When and where was Claiborne Fox Jackson born?
Claiborne Fox Jackson entered the world on the 4th of April 1806 in Fleming County, Kentucky. He grew up surrounded by wealth and agricultural power while his father owned tobacco plantations.
Claiborne Fox Jackson entered the world on the 4th of April 1806 in Fleming County, Kentucky. He grew up surrounded by wealth and agricultural power while his father owned tobacco plantations.
Jackson manufactured and sold Dr. Sappington's Anti-Fever Pills throughout the region using quinine derived from ground cinchona bark imported from Peru. This enterprise generated significant wealth for both men and their extended families during an era when malaria plagued the Missouri and Mississippi valleys.
Jackson served a total of twelve years within the lower chamber including terms as Speaker in 1844 and 1846. He secured election to the state senate in 1848 leading pro-slavery Democrats against powerful Senator Thomas H. Benton.
Jackson resigned as Banking Commissioner in fall 1860 to run for governor himself after campaigning as a Douglas Democrat supporting Stephen A. Douglas's anti-secession platform. He defeated Sample Orr by nearly ten thousand votes yet secretly worked behind scenes for secession immediately after winning.
On the 6th of December 1862 he died from pneumonia at age 56 inside a Little Rock rooming house having become weakened from stomach cancer. His health deteriorated rapidly throughout that year while traveling to southern Arkansas for military planning meetings regarding operations to retake their home state.