Memorable Manitobans: George Nelson Jackson (1861-1944)

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George Nelson Jackson
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Businessman.

Born at Columbus, Ontario [now part of Oshawa] on 4 June 1861, son of James Jackson and Sarah Stephenson, the family moved to just outside St. Marys, Perth, Ontario prior to 1871. At the age of 18 years he took a job in a store at Hamilton. In 1879 he began an apprenticeship in a brush and broom factory operated by Walter Woods & Company. From 1885 to 1901 he worked as a travelling salesman for the company, covering much of Ontario, and, in 1896, he established a branch at Winnipeg and became its manager. He retired from Walter Woods in 1918 to set up a manufacturer’s agency George N. Jackson & Son (later, George N. Jackson Limited) to make a place for his son who was returning from the First World War.

In 1886, he married Lucy Bowes (1861-1926) of Hamilton, Ontario and they had a son, George Herbert Jackson (1896-1987). He was a Mason (Ionic Lodge, of which he was Grand Master), a member of the Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite and, in 1921, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Manitoba. He was a President of the Winnipeg Board of Trade, President of the Canadian Men’s Trust Association (later Creditel), President of the Manitoba Branch of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, and Chairman of the Manitoba Minimum Wage Board. He was active in raising funds to construct the Young United Church, and Chairman of the building committee during its construction. He was a member of the Board of Governors of Wesley College (later United College, now the University of Winnipeg), and for many years a director of the YMCA. In 1920 he accompanied his wife on her visit of almost a year of the Methodist missions in China and Japan. In the 1921 federal general election, he was a candidate for the Winnipeg South constituency but was defeated by Albert B. Hudson. He was a member of Rotary Club and the Assiniboine Lawn Bowling Club.

He died at Winnipeg on 4 December 1944 and was buried in the Elmwood Cemetery.

See also:

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Jackson House (15 West Gate, Winnipeg)

Sources:

1901 Canada census, Automated Genealogy.

A History of Manitoba: Its Resources and People by Prof. George Bryce, Toronto: The Canadian History Company, 1906.

“Mrs. G. Jackson dead; prominent church worker,” Winnipeg Tribune, 20 December 1926, page 3.

Obituary [George Herbert Jackson], Winnipeg Free Press, 13 August 1987, page 52.

We thank Robert Bowes Jackson, grandson of G. N. Jackson, for additional information used here, including his photograph.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 1 August 2023

Memorable Manitobans

Memorable Manitobans

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