John H. Jackson Biography


	This biography appears on page 1474 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	JOHN H. JACKSON, president of the Jackson Hardware Company, of 
Aberdeen, is known as one of the representative business men of the 
city. In 1888 Mr. Jackson established himself in the retail hardware 
business in Aberdeen, and soon gained a wide reputation as a progressive 
and able business man. The location of Aberdeen is such that from the 
start there came a demand for the accommodations afforded by a wholesale 
establishment in the line, and within three years after the inception of 
the enterprise fully seventy-five per cent. of his business was of the 
wholesale nature. In 1900 he found it expedient to turn his entire 
attention to the jobbing trade and the business has been that of a 
distinctively jobbing house since the year mentioned. The business has 
doubled in extent within three years, the annual sales having reached an 
average aggregate of a quarter of a million dollars. In 1903 the fine 
modern building now used was completed, which has an aggregate floor 
space of twenty-six thousand square feet. The Jackson Hardware Company 
was incorporated in 1902, with a capital stock of one hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars. Three traveling salesmen are employed by the house, 
who represent its interests throughout its extended trade territory. 

	J. H. Jackson was born in the province of Quebec, Canada, on the 
22d of May, 1853, being a son of Alonzo and Mary J. Jackson. He was 
reared in his native province to the age of twenty-four years, and there 
received excellent educational advantages. In 1877 he removed to 
Marshall, Lyon county, Minnesota, where he gave his attention to farming 
until 1881, when he came to what is now the state of South Dakota and 
opened a hardware store in Ordway, Brown county, this being prior to the 
time of the completion of the line of the Chicago, Minneapolis & St. 
Paul Railroad to Aberdeen. In 1883 he also, opened a store in Columbia. 
where he continued to be actively engaged in business until coming to 
Aberdeen, in 1888, since which time his business career has already been 
outlined in this article. In politics Mr. Jackson is a member of the 
Republican party, and takes an active interest in its cause. He was 
elected the first mayor of Columbia, South Dakota. During territorial 
days he served on the staff of Governor Church as commissary of supply, 
with the rank of major. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, having 
attained the Knight Templar, Scottish Rite and Mystic Shrine degrees. 

	On the 20th of February, 1889, Mr. Jackson was united in marriage 
to Miss Nora Ringrose, who was born and reared in Wisconsin, and who was 
a resident of Aberdeen at the time of their marriage. They are the 
parents of five children, namely: Helen M., John H., Genevieve, Alice 
and Edward.