28 Facts About Sheldon Jackson

Sheldon Jackson was a Presbyterian minister, missionary, and political leader.

Sheldon Jackson performed extensive missionary work in Colorado and the Alaska Territory, including his efforts to suppress Native American languages.

Sheldon Jackson was born in 1834 in Minaville in Montgomery County in eastern New York.

Sheldon Jackson's mother Delia Jackson was a daughter of New York State Assembly Speaker Alexander Sheldon.

Sheldon Jackson wanted to become a missionary overseas, but the Presbyterian board told the five foot tall Jackson, who had weak eyesight and was often ill, that he would be better suited for duty in the United States.

Sheldon Jackson first worked in the north-central and western United States, which were still vast and lightly populated areas during the American Civil War and thereafter.

Sheldon Jackson spent ten years in Minnesota and Wisconsin, having organized or assisted in the establishment of twenty-three churches.

Sheldon Jackson found his major life's work in the new territory of Alaska.

Sheldon Jackson became committed to the Protestant Christian spiritual, educational, and economic wellbeing of the Alaska Natives, according to his conception of well-being.

Sheldon Jackson founded numerous schools and training centers that served these native people.

Sheldon Jackson's proteges included Edward Marsden, a Tsimshian missionary among the Tlingit.

Sheldon Jackson had considerable common ground with another important American in the region.

Sheldon Jackson's ship carried doctors and provided the only available trained medical care to many isolated communities.

Sheldon Jackson was convinced that Americanization was the key to the future of Alaskan Natives.

Sheldon Jackson discouraged the use of indigenous languages, traditional cultural practices, and spiritual celebrations.

Sheldon Jackson believed he could further his goals for the Alaskan natives through politics.

Sheldon Jackson became a close friend of US President Benjamin Harrison.

Sheldon Jackson worked toward the passage of the Organic Act of 1884, which ensured that Alaska would begin to set up a judicial system and receive aid for education.

In 1885, Sheldon Jackson was appointed General Agent of Education in the Alaska Territory.

Concurrent with the values of the expanding colonial administration, Sheldon Jackson undertook a policy of deliberate acculturation.

In particular, Sheldon Jackson advocated an English-only policy which forbade the use of indigenous languages.

Sheldon Jackson's policy prohibiting indigenous languages in Alaska schools was enforced from 1910 to 1968.

Sheldon Jackson repeatedly sparred with McAllister and the district attorney, and mounted a campaign with President Grover Cleveland's family members to have the officials dismissed.

In May 1885, Sheldon Jackson was indicted by a grand jury of Russian-Tlingit creoles, in a controversy over land rights.

Sheldon Jackson died on May 2,1909, in Asheville, North Carolina.

Sheldon Jackson is interred in his hometown of Minaville, New York.

Sheldon Jackson Street is found in the College Village subdivision of Anchorage, a neighborhood next to the University of Alaska Anchorage campus where the streets are named for colleges and universities.

Additional correspondence by Sheldon Jackson is held at Princeton Theological Seminary.