Angeline Bivens Jackson Hinckley was one of Minnesota’s earliest and most historically significant pioneer women, closely connected with the founding of both St. Paul and Mankato. Born in New York, she married Henry Jackson in 1838, and the couple soon began moving west, first settling in Green Bay, Wisconsin, before arriving in St. Paul in June 1843.

At that time, St. Paul was little more than a frontier settlement. There, her husband established a home and trading post on land that would become part of the city’s early development. Their log cabin, noted as the first in St. Paul with a shingle roof, became a center of activity in the growing community. During this period, Angeline Jackson was recognized as the first white woman to settle in St. Paul, and her son is believed to have been the first American-born child of European descent in the settlement.

Her husband, Henry Jackson, became a leading figure in early Minnesota history, serving as the first postmaster of St. Paul and as a member of the first Minnesota Legislature. In 1853, he was among the founders of the Mankato townsite, and that same year Angeline relocated there, becoming the first white woman to settle in Mankato as well.

Following Henry Jackson’s death in 1857, she later married John S. Hinckley, another early settler and associate of her first husband. She remained in Mankato for the rest of her life, witnessing the transformation of the region from frontier settlement to established community.

Angeline Hinckley passed away on January 1, 1894, at the age of seventy-six. She is remembered as a pioneering figure in Minnesota history, whose life spanned and contributed to the earliest development of two of the state’s most important cities.