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Charles
Thomas Jackson was the son of Lucy Cotton and Charles Jackson, a
well-to-do Plymouth merchant, ship owner and landowner.
Born in 1805, he grew up with his older sisters Lucy and
Lydia.
| When Charles T.
was 8 years old, his family moved into the “Winslow House” on
North Street (today, considerably ornamented, it is the headquarters
of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants).
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The
Winslow House on North Street as it looked in the 19th
century when Charles T. Jackson lived there.
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Charles
demonstrated an early interest in science, particularly in chemistry
and geology. His sister
Lydia wrote in 1821, when Charles was 16, “I am afraid Charles is
too much engaged in it [chemistry]… I hope I shall not hear again
of his raising a rebellion in the kitchen with his experiments.”
Avoiding the study of liberal arts altogether, Charles went
straight to the scientific program offered by Harvard Medical School
and, after his graduation in 1829, studied geology in Paris for 3
years. On his return to
the States, he married and settled in Roxbury to establish a medical
practice. Medicine
never truly did capture
Charles’ whole attention, however, and he spent most of his time
and energy on mineralogy and analytical chemistry, undertaking
geological surveys and establishing a large private laboratory.
Charles had undertaken his first geological survey in 1826,
chartering a schooner to investigate the Bay of Fundy.
The results were his first publication and his first
professional dispute. Canadian
physician and geologist Abraham Gesner (who later invented the
distillation process for the extraction of kerosene) had also been
studying the area and published his own massive report in 1836.
In 1840, Jackson accused Gesner of plagiarism.
(In the 1850s, Gesner lost a court case over mining rights -
the chief spokesman for his adversaries was Charles T. Jackson, a
man with a long memory!)
Jackson also disputed Samuel S.F. Morse’s patent for the
telegraph, claiming that invention was also his.
Jackson, in 1840, recalled explaining to Morse, while both
were passengers onboard ship in 1832, how to apply electricity to
telegraphic use. Morse’s recollection of the conversations, confirmed by
others present on the ship, was that Jackson had merely described
various experiments being carried out by European scientists,
inspiring Morse to turn his inventive mind towards the
electromagnetic recording telegraph.
Jackson’s most tenacious claim, however, was as the
inventor of ether as a surgical anesthetic.
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