Editing Sheldon Jackson (section)

==Youth, education, early career==
Sheldon Jackson was born in 1834 in [[Florida, Montgomery County, New York|Minaville]] in [[Montgomery County, New York|Montgomery County]] in eastern [[New York (state)|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 (New York)|Union College]] in [[Schenectady, New York|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.<ref name="history.pcusa.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.history.pcusa.org/collections/findingaids/fa.cfm?record_id=239|title=Guide to the Sheldon Jackson Papers|publisher=history.pcusa.org}}</ref>
 
He wanted to become a missionary overseas, but the Presbyterian board told the five foot tall Jackson, who had weak eyesight and was often ill, that he would be better suited for duty in the United States.<ref name=vandusen/> He 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 people|Choctaw]] mission in [[Oklahoma Territory]], where he worked until poor health forced him to go back East in 1859.<ref name="history.pcusa.org"/>

After his recovery, Jackson was appointed to [[La Crescent, Minnesota|La Crescent]] in [[Houston County, Minnesota|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.<ref name="history.pcusa.org"/>

Jackson traveled as a missionary 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.<ref name="history.pcusa.org"/><ref name=vandusen>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|Charleston]], [[South Carolina]]: The History Press, 2013), {{ISBN|978-1-62619-161-7}}, pp. 69-77.</ref>

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