to that place and formed a partnership with his father
and his brother, W. H. Jackson. Here they started a
grocery and dry goods store on a larger scale, adding the
shipping of lumber and grain to the business, and com-
mencing a trade with Baltimore, which afterward as-
sumed large proportions. As the other brothers attained
their majority they were successively taken into the firm.
In 1875, the firm began the manufacture of yellow pine
lumber at Suffolk, Virginia, and they erected a small
planing mill at Salisbury, where some of their lumber
was sent to be worked up, after being roughed out in
Virginia. Under the careful and successful policy of the
firm, a powerful tug was procured to tow six large barges,
with a capacity of 125,000 feet each. At Suffolk, Vir-
ginia, the firm built a railroad running forty miles to the
Dismal Swamp, and equipped it fully with rolling stock.
In 1877, a large planing mill was started in Baltimore,
and in 1879 one was established in Washington, the ship-
ments to these points largely increasing meanwhile.
About ten years ago they purchased 80,000 acres of land
in Alabama. Senator Jackson has always been an active
worker in the Democratic politics of his county and State
from early manhood. He was elected to the House of
Delegates from Wicomico county in 1882, and became a
State Senator in 1884. When. upon the resignation of
Governor Robert M. Mc.Lane to become United States
Minister to France, Henry Lloyd was made Governor,
Senator Jackson was made President of the Senate. In
November, 1887, Mr. Jackson was elected Governor of
Maryland on the Democratic ticket over \ alter B. Brooks,
Republican, by a plurality of 12,416, the vote being
Jackson 99,038, and Brooks 86,622. During his adminis-
tration many important measures were adopted, such as
the Australian ballot law, the adoption of five important