My Genealogy Hound

FRANCIS B. JACKSON, foreman of the boiler department of the Brooks’ Locomotive works, of Dunkirk, was born in Yorkshire, England, August 24, 1825, and is a son of Robert and Elizabeth (Smith) Jackson. Robert Jackson was born in 1799, in York, England, where he learned civil engineering. He was in the employ of the English government for some time during which he was sent to the United States and made several land surveys in New Jersey and other States. He and his brother Anthony were engaged in business in the cities of York and London for several years and in 1828 came to Troy, New York, where they remained but six months. He then removed to Schenectady and was one of the sub-contractors on the Schenectady & Albany Railroad. He was a whig and an active member of the Protestant Episcopal church, and died at Syracuse in 1882, aged eighty-three years. His wife, Elizabeth (Smith) Jackson, who died at forty-five years of age, was a native of the same place and a member of the same church as her husband.

Francis B. Jackson was reared principally at Schenectady, and after leaving school went to learn the trade of machinist. After working for some time in the machine shops he discovered that he preferred boiler-making to the trade of machinist which he abandoned to become a boiler-maker. In 1848 he went to Albany, New York, where he had charge of Townsend’s boiler shops for ten months. He then left the State capital to locate at Troy where he had supervision of all the boilers used on the R. & S. and T. & S. railroads until 1850 when he resigned to become foreman, at Syracuse, of the large boiler department of the locomotive works of the Saratoga & Utica railroad. Five years later he was offered and accepted employment under the Erie Railroad company, in Dunkirk, where in 1869 he was offered and accepted his present position of foreman of the boiler department of the Brooks’ Locomotive works.

January 18, 1846, he married Sarah A., daughter of Henry Powfit, of Oxford, England. Mr. and Mrs. Jackson have three children: Robert H., a boiler-maker; Dr. Frank S., a practicing physician of Dunkirk; and Mary E., wife of Edward B. Osborne of Mt. Morris, New York.

In religious belief Francis B. Jackson is an episcopalian and a member and warden of St. John’s church of that denomination in Dunkirk. He is a republican and served several terms as alderman of his city when it was but a village. He is a member of Dunkirk Lodge, No. 767, F. & A. M., Dunkirk Chapter, No. 191, H. R. A. M., and Dunkirk Commandery, No. 40, Knights Templar. Mr. Jackson in 1847 visited the land of his nativity where he spent six months in Yorkshire and other parts of England. He visited, during this trip, many places that are famous in history and became well acquainted with the customs and usages of the English people.