DeSoto Parish, Louisiana; Biography: John Jackson - j250

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Typed by Trudy Marlow
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           John Jackson, the well-known liveryman of
         Grand Cane, La., is a native of Sweden, his birth
         occurring there October 17, 1845, to E. and Eureka
         (Erickson) Jackson, in which country the mother
         died, the father being still a resident of his native
         land.  He is a ship-builder by calling, and is an
         honest, thrifty and God-fearing man.  Of nine
         children born to himself and wife, seven were sons
         and two were daughters.  John Jackson left the
         shelter of the paternal roof at the early age of
         seven or eight years, and embarked on an ocean
         steamer, as cabin boy.  From this lowly and try-
         ing position he worked his way up, until he held
         the rank of first mate, this goal being reached in
         about nine years of seafaring, during which time
         he visited nearly all parts of the globe, Africa,
         Asia, Australia and China being among the num-
         ber.  In the fall of 1866 he gave up his position,
         and the following year, as be had been taken with
         a severe case of "gold fever," he started for Cali-
         fornia, and was in different Territories throughout
         the west until 1869, when he came farther east,
         and completed his knowledge of the different dis-
         tricts of the United States, by traveling through-
         out the Eastern, Middle, Western and Southern
         States, being engaged in railroad work.  In 1881
         he was a contractor, on the Texas & Pacific Rail-
         road, on the tie department, but in 1883 he gave
         up this work, and he and a partner erected the
         large saw-mill for John R. Jones, at Victoria.
         In 1877 he opened a livery establishment at his
         present stand, at which he has since successfully
         continued, and besides this he is the owner of a
         good plantation near Grand Cane.  He was mar-
         ried three times, first to Emma Love, of Shreve-
         port; second to Nettie Hobgood, who left him one
         child, Nettie; and third to Mary J. Spearman, by
         whom he has one son, Charles.  Mr. and Mrs.
         Jackson are members of the Methodist Episcopal
         Church, and in all his ideas and tendencies he is
         progressive and enterprising, a useful member of
         society, personally, and in business circles.