1896 UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY DIPLOMA, HARRY FREDERICK JACKSON, WEST POINT

Description

1896
UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY
WEST POINT, NY
DIPLOMA of
HARRY FREDERICK JACKSON
ONE OF THOUSANDS OF ITEMS AVAILABLE IN OUR EBAY STORE!
ITEM:
FRAMED WEST POINT DIPLOMA of HARRY FREDERICK JACKSON
SCHOOL:
UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY at WEST POINT, NEW YORK
AGE:
1896
SIZE:
17" wide x 23" high
DESCRIPTION:
This is the ORIGINAL graduation diploma issued to then future engineer Harry Frederick Jackson of California! This is his original United States Military Academy diploma from his 1896 graduation. This diploma bears the original signatures of the superintendent and department chairs (chemistry, engineering, ordnance, etc.):
COL. O. H. ERNST, SUPERINTENDENT, PETER S. MICHIE, EDGAR W. BASS, SAMUEL M. MILLS, GEORGE B. DAVIS, JAMES L. LUSK, CHARLES W. LARNED, SAMUEL E. TILLMAN, EDWARD E. WOOD, GUSTAV J. FIEBEGER
, and,
LAWRENCE L. BRUFF
. Printed on thick velum or parchment. Mr. Jackson passed in 1961. A nice addition to your military history, family genealogy or West Point memorabilia collection!
HARRY FREDERICK JACKSON BIOGRAPHY:
According to the school website and information provided there by Laura Grace Jackson, “Harry Frederick Jackson, Class of 1896, was the fortunate possessor of a remarkable father. The elder Jackson, himself an able architect and builder, impressed on his sons his own belief that every man should do some constructive piece of work for the betterment of his country. The electrical transmission towers that march down the slope of the Sierras in California show how one of his sons followed his father’s precepts....Jack (his West Point nickname) built and operated this development after his resignation from the Army. But even in his Army days, construction work was his choice. During his service on General Fitzhugh Lee’s staff he was in charge of the construction of a highway from Havana to Camp Columbia near Marianao Playa. He was sanitary officer when on General Leonard Wood’s staff, and had the difficult task of instructing the Cubans in elementary hygienic matters. Why shouldn’t they build cesspools close to their wells, as their fathers had always done? Senator Foraker inserted in the Congressional Record the tale as Jack told it to him. "Because,” he answered the questioner, "the cesspools drain into your wells and contaminate your water. They must be a safe distance apart and while you are building the new cesspools, we shall put chlorine in your wells.” “But, Captain,” they objected, ‘‘that makes the water taste so bad.”...When the first World War broke out, Jack volunteered at once to return to service, but owing to a serious kidney operation which he had recently undergone, his applications were rejected. Bitterly disappointed, he turned to civilian work and headed the Red Cross in Berkeley, California, organizing it so well that at every drive it went over the top....At this time Jack was President of the Sierra and San Francisco Power Company, which later was sold to the Pacific Gas and Electric Company. After completing the negotiations, he went abroad for the American and Foreign Power Company....His first adventure in foreign service took him to China on a commission to buy the Shanghai Electrical Power Company. After a year there, negotiations came to a successful conclusion and he moved on to Hyderabad in India as a consultant to the Nizam of that principality on hydro-electrical matters. This assignment took him into the Himalayas, Kashmir and the Punjab, an old story to the veterans of the Second World War, but new and fascinating then....During his work in Hyderabad, the Nizam showed him his treasure house. Jack was at once amazed and dismayed by the gold, gems and jewelry heaped carelessly, and uselessly as far as the poverty-stricken inhabitants were concerned. Yet Jack found the Nizam a kindly despot who tried, according to his lights, to better the lot of his subjects....On his way home, a cablegram received when his ship was in the Red Sea, directed him to Romania. There, under Mr. Floyd Odium, he spent a year in Bucharest, investigating the public utilities of that city. The negotiations did not culminate in the purchase fortunately, for first the Russians and then the local Communists took over the country....The depression found us a reunited family in New York, where Jack was employed by a law firm to manage the real estate for which it was responsible. The great amount of tenement property that was involved proved too much for Jack’s sympathetic heart. After a few years we returned to California and Jack took up his real interest, electric engineering, until he retired in 1941....At this time, our daughter began to practice as an obstetrician in Washington, D.C. and she begged us to come east. “Do come, she wrote, “while you are still not too old to make new friends and enjoy Washington....This proved sound advice and opened a new chapter in Jack’s experience. When the Second World War broke out he was too old for the Army and when he tried to get into civilian work of any kind that would help in the war, he was always met by “too old.” Finally, Civilian Defense snapped him up and this able, experienced, energetic man labeled “too old” worked without regard to hours—out at any time of night and back early at his desk in the morning. Commissioner John Russell Young appointed him his Assistant Co-ordinator and wrote with high praise of his services. The Junior Chamber of Commerce named him “Man of the Month” for the record he made....When the war ended, he went at once into overseas relief work. He was unpaid Treasurer of CARE for several years and at the same time began his unfailing work for the Unitarian Service Committee which sent food and clothing to Europe. He and his aides packed 90 tons of food and hundreds of cases of clothing. He worked in this field with such single-minded devotion that his fellow workers asked Dr. A. Powell Davies, the great minister of All Souls Unitarian Church, to stop him. “He will kill himself if he keeps up this pace,” they said. But when Dr. Davies spoke to Jack, he answered, “I don’t know a better way to die.” There was a special pleasure in those tons of food and the CARE packages sent abroad. Jack loved good things to eat and was himself a first-class cook. He really enjoyed heading a church group to prepare a dinner for a hundred or so and in the Layman’s League of the Church, the members look back on the days when he planned and cooked the dinners for them. How he did like to appear at speech time in chef’s cap and apron and how the applause of his well-fed comrades tickled him. A favorite family joke was that he valued such applause more than his engineering presidencies and managerships and citations....His last years were clouded by physical handicaps and weakness. These he bore with stoic patience, courage and consideration for others. To his wife and daughter he left a legacy of a life richly and usefully lived and the unforgettable memory of how a brave man meets death."
CONDITION:
GOOD to VERY GOOD. Unframed.  Edge wear. Some ink and print fading. No rips or tears noted. NOTE: The glare in the photo images is from the removable plastic sleeve in which we placed the diploma to protected it from dust.
NOTE:
Will be shipped rolled in a tube.
SHIPPING:
UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE.
FIRST CLASS SHIPPING.   INTERNATIONAL AIRMAIL.
Thanks for looking, and have a blessed day.