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History · Jeffersonville

Jeffersonville’s post office opened in 1857, and 11% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1948 on and the census since 1880.

1857first post office
0on the National Register
11%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Jeffersonville began

When was Jeffersonville founded?

1857

The Jeffersonville post office opened in 1857, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 238 in 18802020 census: 355169 years
Founding year: the first Jeffersonville post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Jeffersonville’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Jeffersonville are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Jeffersonville’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Jeffersonville’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Jeffersonville came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Jeffersonville.

Read it all →

Burton Hawk and his brother ran a sawmill near Geff and Fairfield. William Edwin Hawk was married to Alice Mathews, also of Fairfield. His sister, Mary Adeline, was married to Dr. Dade A. Hilliard. Mellie Ann Gray was the daughter of Thomas and Rebecca Gray. She married Burton Hawk on October 31, 1894. Burton and William's parents, Eliza Jane and David Hawk ran a general store and his son Hamby ran it after David's death in December 1916. They eventually all dispersed to Tonica, Marseilles, Lostant or Springfield Illinois.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Jeffersonville, 1857 to 1948

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1857Born hereWarren W. Duncan is born here
  3. 1857Post officeThe Jeffersonville post office opens
  4. 20th century
  5. 1917Post officeThe Jeffersonville post office closes
  6. 1917Post officeThe Geff post office opens
  7. 1948On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Jeffersonville, decade by decade

Today1 recent
Geff, IL, town hall and park2016Geff, IL, town hall and park
On the map

Jeffersonville on the map, 1948 to 1970

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Jeffersonville. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Jeffersonville on the 1948 USGS mapJeffersonville on the 1970 USGS map1948Fairfield sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Jeffersonville.

People over time

Jeffersonville, census by census

010020030040018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 367

Between 237 and 367 people in every census since 1880.

15 censuses, 1880–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Jeffersonville’s Wikipedia page.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices and old corners

Jeffersonville had its own post office from 1857 to 1917.

Jeffersonville
1857–1917
Geff
1917–today
18501940today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Geff

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about Jeffersonville’s history

What year was Jeffersonville founded?

The Jeffersonville post office opened in 1857, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.