This old courthouse was built in 1860, the same year the steamboat Manning blew up just down the river from Jacksonville. Before this a log courthouse was present, being built around 1812. This county seat courthouse was located in Jacksonville where the Jacksonville Methodist Church now sits and some say, on its original foundation. Court sessions and church services were held here and great clerics, such as The Rev. Wilson Conner, preached and "exhorted" here. With the coming of the railroads in the early 1870's the county seat was moved to McRae. Before this, the State Legislature passed a bill saying it would be moved to the center of the county to a place to be named "Ridgley" -- but the Civil War came, and so did the railroads, and "Ridgley" never was --
