Charles Thomas Jackson was born on June 21, 1805, in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

He was an American physician and scientist, active in medicine, chemistry, mineralogy, and geology. In 1829, after graduation from the Harvard Medical School, he travelled to Europe where he studied both medicine and geology for several years and made the acquaintance of prominent European scientists and physicians. Upon his return to the U.S., he played an active role in the new state geological survey movement, serving as the state geologist of Maine, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire (1836-1844). In 1845, he became a mining consultant to the Lake Superior Copper Company. In 1847, he was appointed United States Geologist for the Lake Superior land district, one of the major copper-producing regions of the world. His leadership of that survey proved to be a disaster, and he was dismissed from his position. He published the book "A Manual of Etherization: Containing Directions for the Employment of Ether” (1861). By 1873, Jackson was afflicted with mental illness and spent the remainder of his life in the McLean Asylum, Somerville, Massachusetts.

In 1834, he married Susan A. Bridge (1816–1899). He died on August 28, 1880, in Somerville, Massachusetts.