Jackson Smith was born in Kentucky on January 15, 1814. He went to Jacksonville, Illinois, as a child and learned the blacksmith trade there.
He arrived in Texas in 1836, in time to join the Army of the Republic of Texas. As a Texas soldier, he at one time stood guard over Santa Anna at Galveston. Following the war, he served as an Indian scout and crossed the area of what now is Cherokee County, around Gum Creek. Beauty of the country fascinated him and he decided to return.
Following his discharge from the Army, he went to Shelby County, Texas, where he met and married Jane Evaline McAdams, who was born in Alabama about 1818. His Army service was good for a section of land, which he received along with other land grants totalling some 10,000 acres.
Around 1846 or 1847, he, his wife and five children, Martha J., Elizabeth Ellen, John W., George Travis and William J., arrived at Gum Creek, where he built a log house and blacksmith shop. The blacksmith shop was used as a postoffice for Gum Creek, Texas, and he served as the postmaster. He gave 23 acres for the old Jacksonville townsite and laid it out—24 square blocks with a town square in the center. The, streets had no names, only numbers, and he named it for himself and Jacksonville, Illinois, where he had learned the blacksmithing trade. He also was old Jacksonville's first postmaster.
Jackson Smith was a Master Mason and his son, John W., also was a Mason. They were Methodists, but some of the family later became Baptists.
Later, Smith sold his home and around 1857 moved into a larger log house south of where Lake Jacksonville now is located. This old home burned a few years ago.
The oldest son, John W., became a doctor and practiced in the area of Ghent, Dialville, Mt. Comfort and Maydelle. Dr. John and his brother, Thomas Jefferson, married sisters, Martha Ellen and Hettie T. Matkin, daughters of another pioneer family, James and Jan (Childress) Matkin, who came to Texas from Mississippi in 1858 or 1859 and settled east of old Jacksonville.
Jackson Smith served as a lieutenant in the Confederate Army under Captain J. C. Maples during the Civil War. Two sons also served.
Virgil U. Smith was a son of Thomas Jefferson and Hettie T. Matkin Smith. He married Sallie D. Fisk, and their daughter, Elsie (Mrs. James R. Bolton) has two daughters and a son residing in Jacksonville. Pat (Mrs. Melvin Pryor) is the mother of four sons, Mike, Jamie, Jeff and Randy. Rita (Mrs. Leland Priestly) has a son, Steve, and a daughter, Regina. Jimmie Bolton married Nancy Ruth Morrison and they have two sons, Jerry and Eric.
Another daughter of the Virgil Smiths was Vera Smith Rodgers, whose son, H. V., resides in Jacksonville.
The descendants of the man for whom Jacksonville was named, have a very special interest and pride in the city's centennial celebration. (Source)