Background
Jackson was born on June 17, 1827, in Philadelphia, the son of Washington and Deborah (Lee) Jackson.
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Abraham Reeves Jackson
Edit Profilephysician pioneer gynecologist
Education
Having graduated from the Central High School of his native city in 1846, Jackson devoted a short time to the study of marine engineering only to return to his original interest in medicine, said to have been inspired largely by the character and ability of the family physician. In 1848 he received the degree of M. D. from the Pennsylvania Medical College and at once settled in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, as a general practitioner.
Career
Jackson volunteered for medical service in the United States Army in 1862 and rose to the post of assistant medical director of the Army of Virginia. That he always retained his interest in military associates is attested by the fact that in 1889 he was elected to the presidency of the acting assistant surgeons of the United States Army. He was discharged in 1864 and in the following year suffered the loss of his wife. In 1867 he made his first tour of Europe and chanced to be in the party of Mark Twain, who immortalized him as the witty and humorous "Doctor" in Innocents Abroad. It is said that the jokes attributed to the "Doctor" were a verbatim report of Jackson's utterances. For reasons not entirely clear Jackson now made a radical departure in his career and about 1870 moved to Chicago with a view to limiting his practice to gynecology. There was precedent enough for this course, for the pioneer labors of J. Marion Sims and others had made it practicable to restrict one's activities to the new specialty. In 1871, although the Chicago fire of that year must have made the undertaking doubly difficult, Jackson succeeded in founding the Woman's Hospital of Illinois of which he was surgeon in chief. In 1872 he received an appointment as lecturer on gynecology at Rush Medical College, from which he resigned in 1877. That same year he infected himself while operating and the resulting sepsis caused some impairment of his general health. In 1882 he was a cofounder and the first president of the Chicago College of Physicians and Surgeons. By 1883 gynecology had progressed so far in Chicago that a special society was formed, the Chicago Gynecological Society, with Jackson as its president. In 1889 he developed an attack of aphasia, attributed to his infection many years before, and made a tour of the world in company with his wife. Upon his return it is known that he felt himself doomed to an early demise but he plunged into manifold activities: he was elected president of the American Gynecological Society in 1891, and his last year of practice, 1891-1892, was the most lucrative and successful of his career. On November 1, 1892, he suffered a second stroke of apoplexy and succumbed on the 12th. He wrote many valuable papers on gynecological subjects, characterized by originality in thought and language, but it is said that this very quality of originality deterred him from writing a textbook, because he would be compelled to incorporate the work of other men. Since he was unsurpassed as a teacher, this attitude was deplored.
Achievements
Membership
President of the Chicago College of Physicians and Surgeons (1882); President on the Chicago Gynecological Society (1883); President of the American Gynecological Society (1891)
Connections
In 1850 Jackson married Harriet Hollinshead. She died in 1856 and in 1872 he married Julia Newell of Janesville, Wisconsin, a woman of great talents and social prestige.
