Claiborne Fox Jackson (1806 - 1862)

Born 4 Apr 1806 in Fleming County, Kentucky

Ancestors

Husband of Louisa Caroline (Sappington) Jackson — married 1833 (to 1838) in Missouri

Died 6 Dec 1862 at age 56 in Little Rock, Arkansas

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Preceded by 14th Governor Robert Marcellus Stewart Disposed by Union Forces on July 23, 1861

Claiborne Fox Jackson[1] 15th Governor of Missouri 1861 Governor-in-exile 1861—1862

Succeeded by 16th Governor Hamilton Rowan Gamble Governor-in-exile Thomas Caute Reynolds

Biography

Claiborne Jackson is Notable.

Gov. Claiborne Fox Jackson was born in Fleming County, Kentucky. He was a soldier and political leader, who as governor of Missouri and at the outbreak of the War Between the States led a pro-slavery faction. Claiborne married Jane Breathitt Sappington and had five children.

He was a successful manufacturing chemist, and became heavily involved in Democratic Party politics and served twelve years in the Missouri General Assembly before being elected to the state senate in 1848. In the run-up to the Civil War, he claimed to be anti-secession, in order to get elected Governor, but was secretly planning a secessionist coup in league with Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

When Union troops in St. Louis jailed the local militia, fighting broke out and Jackson declared Missouri to be a free republic. In November 1861, the Confederacy recognized Missouri as its twelfth state, but the Union was increasingly dominant and Jackson and his colleagues fled to Arkansas pending a new invasion. Before this could happen Jackson died of stomach cancer at Little Rock.

Claiborne Jackson was the son of Dempsey Carroll and Mary O. "Molly" (Pickett) Jackson and was born in Fleming County, Kentucky, where his father was a wealthy tobacco farmer and slaveholder. In 1826, Jackson moved with several of his older brothers to Missouri, settling in the Howard County town of Franklin. The Jackson brothers established a successful general mercantile store where young Claiborne worked until 1832 and the outbreak of hostilities in the Black Hawk War. Claiborne Jackson organized and was elected captain of a unit of Howard County volunteers for the conflict. Claiborne Jackson married Jane Breathitt Sappington, daughter of prominent frontier physician John Sappington in early 1831 but she died within a few months of the nuptials.

Returning from the war, Jackson chose not to resume his business partnership with his brothers and instead decided to try his fortune in nearby Saline County. In 1833 Jackson married Louise Catherine Sappington, sister of his late first wife. He also worked with his father-in-law in the manufacture and sale of "Dr. Sappington's Anti-Fever Pills", a patent medicine cure for malaria. The pills were widely distributed and a best-seller, especially in the American south and the then-Mexican southwest due to Saline County's proximity to the Santa Fe Trailhead. Subsequently, both men and their extended families became quite wealthy and influential. Tragedy struck again, however, in May 1838 when Louisa Jackson also died. It is possible this was due to complications of childbirth, as Claiborne and Louisa's infant son Andrew Jackson died the next month in June 1838. Claiborne Jackson's next and final marriage was was to a third Sappington sister, Eliza. Eliza would survive her husband, dying in 1864.

Through his family connections with Dr. Sappington, Claiborne Jackson, along with his brother-in-law Meredith M. Marmaduke became heavily involved with Missour Democratic Party politics. Jackson was first elected to the Missouri General Assembly in 1836, representing Saline County. He moved to the Howard County seat of Fayette, Missouri --- then a center of political power in the state in 1838 and worked for the local branch of the state bank. This would pay great political dividends later in his career. Claiborne Jackson would serve a total of twelve years in the Missouri House, including terms as Speaker in 1844 and 1846. In 1840, Claiborne Jackson very nearly found himself involved in a duel over politics. Writing anonymously to a Fayette, Missouri newspaper, Jackson made accusations that the Whig candidate for Missouri Governor that year, John B. Clark was guilty of election fraud. More harsh words were exchanged and eventually Clark challenged Jackson to a duel before cooler heads prevailed and the matter was settled without gun-play. Later, once Clark had switched party allegiance to the Democrats, he and Jackson became political allies.

Claiborne was elected to the state senate in 1848. As leader of the pro-slavery Democrat, he headed efforts to defeat powerful pro-Union Senator Thomas H. Benton. This was an event with both personal and political implications for Jackson. Until that time, like his father-in-law, Dr. Sappington and brother-in-law Meredith Marmaduke, Jackson had been an ardent backer of Benton. Marmaduke chose to side with Benton, which not only cost him the chance to be elected Governor in his own right (he had served ten months in that role following the suicide of Thomas Reynolds.) The estrangement that developed within the family would not pass. While heading the Senate Ways and Means Committee, he introduced the "Jackson Resolutions". These mandated that Missouri's U. S. Senators and Congressmen make proposals extending the Missouri Compromise to all new territories, asserting that Congress had no power to limit slavery. Jackson and the anti-Benton faction would have their way with the long-time Senator being voted out of office in 1850. However, Benton supporters would exact revenge by derailing Jackson's attempts to secure the Democratic nomination of U. S. Congress in 1853 and again in 1855.

In 1857, Jackson became Banking Commissioner of Missouri. In that position he established a system of six State Banks with branch locations. This proved an advantage to business and general public alike by stabilizing temporary currency shortages that happened from time to time especially in the more rural areas of the state. As Commissioner Jackson traveled to various locations around the state inspecting banking facilities while at the same time building a power base for his next attempt at elected office, Governor of Missouri. In quick summation: Claiborne m. Jane B. Sappington, 1831-1831; then Louisa C. Sappington, 1833-1838; then Eliza Sappington, 1834-1862.

For more on Claiborne Jackson see Wikipedia

Sources

1. ↑ Disposed by Union forces under the guise of a Constitutional Convention in July 1861, the Confederacy continued to recognize Jackson as the Governor of Missouri until his death the following year in Little Rock at which point Lt Gov Reynolds was recognized by the Confederacy as governor.

• Douglas M. Henry, World Book Encyclopedia, 1958, Vol. 11, p. 5151 and www.records.ancestry.com.
• Find A Grave Memorial# 11996
• Mrs. P.H. Haggard and James R. Jones, ed., "A Sketch of My Early Life,” Civil War Times Illustrated, Vol. 20, no. 5, (August 1981): 35.