Jacksonville – Then and Now
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This article includes information from the
writings of M. L. Earle, J. B. Posey, Sid Johnson, J. A. Templeton, Hattie
J. Roach, J. L. Brown, F. H. Ford.
Jacksonville has an exciting, and, in some respects, a unique history.
The story covers two distinct areas and well over a century. One of the
most distinctive features of Jacksonville's history is the fact that the
place had a mother town that bore the same name.
Old Jacksonville was located two miles southwest of the present city hall. It was a typical pioneer town with a reputation of being tough. Its people, who were a mixture of culture and daring, fashioned a colorful history of their very own.
The story of the old town goes back to 1838, the year the Killough Massacre occurred about seven miles northwest of the present town. Eighteen settlers, including women and children, either were killed or carried away never to be heard of again. This was East Texas' worst Indian atrocity.
General Thomas J. Rusk brought the Texas Army into this area searching for the renegades who committed the murders. One of General Rusk's soldiers was Jackson Smith, a native of Kentucky. Smith scouted along Gum Creek, where he found a spot so beautiful that he resolved to return some day and make his home there.
Nine years later, in early 1847, Smith did return to occupy the very place he had chosen in 1838. He built his house and a blacksmith shop of logs. Soon he set up a post office in one end of the shop, which took the name Gum Creek, after the little community that had grown up there before Smith returned.
Some of the earliest settlers of Gum Creek were David Templeton, Dr. Lindsey, David Tumlinson, Tom Guy, E. J. DeBard, F. C. Hardgraves, Huntley Wiggins and J. C. Earle.
Other people and families who were classed as early settlers of the area included E. B. Ragsdale, W. J. Ragsdale, The Rev. Isham Lane, R. R. Jowell, James Martin, Lem Kimbro, the Odles, Watsons, Rushings, Maples, Hughes, Isaacs, McKinneys, Warrens, Yarbroughs, Kinchelos, Giffens, Wootens, Glidewells and Ingles.
Smith soon recognized that the fast-growing area would support a trading center; so in 1847, he laid off a town site and named the place Jacksonville.
For a number of years most people believed that Smith named the place after Jacksonville, Illinois, where he previously lived; but there were others who thought it received its name from Dr. Jackson, whose office was the first building on the site. In 1915, Thomas Green Bays, an early settler, returned to Jacksonville and added another version as to how the town was named. Bays stated that after the surveying of the site had been completed, a large crowd gathered, and the surveyor asked what the town was to be called. One of the men, Tom Guy, arose and replied, "Since the town is on Jackson Smith's land, and Dr. Jackson built the first building, let's call it Jacksonville." The crowd cheered in approval.
There are reasons to believe that Dr. Jackson's office building was on the site before it was surveyed. Soon four business houses were erected, all carrying a general stock of goods. Johnson & Dewberry were first. They built a small log building and operated the business under the name of A. S. Johnson & Company. The others were Hughes & Maples, J. B. Able & Son and Kennedy Thrasher.
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Compiled by Greg Smith. If you have any materials you'd like to contribute, please email me.