Jonesboro: ‘One of the oldest towns in Illinois’

Editor’s note: the following information was included in an article about Union County which was featured in “A New Geography of Illinois.” The article appeared in the June/July issue of Outdoor Illinois magazine and was written by Robert H. Mohlenbrock of Southern Illinois University.

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The site for Jonesboro was selected as early as 1816, although the first lots were not put up for sale until 1818. Much of the land for the town was given by John Grammer.

Among the early tradesmen in the village was Louis Jaccard, who later founded the Jaccard jewelry firm in St. Louis.

The arrival of the Willards in 1820 did much for the economy of Jonesboro. In addition to the $100,000-plus business per annum by Willard and Company, the Willards were responsible for the first good road in the county, the first steam flour mill and the first steam saw mill. In 1880, E.A. Willard built a huge grain elevator along the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio railroad.

The original log courthouse was erected in 1818 on the town square, but in a few years proved to be too small for the rapidly growing county.

In 1857, a new courthouse was constructed on Market Street a short distance northwest of the town square. This structure, which is still in use, has had several additions to it. Standing next to the courthouse is one of the oldest jails still functioning in the state.

Jonesboro is one of the oldest towns in Illinois.

The first Union County school was a short distance south of Jonesboro, while a private girl’s school with two teachers imported from the East was in existence for a short while.

The Jonesboro Gazette, founded in 1849, was a most controversial newspaper for the several years of its existence.

The Shawnee National Forest has a ranger station north of the square at the entrance to a charming, heavily forested park. It is the site of the Lincoln-Douglas debate of 1858.

The Allen Hot Tamale factory, a block north of the square, burned to the ground a few years ago. These cornmeal-coated tamales, wrapped in corn husks, were among the finest produced in the United States.

The city cemetery at the southwestern edge of Jonesboro contains the graves of many of the prominent early citizens of Union County.

Jonesboro’s population in 1970 was 1,676.