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Sheldon Jackson (May 18, 1834 – May 2, 1909) was a Presbyterian minister, missionary, and political leader. During this career he travelled about one million miles (1.6 million km) and established more than one hundred missions and churches, mostly in the Western United States. He is best remembered for his extensive work in Colorado and thereater during the final quarter of the 19th century in the massive, rugged, and remote Alaska Territory, which in 1959 would become the 49th U.S. state of Alaska. ==Youth, education, early career== Sheldon Jackson was born in 1834 in Minaville in Montgomery County in eastern New York. His mother Delia (Sheldon) Jackson was a daughter of New York State Assembly Speaker Alexander Sheldon. Jackson graduated in 1855 from Union College in Schenectady, New York, and from the Presbyterian Church's Princeton Theological Seminary in 1858. That same year, he became an ordained Presbyterian minister and married the former Mary Vorhees.〔(Presbyterian Historical Society Finding Aid to the Sheldon Jackson Papers )〕 He wanted to become a missionary overseas, but the Presbyterian board told the 5-foot Jackson, who had weak eyesight and was often ill, that he would be better suited for duty in the United States.〔 He hence first worked in the north-central and western United States, which were still vast and lightly populated areas during the American Civil War and thereafter. Jackson's first assignment was at the Choctaw mission in Oklahoma Territory, where he worked until poor health forced him to go back East in 1859. After his recovery he was appointed to La Crescent in Houston County in southeastern Minnesota, where he extended his field hundreds of miles beyond the actual station. He spent ten years in Minnesota and Wisconsin, having organized or assisted in the establishment of twenty-three churches.〔(Finding Aid to the Sheldon Jackson Papers )〕 Jackson's travels took him throughout the American West. With the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869, a huge territory was opened to him. In the summer of 1869, Jackson went on a missionary tour using the railroad and stage lines, establishing a church a day.〔 Based in Denver, Jackson became the Presbyterian missions superintendent for Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Utah Territory, Arizona Territory, and New Mexico Territory. He published from 1872 to 1882 the ''Rocky Mountain Presbyterian'' denominational newspaper, which included pictures of places in the West. Ultimately Jackson supervised the building of churches in at least twenty-two Colorado locations, including Greeley, Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Monument, Ouray, and Fairplay in Park County in the central portion of the state. He frequently visited frontier areas to preach,such as the mining camp on Mount Bross in South Park, Colorado.〔 A friend once said of Jackson and his dedication to the cause of Jesus Christ: "He would not hesitate if he thought he could save an old-hardened sinner, to mount a locomotive and let fly a Gospel message at a group by the wayside while going at a speed of forty miles an hour." 〔Laura King Van Dusen, "Sheldon Jackson's Fairplay Church: One of More than One Hundred in Western U.S.; Jackson Arrested, Jailed in Alaska; Contributed to Settlement of the West", ''Historic Tales from Park County: Parked in the Past'' (Charleston, South Carolina: The History Press, 2013), ISBN 978-1-62619-161-7, pp. 69-77.〕 However, an area of the United States even more challenging awaited him. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sheldon Jackson」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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