Jacksonburg facts:
- Established: 1835
- Population: 67
- Number of household: 22
- Number of village council members: 6
- Ohio’s smallest incorporated village
- The childhood home of James Cox, governor of Ohio in the 1910s and 1920s, and Democratic nominee for president in 1920.
- Number of stop lights: 0
- Rivaled Middletown in size in the mid-1800s
JACKSONBURG — Driving through Jacksonburg takes only a few seconds. And it would be easy to do so without realizing you had been there.
The center of town is the village’s only intersection. There’s a stop sign. No light. One corner is where a gas station used to be before it was torn down a few years back, according to the locals. On another sits the empty storefront of Marcum’s Carry Out, which closed more than three years ago.
But the village has a proud heritage, a peculiar distinction and a bucolic character that makes its residents — all five dozen of them — proud to call Jacksonburg home.
Signs welcoming visitors to Jacksonburg — you can see all of the signs from the center of town — tell its place in the record books.
“Welcome to Jacksonburg,” they say. “Ohio’s smallest incorporated village.”
Despite a population of only 67 people, the village has a village council. The six council members and the treasurer come from only four families.
“Our meetings don’t last long,” said Mayor Michael Sword.
The village has grown over the years. Before the 2,000 U.S. Census, the welcome sign listed the population as 52.
But at one time, Jacksonburg was a boomtown rivaling Middletown.
These days, most residents are happy to keep it small, including John Smith, who lives with his sister, her son and her grandson on the edge of town, which is only four houses from the center of town.
The four make up just over one-sixteenth the village’s entire population.
“We don’t have a lot of trouble like you do in big cities,” he said.
His sister Pam Gabbard agreed.
“I love it because it’s quiet,” she said.
But Ethan Gabbard, 4, disagreed.
“Not over there,” he said, pointing next door. “Because their dog is barking.”
And if that’s the worst of their concerns, Ethan’s father said, he’s happy with that.
A PROUD PAST
This tiny village’s past is proud and clear. But having a municipality with only 67 people brings challenges that make its future uncertain, according to village leaders.
Jacksonburg was established in 1835, and its heyday came in the mid-1800s. Those days, the village was a convenient place for pig and cattle farmers to stop for the night on their way to Cincinnati.
“At one time it had two hotels, four stores, a pork packing house, four tailors and other industries to match,” according to a history of the village compiled by John Paullin.
But when the railroad and the Miami and Erie Canal were built through Middletown, there was little need to pass through Jacksonburg, and the village began a slow decline. The post office closed in 1881.
Jacksonburg’s most famous resident was James M. Cox., Ohio governor, newspaper publisher and Democratic presidential nominee in the 1920 presidential election. His boyhood home still stands on the edge of town.
In Cox’s day, Jacksonburg was still a “flourishing village,” according to a village history that lists the owners of two general stores, a wagon manufacturer, two blacksmiths, two shoemakers and a barbershop in 1924.
“There ain’t nothing here anymore,” said village Mayor Michael Sword, who has lived in the village his whole life.
The only restaurant closed down more than three years ago, meaning the closest place to get food is now several miles outside of town at Madison Food Market.
“I don’t know if it’s changed for the better or the worse,” he said.
Sword hasn’t been challenged for the job since he was first elected — by a close 24-20 vote — in 1980. These days, they don’t even file to run for office; it’s just easier to run by write-in candidacy.
But the village has a budget through Butler County’s local government assistance fund. And it has challenges, including solvency. If a seat comes open on the council and no one steps forward to fill it, the village could cease to exist.
“As soon as we had a seat to fill, we’d probably just go around door to door,” he said. “If you can’t fill the council, it will go back to being unincorporated.”
The jobs come with a paycheck of $100 a month for council members and $200 a month for mayor.
“We’re going to have to find some people that’s interested in council to keep it Jacksonburg,” he said. “I just want to keep Jacksonburg, Jacksonburg.”
Sword isn’t alone in expressing village pride. Down the road, at a village landmark, church volunteers discussed what the tiny village means to them.
The Jacksonburg United Methodist Church boasts a gothic -style structure built in 1924, abutted by a tiny cemetery with tombstones listing birthdates in the 1700s.
The church draws more than twice the village’s population for Sunday services, according to its pastor, the Rev. Wes Souder.
“Between the church and the firehouse, that’s the community,” said Cindy Phillips, who volunteers at both firehouse and the house of worship.
The firehouse is staffed solely by volunteers, such as Jeff Hobbs and Curt Edwards.
“We all do this because this is what we want to do,” said Edwards.
The firehouse fish fry every fall is one of the village’s main events, “that and the occasional bonfire,” Edwards said.
“That’s all we did growing up, farm and church,” said Kristy Swigert, who grew up on a Jacksonburg farm and is now a teacher at Edgewood City Schools.
“You’re not bored. You’re feeding cows. You’re playing in fields,” she said. “There’s trees to climb and bugs to find.”
And that’s the challenge for Jacksonburg: staying small enough to maintain its charm while staying large enough to stay intact and honor its heritage.
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