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Jackson, Tennessee

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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A city and the county-seat of Madison county, Tennessee, U.S.A., situated on the Forked Deer river, about 85 M. N.E. of Memphis. Pop. (1890), 10,039; (1900), 14,511, of whom 6108 were negroes; (1906 estimate), 17,193. It is served by the Mobile & Ohio, the Nashville, Chattanooga & St Louis and the Illinois Central railways. The state supreme court holds its sessions here for the western district of Tennessee. The city is the seat of Union University (co-educational), chartered in 1875 as Southwestern Baptist University, and conducted under that name at Jackson until 1907, when the present name was adopted. In1907-1908the university had 17 instructors and 280 students. At Jackson, also, are St Mary's Academy (Roman Catholic); the Memphis Conference Female Institute (Methodist Episcopal, South, 1843), and Lane College (for negroes), under the control of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church. Jackson is an important cotton market, and is a shipping point for the farm products and fruits of the surrounding country. It has also numerous manufactures and railway shops. The total value of the factory product in 1905 was $2,317,715. The municipality owns and operates the electriclighting plant and the water-works. There is in the city an electro-chalybeate well with therapeutic properties. Jackson was settled about 1820, incorporated as a town in 1823, chartered as a city in 1854, and in 1907 received a new charter by which the sale of intoxicating liquors is forever prohibited. After General Grant's advance into Tennessee in 1862 Jackson was fortified and became an important base of operations for the Federal army, Grant himself establishing his headquarters here in October.