Jacksonville, Illinois

City: Jacksonville

County: Morgan

State: Illinois

Lat/Long: 39.7333, -90.2167

Morgan County established Jacksonville in 1825 specifically to be its county seat and it has remained so ever since. Settlers came quickly, resulting in a population of 1,800 by 1834. Construction of Illinois College, the state’s first institute of higher learning, began there in 1829. The Illinois General Assembly officially incorporated Jacksonville as a town in 1840 and as a city in 1857.

Betty Carlson Kay and Gary Jack Barwick, Jacksonville, Illinois: The Traditions Continue (Chicago: Arcadia, 1999), 7-8; An Act to Incorporate the Town of Jacksonville, and for Other Purposes; "An Act to Incorporate the City of Jacksonville," 10 February 1857, Private Laws of Illinois (1857), 344-46.