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History · Jackson

Jackson’s post office opened in 1865, and 17% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1967 on and the census since 1890.

1865first post office
0on the National Register
17%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Jackson began

When was Jackson founded?

1865

The Jackson post office opened in 1865, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Saint Johns (1857) and O'gorman (1863), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

First census: 308 in 18902020 census: 207161 years
Founding year: the first Jackson post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Jackson’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 Jackson are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Lost villages2 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Jackson.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Jackson’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Jackson’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
Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Jackson’s post office has been open since 1865. Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Saint Johns
1857–1863
O'gorman
1863–1865
Jackson
1865–today
18501940today

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

The story

How Jackson came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Jackson.

Read it all →

Prior to the establishment of Jackson, the townsite of Old St. John's was settled approximately 1.5 miles north of the current site of Jackson on June 2, 1856, by a Catholic colony of sixty Irish immigrants led by Father Trecy. The colony was one of the first towns settled in Dakota County, and the first Catholic parish in Nebraska. When the rising Missouri River began to threaten the town around 1860, all of the residents of Old St. John's moved south to what is now known as Jackson.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Jackson, 1857 to 1967

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1857Post officeThe Saint Johns post office opens
  3. 1863Post officeThe Saint Johns post office closes
  4. 1863Post officeThe O'gorman post office opens
  5. 1865Post officeThe O'gorman post office closes
  6. 1865Post officeThe Jackson post office opens
  7. 20th century
  8. 1967On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Jackson, decade by decade

Today3 recent
Jackson, Nebraska downtown 22010Jackson, Nebraska downtown 2Jackson, Nebraska downtown 12010Jackson, Nebraska downtown 1NEMap-doton-Jackson2005NEMap-doton-Jackson
On the map

Jackson on the map, 1967 to 1993

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

Jackson on the 1967 USGS mapJackson on the 1971 USGS mapJackson on the 1993 USGS map1967Jackson sheet · 1:24,000

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

People over time

Jackson, census by census

01002003001900192019401960198020002020Peak: 339

Between 200 and 339 people in every census since 1890.

14 censuses, 1890–2020.

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

Questions about Jackson’s history

What year was Jackson founded?

The Jackson post office opened in 1865, 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 (3), Wikipedia, 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.