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 Texas : Towns A-Z / East Texas :

JACKSONVILLE, TEXAS

Cherokee County, East Texas
Junction of Hwy 69 and Hwy 79
27 miles S of Tyler

Population: 13,868 (2000)

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Jacksonville Texas Love's Look Out
Love's Look Out
Photo courtesy C. DeWaun Simmons, October 2006
Love's Look Out
"Perched atop a scenic forested ridge beside U.S. Highway 69 north of Jacksonville, Love's Lookout offers perhaps the grandest view in East Texas. Visitors can scan a horizon that stretches into several counties. Some are convinced that, on a clear day, they can see Louisiana. more "- (Bob Bowman's "All Things Historical" column.)

Not exactly a traditional "lover's leap" - nevertheless, the altitude and visual depth of this rest area surprises most people motoring through this part of East Texas.

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View from Jacksonville Texas' Loves Look Out
The view from Love's Look Out
Photo courtesy C. DeWaun Simmons, October 2006









Lover's Leap Lookout Tower in Jacksonville

Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson
Love's Look Out, Jacksonville, Texas

"Love's Look Out" on Highway 69

Postcard courtesy rootsweb.com/
%7Etxpstcrd/
Southern Pacific Railroad Singers, Jacksonville, Texas  1920s
 
Southern Pacific Railroad Singers. This Jacksonville-based female choir performed in Texas towns all along the SP route in the late 1920s
Photo courtesy Arcadia Publishing and
The Cherokee County Historical Commission

History in a Pecan Shell

Jacksonville began as Gum Creek - the watercourse it overlooked. The first school opened in 1846 and post office was granted under the name Gum Creek in 1848.

With an early settler (blacksmith and postmaster) named Jackson Smith and Dr. William Jackson opening his practice nearby shortly thereafter - it was written that the town would be called Jacksonville. Smith had a townsite and square platted by 1850 and Dr. Jackson was one of the first to build inside the "city limits."

The post office name changed it's name that same year and two years later the International-Great Northern Railroad built through Cherokee County. They bypassed the town - but it was close enough to compromise. In late 1872 most of town was relocated two miles east to be alongside the tracks.
Neon Masonic sign, Jacksonville, Texas

Neon Masonic
Signs Downtown

Photo by John Troesser, 2002
The Baptists and the Methodists built their churches around 1849 and the Masons opened a lodge in the early 1850s. The first newspaper published in Jacksonville, was the Texan Intelligencer. Other papers that followed included the Cherokee Argonaut and Daily Progress.

In 1881 a public school took over the existing private "Collegiate Institute" and Jacksonville had a full public school system by 1892. Jacksonville College opened in 1899. Much later (1957) a Baptist theological seminary opened its doors. [See Colleges in Jacksonville]

Agriculture has always figured in Jacksonville's history. From the 1880s until 1914 it was a center for peach production and after that tomatoes were the major crop Jacksonville became known as the "tomato capital of the world" and home of "The Tomato Bowl" (above) - the local stadium.

In 1904 Jacksonville's population was reported as 1,568. By the 1930s the figure had reached 6,000, and by the late 1950s, some 10,000. During the 1980s it reached 12,000, and in the early 1990s the town reported 13,020 residents and 551 businesses.
Jacksonvill, Texas post office
Post Office in Jacksonville

Photo courtesy Lori Martin
Municipal building, Jacksonville, Texas
1930s postcard of the Municipal Building in Jacksonville

Postcard courtesy rootsweb.com/
%7Etxpstcrd/
Tomato Bowl, Jacksonville, Texas
"The Tomato Bowl"
"Home of the Jacksonville Fight'n Indians"

Photo by John Troesser, 2002
brickwork
Simple but elegant brickwork downtown.

Photo by John Troesser, 2002
Jacksonville architecture
A former hotel in Jacksonville

Photo by John Troesser, 2002
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The Killough Massacre
The Killough Massacre, October 5, 1838 Text & 7 photos by Janet Gregg
A Monument to the Killough Massacre
by Mitchel Whitington, from "Ghosts of East Texas and the Pineywoods"

Jacksonville Chronicles

The Circus Fight by Bob Bowman
"What one historian has called "the most famous circus fight in history" unfolded in 1873 as Robinson's Circus was preparing to leave Jacksonville in East Texas..."
Pistol Packing Mamma by Bob Bowman
One of the most popular songs in the U.S. during the mid-1940s was “Pistol Packing Mama.” But few know that the song came from East Texas and was written and performed by an Cherokee County musician Al Dexter, who was born at Jacksonville in 1902...
Crown Cafe - Old photos


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Jacksonville Images - Vintage & Contemporary

World War I Monument
Vintage Images
Theatre, School, Church

Courtesy Arcadia Publishing & Cherokee Co Hist Commission
Iron Works Historical Marker
Colleges in Jacksonville
Nearby Destinations
Cherokee County Towns & Ghost Towns
Cherokee County Seat - Rusk
Cherokee County Courthouse
  • Alto
  • Atoy
  • Bulah
  • Cuney
  • Dialville
  • Earle's Chapel
  • Fastrill - [See also Rusk trip]
  • Gallatin
  • Gent
  • Gould
  • Holcomb Store
  • Ironton
  • Jacksonville
  • Java
  • Larissa
  • Lone Star
  • Manila
  • Maydelle
  • Mixon
  • Mount Selman
  • New Birmingham - [See also Rusk trip]
  • New Summerfield
  • Ponta
  • Pine Town
  • Reklaw
  • Rusk - [See also Rusk trip]
  • Tecula
  • Weeping Mary
  • Wells

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  • Jacksonville Texas Forum
    Dear TE, I found your site while planning a short motorcycle ride in [East Texas] for me and my wife. Eastern Oklahoma has more mountains but ... otherwise the bike riding roads are about the same. Thanks to your site, we have made some nice trip plans for the area. - Mark A. Guthrie, Jacksonville, Texas, November 24, 2006


    Jacksonville - July 2005 Texas Escapes Featured Town

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