- General Baptists preserve old bell (7/16/24)
- Thad Stubbs calls it a career (7/9/24)1
- The Doyle house succumbs to 'progress' (7/2/24)
- Mapping the recovery from the 1949 tornado (6/25/24)
- Missourian survey demonstrates residents' indomitable spirit after 1949 tornado (6/18/24)2
- Ptlm. Boyd reads to youngsters (6/11/24)2
- Eddie Moss at Cape Civic Center (6/4/24)
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Celebrating Jackson's bicentennial
As Jackson residents celebrate their town's bicentennial, I thought it would be interesting to look at some Jackson firsts.
Here are a few, in no particular order and from a variety of sources:
* The first courthouse was built in 1818 on Jackson's public square.
* The first grammar school was started by Henry Sandford in 1816.
* Coincidentally, the town's first jail was also built in 1816
* The first printing press was hauled to Jackson in 1819 by T.E. Strange, who proceeded to publish the Missouri Herald.
* The first bank in town was a branch of the State Bank and was established in Jackson in 1841. It would later be moved to Cape Girardeau, where it became the Sturdivant Bank.
* The first public library was started in 1926, but succeeded a subscription library operated by a literary club.
* The first Protestant meeting house in the Jackson area (and some say west of the Mississippi River) was old Bethel Baptist, which traces its history to 1806.
* The first Jackson Homecomers was held in 1908, coinciding with the dedication of the present county courthouse.
* Electric lights were turned on in Jackson homes for the first time on Feb. 13, 1908. Two days later, street lights in the county seat also went on.
* The first woman to run for mayor of Jackson was Mrs. W.C. LaPierre in 1941.
* In 2007 Barbara Lohr became the first woman to be elected mayor of Jackson.
Here's a few articles that tell about other Jackson firsts.
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![](http://www.semissourian.com/media/11/03/58/1103583-L.jpg)
![](http://www.semissourian.com/media/11/03/58/1103584-L.jpg)
![](http://www.semissourian.com/media/11/03/58/1103585.jpg)
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