Patrick Tracy Jackson

Cotton manufacturer, born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, USA. Originally a merchant sea captain (1799–1808), he joined Francis Cabot Lowell (his brother-in-law), Nathan Appleton, and others to organize the Boston Manufacturing Co in Waltham, MA (1813). He was influential in the founding of Lowell, MA (1820) and built the Boston & Lowell Railroad.

Patrick Tracy Jackson(14 Aug. 1780–12 Sep. 1847) was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, the youngest son of Jonathan Jackson and his second wife, Hannah Story Jackson. Jackson established himself in Boston as a merchant specializing in the East and West Indies trade. Despite curtailed shipping interests during the War of 1812, Jackson collaborated with his brother-in-law Francis Cabot Lowell (1775-1817) to establish a textile factory in Waltham, Massachusetts and with him founded the Boston Manufacturing Company in 1813.

By 1820, the success of the factory and the limited water power of the Charles River led Jackson to establish the Merrimac Manufacturing Company, additional cotton factories along the Merrimac River, and the city of Lowell, Massachusetts, named for Francis Cabot Lowell. Despite a desire to retire after the railroad began operating in 1835, a restless nature and some poor business decisions kept Jackson active in business until his death in 1847.