Jacksonville tourist information
Nestled in the foothills of the Appalachians, historic Jacksonville truly lives up to its nickname - the Gem of the Hills with its safe neighborhoods, its friendly churches, the charm of its public square, it beckons to many. But don't just take our word for it. Come for a visit, then prepare to make yourself at home!
Jacksonville is located on Hwy 21 approximately 12 miles north of Anniston. Click on the image to the right for a larger view.
Jacksonville
The Jacksonville - Gray township area was established in the winter of 1820-21. Two early roads of great importance to the development of Gray Township were the Southwest Trail and the Memphis-Military Road. Travelers were making their way through the area as early as 1814.
Stagecoaches made their appearance soon after these roads were made passable. The Shared and Jacob Gray families were the earliest known permanent settlers, migrating to Pulaski County about 1820. The area was later named Gray Township for this particular family. The community organized around them boasted a tavern, an early stagecoach stop and a school.
After Arkansas became the 25th state in the Union in 1836, many other settlers set up single-family dwellings. However, none established a true community until 1850 when Russell Beall came from Mississippi.
The Beall family settled in an area where the Bayou Meto Cemetery now stands. A Methodist Church was constructed on this cemetery property, and it served as church and school.
Jacksonville Florida
Long ago, Northeast Florida was first inhabited by Timucuan Indians who lived along creeks and waterways. The Spanish came into the area in 1513, led by Juan Ponce de Leon. He named the area La Florida and, in doing so, established the region's rich tradition of history and heritage. In 1564, the French built Fort Caroline in what is now Jacksonville, establishing the first Protestant colony in America. They lost their foothold in Florida to the Spanish, who conquered the French and built a settlement in nearby St. Augustine in 1565, 55 years before the Mayflower landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
A major page of history turned when Florida became a U.S. territory in 1821 and a year later at "Cowford" a narrow spot on the St. Johns River to ferry cows across, the town of Jacksonville was established (named after General Andrew Jackson). By the time Florida achieved statehood in 1845, Jacksonville was an important port in the cotton and timber trades.
During the mid-to-late 19th century, Jacksonville was billed as the "winter city in summerland" and became a haven for those seeking respite from colder northern climes. The warm, sunny climate, beautiful beaches, a major shipping port, and the busy waterways drew tourists from around the world.
A raging fire in 1901 destroyed 2,368 downtown buildings but launched a renaissance which set the city on its modern-day course. Although slowed somewhat by the depression, Jacksonville rebounded during World War II with the building of military installations. In 1968, the city and county governments were joined to create the geographically largest city in the contiguous 48 states. At about the same time, modern skyscrapers and additional bridges were built making way for major development south of the river.
For the next 25 years, Jacksonville's river and its ocean port again served as the lifeblood of the area, attracting many new residents, businesses and visitors. The city quietly evolved into a major business center of the South. In 1993, the quiet ended. The National Football League awarded a franchise to Jacksonville, pushing the city into the national spotlight and toward a new destiny.
Today, Jacksonville is an exciting vibrant city that maximizes its natural attributes and reaches out to welcome visitors.
Before there was a town of Jacksonville, before there was a State of Illinois, and even before the Native Americans, there was the land. The wide, treeless prairies, with grass as tall as a man, were formed with the melting of the last ice age. To these prairies have come people of different cultures, but with a single aim, to live a prosperous, healthy, happy life. To this day, the land is one of the traditions that we take for granted. The fertile fields surrounding Jacksonville feed us and the world. To these unplowed fields came the first settlers, who became rooted to the fertile land and the possibilities of a fresh start.
The first men, whose names are recorded and remembered in this area, had been soldiers in the recent War of 1812, in which General Andrew Jackson of Tennessee became famous for his win at the Battle of New Orleans. Many towns became "Jacksonvilles" in the early 1800s. Colonel Seymour Kellogg, his brother Captain Elisha Kellogg, their families, and Charles Collins pitched camp on the north fork of the Mauvaisterre River in 1819, after the Kickapoo Indians signed the treaty giving up their land in central Illinois.
On January 6, 1825, John Howard, Abraham Pickett and John C. Lusk were appointed to locate a permanent seat for the county. This county seat was to be as near as possible to the center of Morgan County considering present and future population. Further the land must belong to a private citizen or to apply to construction of a courthouse and jail.
On March 10, 1825, Johnston Shelton, the county surveyor, laid out a five acre public square in a 160 acre tract. The land at the time was owned by the government, but using the Ordinance of 1785 as the authority, the tract was sold to Isaac Dial and Thomas Arnett for $1.25 an acre. They, in turn, deeded forty acres (twice the requirement) to Morgan County. The square as laid out was across the intersection of two roads. The first of these - an east/west road -was to run from Springfield west to the Illinois River at Naples. This became State Street. The north/south road became Main Street and the town developed in square blocks from the intersection of State and Main Streets.
By the time Jacksonville was platted with roads and a town square, the first resident, Alexander Cox, was joined by merchants Joseph Fairfield and George Hackett. The news of the rich Illinois soil was spreading, and it filled the area with settlers and anticipation.
There is little doubt that Jacksonville was named for Andrew Jackson, then the hero of New Orleans and presidential contender. However an interesting alternative version developed as a result of the remarks made by the surveyors to a young African-American boy, the slave of Thomas P. Clark. This youngster had been sent by Clark to get seed corn from people at Diamond Grove. He became lost because of the prairie grass until he saw some men driving stakes near where the Dunlap Hotel is now.
He said he was lost and asked how to get to Diamond Grove. They directed him and asked his name. He replied "A. W. Jackson." They replied that they were laying out a town and because he was the first of his race in the area, they would name the town after him. The similarity in names of the boy and the soon to be president probably was the reason for the surveyor's private little joke.
But - the alternate version gained enough credence that "A Guide to the Origin of Place Names in the United States," published by Public Affairs Press and edited by Henry Gannett, former geographer of the U.S. Geological Survey, states "Jacksonville, city in Morgan County Illinois, named for a prominent colored preacher" A.W. Jackson lived a long life, was the first pastor of Mt. Emory Baptist Church and was Jacksonville's first African-American alderman. As an old man, Jackson confirmed the story to Historian Charles M. Eames.
Citizens were so eager to establish an education plan and a college, that they began constructing the first college building, in 1829, before they actually had a faculty or students. Churches were built, railways were planned, and before long, stores and taverns were flourishing. The courthouse was built on the square, and 11 lawyers and 10 physicians were in practice by 1834. Since Illinois filled from the bottom up, with the majority of early settlers coming from southern states, there was a time when Jacksonville was the largest town in the State. (Chicago, in 1833 had only 150 people, not including the Potawatomi tribe, while Jacksonville, by 1834, was pushing 1,800 settlers.)
Dedicated pioneers worked to better their own lives and their community. Their efforts paid off in ways that were not always anticipated. A cholera epidemic in 1833 affected an estimated half of the inhabitants of Jacksonville. Although Jacksonville did not become the Illinois State capital, as some would have wanted (the cholera epidemic did nothing to enhance her chances), she continued her quest for prominence by acquiring the Illinois School for the Deaf, the School for the Blind, and the Central Hospital for the Insane, all before 1850. Illinois College, being the first of the important educational institutions in the town, was supportive in establishing other educational opportunities, which included the Jacksonville Female Academy, the Jacksonville Public Schools, the Whipple Academy, The Young Ladies' Athenaeum, and the Illinois Conservatory of Music. In 1846, the Illinois Conference Female Academy (later the MacMurray College) was founded.
Frontier days were fluid times, with people moving on for reasons known only to them. In the census of 1860, only a little over 25 percent of the non-dependent population from the 1850 Jacksonville census could still be found. From 1860 to 1870, the years around the Civil War, only 21 percent of the population in Jacksonville could be traced.
John Millot Ellis came west from New England to begin Presbyterian churches. He soon became even more interested in establishing institutions of higher learning, and when Mr. Ellis and Thomas Lippincott came upon Jacksonville, they thought that the hilltop was perfect. Additionally, the surroundings were beautiful, and the settlers were eager to proceed. The construction of the first building for the college (1829) was actually started before there was a faculty, or a student enrolled! As luck would have it, some soon-to-be graduates of Yale read about the endeavor and saw it as the answer to their own indecision about where to begin their life work. These seven young men have become known as The Yale Band. They came, they stayed, and their lives have become intertwined with the early history of Illinois College and the town of Jacksonville.
The first college degrees conferred in Illinois were awarded at Illinois College. The first president of the college was Edward Beecher, brother of Henry Ward Beecher and Harriett Beecher Stowe.
At almost the same time that Rev. Ellis was establishing Presbyterian churches and colleges, a Methodist preacher was also traveling here and establishing Methodist churches. Peter Cartwright lived in Pleasant Plains, and he was known for his extemporaneous preaching and his ability to convert people through emotional revivals. Though less enthusiastic about higher education than Rev. Ellis, Cartwright was supportive of the Illinois Conference Female Academy, agreeing to be president of the Board of Trustees in 1846. This is now the co-ed college that is named MacMurray.
In 1843 Illinois College opened the first medical school in the state. Three major institutions were eventually founded. The first was the School for the Deaf, which had 13 pupils by 1846. The second, the Central Hospital fo the Insane, was desperately needed, but the State was overextended financially, and the people of Jacksonville had little ready cash to undertake another school. It took the extra push from one of the interested citizens, J.O. King, who convinced Dorothea Dix (already famous for her work securing better living conditions for those with special needs) that an immediate visit to Illinois was imperative. After touring and working with the legislature, the Dix-Constable bill passed. In 1847 the State Legislature of Illinois authorized the forerunner of the present Jacksonville Developmental Center to be established in this city for the mentally ill. The first patients were admitted in 1852.
Before the Central Hospital for the Insane was a sure thing, progress was being made to acquire a school for the blind. Joseph Bacon, a blind teacher, was invited to open a private school for the blind. It opened with six students, and was supported by fees and private donations. This small, private beginning was all that was needed to convince the state legislature that Jacksonville should also secure the State School for the Blind, since the embryo for such a school was already in existence.
Professor Jonathan B. Turner settled in Jacksonville in 1833 and began campaigning for a public school system in Illinois, a goal which was realized in 1840. The first administrator of the system was Newton Bateman, a Jacksonville teacher, who later became president of Knox College.
Coming way out west to the wild prairie State meant leaving families, friends, and an old life behind. But settlers did not leave behind their conviction that God was going with them to lead and direct them to a better life. The religions which they brought with them were as diverse as the settlers themselves. The Baptist and Methodist traditions tended to come with the southerners, and the Presbyterian, Congregational, and Episcopal traditions tended to come with the northerners. These earliest churchgoers were soon joined by Lutheran and Catholic traditions.
Peter Cartwright and Peter Akers, renowned fire-brand circuit riders, organized the first Methodist station in Illinois here in Jacksonville in 1821. Our local Centenary Methodist Church traces its history to these beginnings. The Methodists began "classes" in 1822. The honor of being the first church in the area usually goes to the Diamond Grove Baptist Church in 1823. The Presbyterians organized in 1827, the Christian Church began in 1831, the first Episcopal church in the state organized as Trinity in 1832, the Congregationalists began in 1833, the Ebenezer Methodist Church and school began in 1835, and the Mt. Emory Baptist Church was established in 1837.
The fertile land, the booming railroads, and Jacksonville's central location made a successful partnership in the 1850s. Wheat, pork, and a highly profitable cattle trade, led by Jacob Strawn, filled the railcars heading out of town, and the profits they made filled the incoming railcars with the necessities and luxuries of life. Around these agricultural products grew related businesses. A slaughterhouse and a tannery were logical additions to the booming cattle industry. The Capps Woolen Mills made a sensible addition to the sheep industry. Specialty stores began replacing general stores, and cash began to replace bartering and buying on credit.
Jacksonville North Carolina
Jacksonville is the commercial hub of Onslow County and home to Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune and Marine Corps Air Station New River .
In 1992, Jacksonville was named an All-America City by the National Civic League.
This award was a direct result of the active involvement of citizens in the governance of the community. Jacksonville promotes the collaborative interaction of citizens, government, business, and the voluntary sector in the resolution of public issues and the solving of shared problems.
Jacksonville aerial map
Please click on any icon on the Jacksonville aerial tourist map, to find close by places, offering hotels and tourist information. You can zoom in and zoom out our touristical map as well as switch between satelite and map view of Jacksonville.
Jacksonville weather forecast
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