Patrick Tracy Jackson

Patrick Tracy Jackson (August 14, 1780 – September 12, 1847) was an American manufacturer, one of the founders of the Boston Manufacturing Company of Waltham, Massachusetts, and later a founder of the Merrimack Manufacturing Company, whose developments formed the nucleus of Lowell, Massachusetts.

Early life and education He was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, the youngest son of Jonathan Jackson and his second wife, Hannah Tracy Jackson, who was the daughter of Irish-born merchant Patrick Tracy.

He enjoyed more schooling than most young men in post-Revolutionary America, attending Newburyport public schools as well as the private Governor Dummer Academy.

Growing up in a commercial family, Jackson was anxious to prove his business acumen, so in 1795, at the age of fifteen, he served as an apprentice clerk to William Bartlett, a wealthy Newburyport merchant and as captain's clerk to his elder brother Henry. He spent several years at sea on behalf of Bartlett and his brother Henry from 1799 to 1808, impressing experienced merchants and sea masters with his drive and knowledge of navigation and maritime commerce. He completed four trading voyages abroad between 1800 and 1807, which gave him the opportunity to gain "experience in the Eastern trade and a respectable capital base".

By 1820, the limited waterpower of the Charles River led Jackson and his colleagues to establish the Merrimack Manufacturing Company to produce printed calico cloth at the Pawtucket Falls on the Merrimack River. In 1822 he appointed himself as agent of Proprietors of Locks and Canals, gaining the ability to determine "who could start what mill and where in Lowell, and for how much".

Although Jackson had hoped to retire after the railroad began operating in 1835, but his poor business decisions did not make that possible. For example, In the late 1830s, he liquidated nearly all of his interest in the Lowell Mills to invest it into real estate, which turned into a disaster. He died from a sudden attack of dysentery on September 12, 1847.

Family

In 1810 he married Lydia Cabot, whose second cousin Francis Cabot Lowell would become an important business partner (Francis Cabot Lowell was also married to Patrick's sister Hannah). Patrick and Lydia had nine children, including the writer Anna Cabot Jackson Lowell. He was also the brother of Charles Jackson, grandfather of Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. Holmes' father was a student of another brother, physician James Jackson.