Jacksonville

The label

Why Jacksonville is called a ghost town

Jacksonville is called a ghost town because it really did empty, and fast. A long-running ghost town directory lists it, and Legends of Kansas files it among the extinct towns of Neosho County. In the late 1860s it was the county's second town, with close to 600 people by its own newspaper's count. Within about fifteen years nothing was left but a post office in a farmhouse, as Cutler's 1883 History of the State of Kansas put it.

History

Jacksonville then

Jacksonville grew where Neosho, Labette and Crawford counties meet, within about a hundred yards of the Cherokee County corner and about half a mile from Hickory Creek. Marion L. McCaslin started it in 1866, selling groceries from a covered wagon, and became postmaster when a post office opened on July 8, 1867. The county's first newspaper, the Neosho Valley Eagle, started there on May 2, 1868, and counted a little under 600 people, six stores and a hotel. It moved to Erie that October.

In the 1870s the town was a meeting place for settlers fighting the railroads over land claims on the Cherokee Neutral Lands and the Osage Ceded Lands. It had stores, blacksmiths, a sawmill, a brickworks, two hotels and two doctors, and three congregations that never built a church. In March 1874 a teacher, John Pierce, shot his father-in-law in McCaslin's store; a mob took him from the schoolhouse where he was held and hanged him on Hickory Creek just west of town.

No railroad came. When the St. Louis and San Francisco line was built west from Arcadia in 1879, it passed three miles south, and the new towns of McCune and Strauss took Jacksonville's business and many of its buildings.

1866. Marion L. McCaslin begins trading from a covered wagon.

Jul 8, 1867. The Jacksonville post office opens, with McCaslin as postmaster.

May 2, 1868. The Neosho Valley Eagle, the county's first newspaper, starts at Jacksonville. It moves to Erie on October 24.

1874. John Pierce is lynched on Hickory Creek after shooting his father-in-law in March.

1879. The St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad passes three miles south. McCune and Strauss are founded and draw the businesses away.

Dec 17, 1881. The abandoned schoolhouse burns.

Nov 27, 1882. The post office closes.

1883. Cutler's history finds nothing left but a post office in a lonely farmhouse.

Today

What is there now

The townsite is plowed farmland. Our sources agree that no buildings remain. The old main road, 27000 Road west of York Road, ran along the south side of the town square, and the site can be seen from it. The Jacksonville Cemetery was mostly moved to McCune; some graves were still there in the 1980s, and Legends of Kansas describes what is left as forgotten, overgrown and on private land.

The historic maps show no town at all: the 1886 sheet has only Hickory Creek, section lines and the county boundaries, and the 1943 McCune sheet shows farms and section roads around the corner. The 1985 Coffeyville sheet labels the Neosho and Crawford county line running north and south through the corner, with Hickory Creek to the west. You can stand on the county road and look, and that is all.

Historic maps

Jacksonville on USGS maps, 1886–1985

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the map point. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

18861:125,00019431:62,50019851:100,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Parsons is the nearest city with full services. From Parsons or from Joplin the routes follow US 400 and York Road, the Neosho–Crawford county line, then turn west onto 27000 Road along the south side of the old town. The land on both sides is private farmland.

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL). Times assume dry roads.

Questions

Common questions

Is Jacksonville, Kansas a ghost town?

Yes, a vanished one. It was Neosho County's second town in the late 1860s, lost its trade to McCune and Strauss after the railroad passed it by in 1879, and lost its post office in 1882. The site is now farmland.

Is there anything left of Jacksonville?

No buildings. An overgrown remnant of the town cemetery, most of whose graves were moved to McCune, lies on private land.

Where was Jacksonville, Kansas?

At the southeast corner of Neosho County, where it meets Labette and Crawford counties, about half a mile from Hickory Creek. 27000 Road west of York Road ran along the south side of the town square.

Nearby

Ghost towns and sites near Jacksonville

Straight-line distance to other mapped sites in our Kansas index.

• South Mound8.4 mi NW · Neosho
• Monmouth8.5 mi E · Crawford
• Ladore12.6 mi W · Neosho
• Beulah14.8 mi E · Crawford
• Walnut15.0 mi N · Crawford
• Oswego15.1 mi S · Labette
• Mortimer22.2 mi W · Labette
• Litchfield24.4 mi E · Crawford

Sources

Sources and credits

1. Legends of Kansas, "Jacksonville, Kansas – Extinct in Neosho County" (updated October 2024): location, McCaslin and the 1867 post office, the 1868 newspaper and its population count, businesses, churches, the land fights, the 1874 lynching, the railroad, McCune and Strauss, the 1881 school fire, the 1882 closing, the plowed site, the cemetery on private land, 27000 Road.
2. ghosttowns.com, "Jacksonville": county, road and season, the plowed townsite, 27000 Road and the town square, the cemetery moved to McCune, businesses and the railroad bypass.
3. William G. Cutler, History of the State of Kansas (1883), Neosho County part 15, Kansas Collection Books: the corner of four counties, second town in the county, its businesses and sawmills, and nothing left but a post office in a farmhouse.
4. Townsite point estimated from the sources' description and OpenStreetMap road data. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits

• Area base map, topo and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Parsons 1886, 1:125,000; McCune 1943, 1:62,500; Coffeyville 1985, 1:100,000.