Visitors Guide to Jonesboro
Union County, Illinois

European settlement in what is now Union County began around the year 1809. The majority of the earlier settlers in the county were southerners who came from the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Kentucky. In March of 1818, just two months after Union County was formally organized, the town of Jonesboro was laid out to serve as the county seat. Jonesboro occupied an elevation position near the center of the county and approximately ten miles east of the Mississippi River. In the winter of 1838-1839 the Cherokees passed through Vienna and crossed the Mississippi at two different ferries during their forced relocation from the Southeast United States to present day Oklahoma. Located five miles northwest of Jonesboro is the Trail of Tears State Forest whose name memorializes this tragic episode in American history. Commercial growth in the county was fairly limited prior to the 1850s on account of the rugged terrain and limited transportation network found there. Goods moved into and out of the county primarily by way of the Mississippi River. At least two steamboat landings were established in the county but neither one ever developed beyond a hamlet probably due to their exposed position on the low-lying Mississippi floodplain..Jonesboro represented the principal commercial center in the county until the 1850s, when it began to be rivaled by the neighboring town of Anna. Anna was platted adjacent to the Illinois Central Railroad, only one mile east of the county seat, in 1854. Jonesboro apparently had had the opportunity to have the Illinois Central pass through it, but it failed to arrange the required survey. Jonesboro merchant Winstead Davie seized upon their oversight and surveyed the route of the railroad through land he owned east of town. Davie chose the name “Anna” in honor of his wife (Illinois State Historical Society). The Illinois Central began service through Union County during the summer of 1854.

Jonesboro was the site of the 3rd debate in the series of 7. The debates of 1858 were the catalyst for propelling Abraham Lincoln to the forefront of American politics. Mr. Lincoln stayed 2 nights on South Main St. in Anna with his friend, D.L. Phillips, and family. Today you can visit the Jonesboro Square and walk, as Lincoln did, to the site in what is today the Lincoln Memorial Park, about 1/3 mile north of the town square. During the Civil War years, Union County has divided loyalties. Even though southern sympathies were still strong here, over eighteen hundred men fought for the north. The Jonesboro Gazette was closed by militia for anti-war editorials.