DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. A blacksmith by trade — now there's a man who knows how to make something out of raw iron, and as it turns out, out of raw land too. Jackson Smith came out of Kentucky, made his way to Texas in the 1830s, and didn't waste any time getting tangled up in history.
He participated in the War for Independence — so right there, from the jump, this man was shaping the place he'd chosen to call home. And when the dust settled on that fight, he wasn't done roaming. He came through this very area as a scout for the Republic of Texas.
Think about that — riding through Cherokee County when it was still wild country, sizing it up, carrying the weight of a brand-new republic on his shoulders. Then in the 1840s, Smith finally put down roots, settling southwest of here in the Gum Creek community. And because a blacksmith's hands are never still for long, he platted out a townsite and gave it a name: Jacksonville.
His name, his hammer, his town. He went on to serve as a Confederate officer in the Civil War — another chapter of conflict for a man who seemed to find himself at the center of every turning point Texas had to offer. And then came 1872.
A railroad was coming through, laying down iron rails — iron, of all things — and Jacksonville picked itself up and moved to meet it, settling right where it stands today. Jackson Smith, blacksmith, scout, founder, officer. The town he named is still here.
That's not nothing.
What the marker says
A blacksmith by trade, Kentuckian Jackson Smith came to Texas in the 1830s and participated in the War for Independence. He later visited this area as a Republic of Texas scout. In the 1840s, he settled southwest of here in the Gum Creek community. Near there he platted a townsite he called Jacksonville. Smith served as a Confederate officer in the Civil War. In 1872, Jacksonville was moved to its present site along the new railroad.