Jacksonville was established in 1867-68 in the extreme southeast corner of Neosho County, Kansas, Lincoln Township. The majority of the town lay in Neosho County, but part of the southern part of the town lay in Labette County and part of the east side of town lay in Crawford County. The town center was about half a mile from Hickory Creek, a tributary of the Neosho River.

The first newspaper in Neosho County was published in Jacksonville as the Neosho Valley Eagle. It was published for part of 1868, then moved to Erie, the county seat. The town was a centralized meeting point for settlers in the land grant fights in the Cherokee Neutral lands (Crawford and Cherokee Counties) between the settlers and James F. Joy's Border Tier Railroad and for settlers on the Osage Ceded Lands (Neosho and Labette Counties) in their fight for land claims against the MKT Railroad.

Jacksonville existed from 1868 until about 1881-3. The town was never able to acquire a railroad connection, so when the Frisco Railroad built 3 miles south of the town, many of Jacksonville's buildings were moved to the towns of McCune and Strauss, which lay along the Frisco line.

Jacksonville had several stores, two or three blacksmith shops, a saw mill, a brick manufacturing plant, at least two hotels, and at least two doctors. In addition to settlers meetings, there were temperance meetings, and vigilante activity with a lynching taking place at the town in 1874.

In its heyday, the town was the second largest in Neosho County.

Submitted by: David Beach