Cherokee County History Page: 55
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established a log home and a blacksmith shop near the west
boundary of the James Ford Survey. When the Gum Creek post
office was authorized June 15, 1848, he was appointed postmaster
and the mail was kept in a box in the end of the blacksmith shop.
Gum Creek village began to grow when Dr. William Jackson
built an office near Smith's blacksmith shop and Tom Dean estab-
lished a trading post a little farther east.
In the spring of 1850, Smith employed Absalom Gibson to survey
a town site of 24 blocks and a small town square near his home. A
crowd gathered in front of Tom Dean's store to celebrate the occa-
sion, and by general consensus "Jacksonville" was chosen as the
name for the new town. Everybody agreed the title was appropri-
ate, because the town site was on Jackson Smith's land and Dr.
Jackson was the first to build within its bounds. The post office
name was changed to Jacksonville June 20, 1850.
The new town soon attracted other settlers, including Dr. J. S.
Lindsey, E. J. DeBard, David Greene Templeton, William Isaacks,
John M. Benge, John Odle, E. B. Ragsdale, W. J. Ragsdale, the Rev.
Isham Lane, R. R. Jowell, James Martin, Lemuel Kimbro, G. W.
Kincheloe, R. A. Wooten, William Dennison, and John C. Slaton.
M. L. Earle, local historian and a long-time mayor of Jack-
sonville, estimated that at least 48 business firms operated at Old
Jacksonville before the town was moved.
The first four businesses were A. S. Johnson & Co. (owned by A.
S. Johnson and John Dewberry and operated by W. T. D. Guy),
Hughes and Maples, J. B. Able and Son, and Kennedy Thresher.
There were also saloons, blacksmith shops, a saddle shop, a bowling
alley, and a hotel.
The Methodist and Baptist denominations built churches in the
old town before 1850, and the Cumberland Presbyterians built a
church one-half mile east of town in 1871.
Joe C. Rushing taught the first school in the Methodist Church in
1849. Classes were also held in the Masonic Lodge building. Other
early teachers included Richard Wooten, Dr. Abraham Glidwell, E.
E. Armstrong, the Rev. Mr. McCollough, Mr. and Mrs. Soloman
Bridges, H. L. Martin, N. A. Mendenhall, and T. B. Matlock. Gov. T.
M. Campbell, whose father operated the Joe Turney Hotel, attended
school in Old Jacksonville.
When the Southern states began seceding from the Union in
1860, and before Texas had made an official decision, Jacksonville
citizens staged their own secession celebration by gathering in the
town square to raise the Texas flag. Just before the flag reached the
top of the 75-foot pole the rope broke and the flag fluttered down,
much to the crowd's dismay. Climbing the pole to attach a new rope
defied all attempts until Calhoun Arnwine, a young, free black
man, made the ascent and saved the day.
Several hundred Jacksonville men served in many units of the
Confederate Army and many lost their lives in that war. The town
raised its own Co. K. of the 18th Texas Infantry. J. C. Maples was
the unit's captain. When the unit left for service, Miss Martha
Ragsdale, amid appropriate ceremonies, presented a flag to the
departing soldiers.
The George K. Grimes Store, selling goods hauled from Mata-
moras on the Rio Grande River, was the only Jacksonville firm
doing business during the war.
Disturbed by feuding factions during the lawless days after the
Civil War, Jacksonville developed a tough reputation that tainted
the town long after its move to the railroad.
The route of the International Railroad, built through Cherokee
County in 1872, missed Jacksonville by about a mile to the north.
A committee of townsmen worked out an agreement with therailroad officials to survey a new 200-acre town site at Fry's Sum-
mit with the stipulation that a depot would be located there. The
depot, built soon after the line was completed, occupied two sites at
Wilson Street between Bolton and Main Streets until its removal
in March, 1985.
Several families already living on or near the new town site
included Frys, Merritts, Campbells, Kirkpatricks, and Loves.
Within a few days after the railroad company put the new lots on
sale in the fall of 1872, Old Jacksonville almost vanished. Businesshouses were dismantled, loaded on ox-drawn wagons, and relo-
cated in the new town. Merchants who made the move to the
railroad were B. K. Smith, Allen & Lawler, Peter G. Rhome, George
Tilley, W. H. Lovelady, A. J. Chessher, J. A. Templeton, and Henry
Gover & Co. George Rhome moved his blacksmith shop, and W. C.
Cobb opened another hotel. The Methodist Church and the Ma-
sonic Lodge also joined the move.
Other early businesses of present Jacksonville were E. B. Rags-
dale & Sons, Clapp and Brown, J. L. Douglas & Co., N. C. Gragard,
J. & C. Bolton, B. B. Cannon, Luther Grimes, Jarratt & Goodson,
Thompson & Thompson of Dallas, and McKinney and Brown. Sam
T. Spruill made carriages and wagons.
Old Jacksonville was never incorporated, but a charter for the
present town was secured in May, 1873. Soon after that N. C.
Gragard was elected mayor but was ineligible to serve because he
was an immigrant from Norway who had never become a natural-
ized citizen. J. H. Martin was elected in his stead, and then an
effort was made to abolish the city government. No officials served
the town from June, 1875, until June, 1882. When the next election
was called M. D. Morris became Mayor, succeeded through the
years by W. M. Anderson, R. H. Small, N. M. Fain, J. H. Thompson,
Sam A. Cobb Sr., William Harrison Sory, John C. Box, M. L. Earle,
J. E. McFarland, T. E. Acker (1918-1952), R. C. Buckner, Robert
A. Huttash, J. D. Bearden, Phillip Pavletich, F. A. Shinalt, Talley
Nichols, Harry G. Tilley, and Robert L. Nichols.
Jacksonville adopted the city manager-form of government in
1931. J. Bryan Miller was the first City Manager. He was followed
by A. E. Garner, W. H. Oswalt, Walter Cook, David A. Harner,
James A. Marshall, and Gordon Pierce.
The sole peace officer in early Jacksonville was the City Mar-
shall. S. P. Torbet, Cal Braddy, John A. McHenry, and W. M.
English were the peace keepers before 1900. After the turn of the
century, W. R. Mathis, Will Tucker, and W. Y. Forrest served in the
office. Frank M. Mills, who took the job in 1914, assumed the title
of Chief of Police, Jacksonville's first, in 1931 when the city govern-
ment was changed. Sam Bollinger followed Mills and served until
he died in 1960. Archie Cook became the next Chief of Police, and
during his tenure the police force grew from eight officers with two
cars to 19 men with five cars. Cook retired in 1982 when Jack
Brewer was appointed head of the police force. Brewer resigned in
September, 1985.
Jacksonville's first fire department was headed by O. B. Fox as
Fire Chief. He also built the first fire truck - a hose cart pulled to
fires by the firemen - in his blacksmith shop with the assistance
of Joe Pressler, a department member. Fox retired as Chief in 1910
and was succeeded by Gene David, Joe Phillips, W. B. Fry, L. B.
Haberle, Arch Robertson, Charlie Williams, Howard Martin, and
Clem Cecil Jr., who is also the present Fire Marshall.
Herschel Collins was the first fireman to die on duty. He was
injured fatally when the hose cart got away from the firemen on a
hill en route to a fire and crushed him. Gerald Jay was the second
city fireman to die on duty. He was stricken with a heart seizure
while helping extinguish a fire.
Medical facilities include clinics, nursing homes and, until re-
cently, two hospitals. Newburn Memorial Hospital, founded by Dr.
C. L. Newburn in 1917, closed in 1985. Nan Travis Memorial
Hospital, now managed by the Methodist Hospital in Houston,
continues to serve the city. Its new professional building was com-
pleted in 1985. The hospital had its inception in 1919, when it was
founded as Cherokee Sanitarium in the former home of Dr. and
Mrs. E. E. Guinn at the southeast corner of South Main andNacogdoches Streets. The founders were Drs. J. M. Travis, J. N.
Bone, and Frank A. Fuller of Jacksonville and A. L. Hathcock of
Palestine, and Gus S. Blankenship, the Rev. Tom Dean, and W. Y.
Forrest of Jacksonville. Blankenship was President of the First
National Bank, the Rev. Mr. Dean was pastor of First Christian
Church, and Forrest was an automobile dealer. In 1920, Dr. Hath-
cock resigned his association because of his health, and Dr. R. T.
Travis was elected his successor. (See special page.)
Dr. E. E. Guinn operated a clinic in Jacksonville in the early55
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Cherokee County Historical Commission (Tex.). Cherokee County History, book, 2001; Jacksonville, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth354360/m1/65/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Cherokee County Historical Commission.