History of Somerville, (Middlesex County) Massachusetts United States of America

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Biographies:

Charles Thomas Jackson, scientist, was born in Plymouth, Mass., June 21, 1805; son of Charles and Lucy (Cotton) Jackson, and a descendant of Abraham Jackson, one of the early colonists of Plymouth, who was married to the daughter of Nathaniel Morton, secretary of the Plymouth colony and its historian; and also a descendant of the Puritan divine, John Cotton. Charles was graduated from Harvard, M.D., in 1829. In the summer of 1827 he visited Nova Scotia, in company with Francis Alger, for the purpose of collecting minerals and making geological observations of that province, and after his graduation they continued the research. He went to Europe in the fall of 1829, and studied medicine in the University of France, attending lectures on geology and the scientific lectures of the Sorbonne. He traveled through southern Europe in 1831, making scientific research, and returned to the United States in 1832 in the same ship with Samuel F. B. Morse, to whom he communicated his ideas for an electro-magnetic telegraph, which he always alleged made Mr. Morse first acquainted with the subject of applied electricity. He was married Feb. 27, 1834, to Susan Bridge, of Charlestown, Mass. In 1834 he constructed and exhibited a telegraph apparatus similar to the one which he asserted he had described to Mr. Morse, and to the model patented by Morse in 1835. He practised medicine in Boston, but abandoned it for the more congenial profession of chemist and mineralogist. He opened the first laboratory in the United States for instruction and research in analytical chemistry, was state geologist of Maine in 1836, and made a survey of the public lands owned by the state of Massachusetts and situated in Maine, 1836-39. He made a geographical and agricultural exploration of the state of Rhode Island in 1839, was appointed state geologist of New Hampshire in September, 1839, and U.S. geologist to report on the public lands in the Lake Superior region, serving until 1847, when he resigned. He was instrumental in opening up the great copper region of Lake Superior and developed the emery mines in Chester, Mass., the first to be worked successfully outside of the Grecian archipelago. He claimed the discovery of the production of ans?thesia by ether in the winter of 1841-42. It was not till Oct. 16, 1846, that his discovery was made public through the operation performed by Dr. John C. Warren at the Massachusetts General hospital, which at once led to its general use by the profession. Dr. W. T. G. Morton , a dentist and pupil of Dr. Jackson, 1844, obtained a patent for its use in November, 1846, and in Europe, in December, 1846. Dr. Jackson and Horace Wells contested Morton's patent. The French Academy of Sciences gave Morton 2500 francs as the first to use it, at the same time awarding Dr. Jackson the Montyon prize of 2500 francs as discoverer. In 1852 a bill was introduced in congress appropriating $100,000 to Morton. Meantime Dr. Jackson had learned through Senator Dawson of Georgia that Dr. Crawford W. Long had used sulphuric ether in surgical operations as early as 1841-42. He went to Georgia and satisfied himself of the priority of Long's discovery, and in 1854 the bill before congress was amended so as to include the names of Jackson, Long, Morton, and Wells. Among Dr. Jackson's other scientific discoveries is a powerful blast-lamp for alkaline fusions. He was a fellow of the American Academy; a member of the Geological Society of France; the Imperial Mineralogical Society of St. Petersburg; the Boston Society of Natural History; the Academy of Natural Science of Philadelphia; the Lyceum of Natural History of New York; the Albany Institute; the Natural History Society of Montreal; the Providence Franklin society; the American Society of Naturalists, of which he was chairman, 1845-46, and an honorary member of the Maine Institute of Natural Science. He was made Chevalier de la L?gion d'Honneur; Caviliere dell Ordine dei S.S. Maurizio e dezzaro; Ritter des Rothen Adler; Knight of the Turkish Order of the Mejidich, and received the orderer the Red Eagle from the King of Prussia. His was one of the sixteen names submitted in "Class D, Inventors," for a place in the Hall of Fame for Great Americans, October, 1900, and received one vote, three names in the class securing a place: Fulton, Morse and Whitney. He is the author of: A Description of the Mineralogy and Geology of Nova Scotia (1828; revised 1829); Three Reports on the Geology of the State of Maine (1837, 1838 and 1839); Reports on the Geology of the Public Lands Belonging to the two States of Massachusetts and Maine (1837-38); Report on the Geological and Agricultural Survey of Rhode Island (1840); The Geology and Mineralogy of New Hampshire (1844); The Copper of the Lake Superior Region (1849); Report on the Geological and Mineralogical Survey of the Mineral Lands of the United States in the State of Michigan (1849); Manual of Etherization (1861). He was mentally deranged, 1871-80, and died at Somerville, Mass., Aug. 29, 1880.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

John Franklin Jameson, educator, was born in Somerville, Mass., Sept. 19, 1859; son of John and Mariette (Thompson) Jameson. He was prepared for college at the Roxbury Latin school; was graduated from Amherst in 1879, and spent one year teaching history in Worcester, Mass. He was a fellow at Johns Hopkins university, 1881; assistant and associate professor of history there, 1882-88; lecturer, 1890-91, and professor of history at Brown university, 1888-1901. In October, 1900, he accepted the chair of history in the University of Chicago, his work at Brown closing in June, 1901. He was managing editor of the American Historical Review from its first number in 1895, and chairman of the historical manuscript commission, 1895-1900. He was one of the original members of the American Historical association. He received the degree of Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins in 1882 and that of LL.D. from Amherst college in 1898. He was one of the ninety-seven judges who served as a board of electors in October, 1900, in determining the names entitled to a place in the Hall of Fame, New York university. He is the author of: Willem Usselinx, Founder of the Dutch and Swedish West India Companies (1887); History of Historical Writing in America (1891); Dictionary of United States History (1894), and editorial contributions to the Century Dictionary; and also edited Essays on the Constitutional History of the United States in the Formative Period (1889).

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor