MITCHELL Y. JACKSON AND FAMILY:

Mitchell Young Jackson was born August 8, 1816 in Ohio. He moved to Indiana with his family in 1821. He married Martha A. Caldwell at Wabash, Indiana in 1844. In May 1854 he moved to Lakeland in Washington County, Minnesota. He moved to Mason City, Iowa in 1874 and died there in 1900.

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His diaries (1841-1900) describe life in Wabash, Indiana, where he and his brother Alexander operated a mercantile business; farm life at Lakeland, Washington County (Minn.), where he settled in 1854; social organizations at Afton in Washington County; crop prices; the panic of 1857; the Civil War; Washington County politics (1860s); and life in Mason City, Iowa (1874-1900), where he was an insurance agent and owned a hotel. Also included are account books from his Lakeland farm (1863-1874) and his Shakopee, Minnesota lumberyard (1872-1874); and plats of Lakeland.

Diaries (1867-1880) and letters of his son Preston T. describe life in Lakeland, and surveying trips (1872-1874) to the Red Lake and White Earth Indian reservations. Those of another son, Oscar (1864-1923), describe his experiences at a commercial college in St. Paul (1866), at Lakeland, and at Mason City, where he worked as an accountant and bookkeeper (1870s-1923).

Correspondence documenting the activities of other Jackson family members includes letters from Mitchell's sister Kitty, in Crawfordsville, Indiana, telling of a cholera outbreak (1849) and seances in which she participated (1851); from Kitty's husband, Noah Thompson, a druggist in Crawfordsville, Kankakee, Illinois (1860s-1870s), and San Francisco (circa 1879); from Mitchell's son Will (1888-1897), while working for railroads in Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Texas, telling of the development of the Northwest, business conditions, the difficulty of acquiring land, and his opinion of Chinese immigrant labor; from W. N. Lovatt in Hoochow, China (1888), trying to interest Preston in importing tea; and from Preston while surveying land in Washington Territory (1888) and supervising a Montana silver-mining venture (1894). Letters (1889-1900) from William Mitchell of Mount Vernon, Ohio discuss politics, the Prohibition party, temperance, and Methodism.

Letters (1865-1895) from Isabella Riggs Williams, written while she and her husband were missionaries in Kalgan, China, describe a "missionary wife's" life, her religious beliefs, and her lectures in the United States, and reminiscence (1893) on her childhood at her father Stephen R. Riggs' mission in the Minnesota River Valley.

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Mitchell Y. Jackson and Family Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Microfilm Production:

Microfilm. St. Paul, Minnesota : Minnesota Historical Society, 1938.

Microfilm available for sale or interlibrary loan from the Minnesota Historical Society.

Alternate Form Available:

Diaries of Mitchell, Preston, and Oscar Jackson are also available on microfilm.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 2782; 2931; 4953; 5306; 7008

Processing Information:

Catalog ID number: 990017190670104294

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Agricultural prices -- Minnesota.

Agriculture -- Minnesota.

Chinese -- United States.

Education -- Minnesota.

Financial crises.

Health.

Lectures and lecturing -- Minnesota.

Mines and mineral resources -- Montana.

Missionaries -- China.

Railroads -- United States.

Religion.

Surveying -- Minnesota.

Surveying -- Washington Territory.

Theater -- Minnesota.

Persons:

Beecher, Henry Ward, 1813-1887.

Sweeny, Robert Ormsby, 1831-1902.

Jackson, Oscar Alexander, 1846-1924.

Jackson, Preston T., 1850-1937.

Williams, Isabella Riggs, 1840-1897.

Organizations:

Minnesota Historical Society.

Republican Party (Minn.)

St. Croix Valley Academy (Afton, Minn.)

Places:

Afton (Minn.)

China -- Social life and customs.

Indiana -- Social life and customs.

Lakeland (Minn.)

Mason City (Iowa)

Minnesota -- Description and travel.

Minnesota -- Social life and customs.

Mount Vernon (Ohio)

Red Lake Indian Reservation (Minn.)

United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Public opinion.

United States -- Politics and government.

Wabash (Ind.)

Washington County (Minn.) -- Politics and government.

West (U.S.) -- Description and travel.

White Earth Indian Reservation (Minn.)

Document Types:

Account books

Diaries.

Plats -- Minnesota -- Lakeland.

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