Horatio Nelson Jackson

Horatio Nelson Jackson was an American physician and automobile pioneer. In 1903, he and driving partner Sewall K. Crocker became the first people to drive an automobile across the United States. Jackson was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on March 25, 1872, a son of Samuel Nelson Jackson and Mary Anne Jackson.

About Horatio Nelson Jackson in brief

Summary Horatio Nelson JacksonHoratio Nelson Jackson was an American physician and automobile pioneer. In 1903, he and driving partner Sewall K. Crocker became the first people to drive an automobile across the United States. Jackson was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on March 25, 1872, a son of Samuel Nelson Jackson and Mary Anne Jackson. He married Bertha Richardson Wells, the daughter of William Wells, a Medal of Honor recipient and one of the richest men in Vermont as a partner in Wells, Richardson & Co. His siblings included John Holmes Jackson, who served several terms as mayor of Burlington, Vermont. Another brother, Hollister Jackson, served as Lieutenant governor of Vermont. He died on June 6, 1913, at the age of 83. He was buried in Burlington, his wife’s hometown, and his daughter Bertha’s hometown of Brattleboro, Vermont, where he had practiced as a physician for more than 30 years. He is survived by his wife, Bertha Wells, and their daughter,  Bertha Kolk, the wife of George B. Kolk and the longtime editor of the Burlington Daily News, of which her father was publisher.

He also leaves behind a son, H. Nelson Jackson, Jr., a physician who practiced in Vermont until his death in 1913. He and his wife planned to return home in a few days, and both had been taking automobile driving lessons while in San Francisco. He bought a slightly used, two-cylinder, 20 hp Winton, which he named the Vermont, after his home state, bade his wife goodbye, and left San Francisco on May 23, carrying coats, rubber protective suits, sleeping bags, blankets, canteens, a water bag, a shovel, a telescope, tools, spare parts, a block and tackle, cans for extra gasoline and oil, a Kodak camera, a rifle, a shotgun, and pistols. On the first night of the journey they discovered that the side lanterns were too dim. They stopped early in Sacramento and replaced them with a large spotlight mounted on the front of the Vermont. The duo was also assisted in Sacramento by bicyclists who offered them road maps. They were also given a 108-mile misdirection by a woman so that she could send them to the spot where her family could see an automobile.