Born in Racine, Wisconsin, Rev. Edward Jackson received an appointment for the AME Church in Superior, Wisconsin by 1896. He remained there until September 1901 when he was given a farewell party. By December, Jackson was ministering in Monroe County, Iowa. He was in Albia and named recording secretary for the Iowa AME Conference in September 1902. Later that year he was assigned to Sioux City where he remained until going to Buxton in 1905.

Jackson was at Buxton until being named a presiding elder for the St. Paul District in 1908. He assisted at churches across Iowa until being named pastor of St. Paul’s AME Church in Des Moines in October 1914. Jackson left a year later for Champaign, Illinois. He served there and then Danville, Illinois until his death in 1921. He is believed to be buried in a Chicago, Illinois area cemetery.