14 PROCEEDINGS OF THE PRINCETON MEETING 



competing outlet independent of the Baltimore and Ohio system, an object 

 to which he had devoted many years of his busy life. But soon after the 

 completion of the railway, and in a moment of seeming realization of his 

 life's work, Mr. Eodgers, who controlled the stock of the "Short Line'^ 

 Eailway, as well as that of its connection, the Ohio Eiver Eailway, sold 

 both to the Baltimore and Ohio Eailroad, to the great discomfiture and 

 financial loss of his too confiding friend, Professor Jackson. Descended 

 from the same stock and a near kinsman of the intrepid Confederate 

 leader, Stonewall Jackson, obstacles and disappointments, which would 

 have completely crushed the spirit of the ordinary man, appeared only to 

 spur Professor Jackson to still more determined effort to persevere in 

 the work he had undertaken, and hence the last year of his life was given 

 to the task of building a new and independent line of railway to connect 

 the city of his birth with the outside world, and it was during the inspec- 

 tion of its construction, in company with the contractor, on an inclement 

 day, on February 1, 1912, that he contracted an illness that resulted in 

 his sudden demise only two days later. As a man and citizen he was 

 -greatly esteemed and beloved by his neighbors and acquaintances. 



Professor Jackson was well born. His great-grandfather, George Jack- 

 son, was a Eepresentative in the 4th, 6th, and 7th Congresses of the United 

 States, while his grandfather, John G. Jackson, was a brother-in-law of 

 President Madison, his marriage to Mary Payne, the sister of Dolly 

 Madison, having been the first one in the White House. He was also a 

 Eepresentative in the 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 13th, and 14th Congresses, and 

 in 1819 was appointed by President Monroe judge of the United States 

 Court for the Western District of Virginia, which position he held until 

 his death. Judge John G. Jackson's first wife, Mary Payne Jackson, 

 died February 13, 1808, and is buried in Clarksburg, West Virginia, 

 alongside of her mother, Mrs. Payne, the mother of Dolly Madison. 



In 1810 Judge John G. Jackson married his second wife, Mary S. 

 Meigs, the daughter of Eetum Jonathan Meigs, who was Postmaster 

 General under President Madison and twice Governor of Ohio. This 

 second wife was the grandmother of Thomas Moore Jackson and mother 

 of James Madison Jackson, his father, who was a first cousin of Thomas 

 J. Jackson, the celebrated Confederate general, Stonewall Jackson. 



Professor Jackson, although taking great interest in all scientific mat- 

 ters, was of such a modest and retiring disposition that he could never be 

 induced to prepare any formal papers for publication, and hence he will 

 be remembered more by his active work in the field than by any published 

 writings. 



Professor Jackson, whose father, mother, and twin sister preceded him 



