Eleazer Jackson was born May 12, 1736, married Rachel Pond in 1761, and came to Chesterfield about 1778. He settled upon the land which is now a part of the farm on which his grandson, Jay Jackson, resides, and which has always been, since 1778, owned by members of the Jackson family. He was selectman in 1782, ’83, ’87, ’88, ’93, ’96 and 1800, and representative in 1792, ’93 and ’97- In 1791 he was the delegate from Chesterfield for revising the constitution of the state. He died November 11, 1814. His children were Prudence, Jacob, Jarib, Lydia, Enoch, Elijah, Levi, Wilkes, James, and David. Enoch, born October 20, 1769, married Martha, daughter of Andrew Phillips, in 1799. Jay Jackson, son of Enoch, was born May 15, 1816, the youngest of eight children, and also the youngest of thirty grandchildren of Eleazor Jackson. He was born at the “Jackson Home”in Chesterfield, and of which for the last forty-eight years he has been proprietorHis early educational advantages were meagre, but with a brain and desire for knowledge, he has improved his opportunities, until he is surpassed by few in general literature and science. Having been early in life educated to farm work, and the care and growing of cattle, and the traffic therein, his attention has been largely directed to the fattening of cattle, and he has sold an average of over one hundred head a year, for forty-five years. Many years he fattened oxen principally, and some years exclusively, and has turned to pasture one hundred and thirty at a time, and one hundred and seventy-five in one year. He has reared and handled many cattle of extraordinary size, and fine quality, ranging in live weight from 2,000 to 3,350 pounds per animal, and in salable value from $15o.00, to $300,00 each. He took pride in his noble oxen, and for forty years, probably, no herd in Cheshire county could equal his. He has also taken an active interest in promoting education, and, though never a student at “Chesterfield academy,”has been one of its trustees twenty-six years, and secretary of the board sixteen years, a longer term than any other person has held the same position. A leader and councilor in the affairs of the town, he was a member of the New Hampshire house of representatives in 1842 and 1844, and of the constitutional convention in 1876. He was never a “party-bound “politician, or office-seeker, but always a Democrat. No more consistent example of temperance can be found, having for half a century enjoyed a total abstinence from, and independence of alcohol, tobacco, tea and coffee, and during this period he has performed an amount of labor rarely equaled. An early riser, a constant worker, frugal, honest, and in punctuality a human chronometer, he has been a successful farmer, a poet, “some of whose poems would do honor to masters of the poetic art,”and a concise public speaker, who never rises without something to say. He married, in 1845, Betsey E. Henry, of Swanzey, who died in 1870, and in 1872, he married Mrs. Lucy S. Whitney, of Townsend, Vt. He has had the following children: Laura, born September 12, 1846, a successful and highly educated teacher; Robert, born March 3, 1848, a soldier in the war of the Rebellion, a seaman, and now engaged in mercantile business with his brother in Chesterfield Factory. Martha E., born September 5, 185o, died August 13, 1876; Andrew H., born January 13, 1853, merchant and assistant postmaster at Chesterfield Factory; and John, born March 16, 1857, died December 27, 1861.
