Early Life
Claiborne Jackson son of Dempsey Carroll and Mary Orea "Molly" (Pickett) Jackson, 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 Breathhitt 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, instead deciding to try his fortune in nearby Saline County. In 1833 Jackson married Louisa 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 Countys proximity to the Santa Fe Trailhead. Subsequently both men and their extended family 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 to a third Sappington sister, Eliza. Eliza would survive her husband, dying in 1864.
Read more about this topic: Claiborne Fox Jackson
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