Jacksonville Independent School District

The Handbook of Texas says the private Jacksonville Collegiate Institute opened in 1873, and that in 1881 a public school took over its assets. By 1892 the town had a public school system. The Handbook adds that the 1846 school was the second in the county, and that Jacksonville College, a Baptist school, opened in 1899. The town counted 1,568 people in 1904, a few years before the city formed its own school district. Lon Morris College operated in Jacksonville until it closed in 2012.

What the plaque says

Jacksonville Independent School District Jacksonville Independent School District Jacksonville's early settlers valued education and had a school as early as 1846 at the original townsite. The Texas Legislature authorized creation of county school districts in 1854, and by the 1860s, Old Jacksonville supported at least two schools. In 1872, residents moved closer to the railroad, and by 1873, they established their first public school. More schools opened, including, at this site, the town's first free public school. Between 1905 and 1907, the city formed its own district with campuses for both white and black students. The schools integrated in the late 1960s. The district's notable graduates include Olympic and professional athletes, Grammy winners, Tony award nominees and many other successes. (2003)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas State Railroad Excursion Train — 24 mi
  A round trip of about 25 miles of track between the Palestine and Rusk depots through the Piney Woods, on a line built by prison labor and reopened as a tourist railroad in 1976.
• New London Museum and Cenotaph — 27 mi
  A volunteer-run museum beside the pink granite cenotaph for the March 1937 school gas explosion, holding a model of the school, a blackboard from that day and an odorizer device.

More markers nearby

• Site of First Free Public School — steps away
• Church Founded by Chaplain Nicholas A. Davis, C.S.A. — 0.4 mi
• Jacksonville College — 0.7 mi
• Fred Douglass School — 0.8 mi