Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/515

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

JACKSONVILLE JACOB 497 merce of Jacksonville is important. The chief business is the cutting and shipping of lumber. There are several large saw mills, and the ship- ments amount to about 50,000,000 feet an- nually, cotton, sugar, fruit, fish, and early vegetables are also shipped to northern and foreign ports. The value of the foreign com- merce for the year ending June 30, 1873, was $91,162, chiefly exports. The entrances were 26 vessels of 3,456 tons, and the clearances 40 vessels of 6,455 tons. In the coastwise trade the entrances were 100 steamers of 69,123 tons, and 345 sailing vessels of 66,962 tons; clearances, 101 steamers of 69,439 tons, and 383 sailing vessels of 76,089 tons. There were 12 steamers of 1,442 tons and 20 sailing vessels of 2,212 tons belonging to the port. A semi- weekly line of steamers runs to Savannah and Charleston, and the river steamers furnish daily communication with St. Augustine via Tocoi and the St. John's railroad and with Palatka, and tri-weekly with Enterprise, 205 m. above Jacksonville. The city is much resorted to by invalids on account of its mild and salubrious climate. It is governed by a mayor and a board of eight aldermen, and contains a branch of the Freedmen's savings bank and trust company, 9 hotels, 2 public schools (one white and one colored), a Catholic female seminary, several private schools, 2 tri-weekly and 4 weekly newspapers, and 10 churches, viz. : 3 Baptist (2 colored), 1 Episcopal, 4 Methodist (2 colored), and 2 Presbyterian. Of the Meth- odist (white) and Presbyterian churches, one each belongs to the northern and one to the southern branch. The Roman Catholic church, which was burned during the civil war, is now nearly rebuilt. A session of the United States circuit and district courts for the N. district of Florida is held here annually. II. A city and the capital of Morgan co., Illinois, situated near Mauvaiseterre creek, an affluent of the Illinois river, 30 m. W. by 8. of Spring- field, and 200 m. S. S. "W. of Chicago ; pop. in 1850, 2,745; in 1860, 5,528; in 1870, 9,203, of whom 2,098 were foreigners. It is pleasantly built in the midst of an undulating and fertile prairie, at the intersection of the Jacksonville division of the Chicago and Alton railroad with the Toledo, Wabash, and Western, the Peoria, Pekin, and Jacksonville, and the Jack- sonville, Northwestern, and Southeastern rail- roads. The streets are wide and adorned with shacfe trees; the houses are partly of wood and partly of brick, and surrounded with flower gardens and shrubbery. The principal manu- factories are a woollen mill, a machine shop, four flour mills, two planing mills, two soap factories, an iron foundery, gas works, and a car shop. There are two national banks, with $400,000 capital, and a savings bank. Jack- sonville is the seat of the state institution for the education of the deaf and dumb ; of the state institution for the blind ; of a state hos- pital for the insane; of the state institution for the education of feeble-minded children ; and of a private insane asylum. Illinois col- lege (Congregational), organized in 1830, in 1874 had 13 professors and instructors, 150 students (50 collegiate), and a library of 10,000 volumes. Illinois female college (Methodist), organized in 1847, had 10 instructors, 172 students (81 collegiate), and a library of 2,000 volumes. Jacksonville female academy had 11 instructors and 218 students (128 colle- giate). There are another female college, an academy and commercial college combined, an orphan asylum, seven public school houses with a system of graded schools, including a high school, a daily and three weekly news- papers, a free reading room, a free public li- brary of 1,600 volumes, and 20 churches. JU'MKL, a seaport town of Hayti, at the head of a bay of the same name, on the S. coast, 30 m. S. W. of Port-au-Prince; pop. about 6,000. It is divided into the upper and lower town, the former being commonly called Belair ; the streets are very narrow in the lower town, and the houses in both are chiefly of wood. The harbor is commodious, and has good anchoring ground for vessels of any size, but is exposed to the S. winds and to a heavy sea setting in toward the shore. It is well frequented by shipping, mostly from the United States, and is a station for the West India mail steamers. The climate is hot and unhealthy. JACOB, the third and last of the Hebrew patriarchs, son of Isaac and Rebekah, and younger twin brother of Esau. Even in his mother's womb he and Esau struggled together, and he was called Jacob (Ydakob, heel-hold- er) because his hand took hold on his brother's heel at their birth. Esau was a hunter and the favorite of Isaac, but Rebekah loved the gentler Jacob. In his youth Jacob purchased his elder brother's birthright for some bread and pottage of lentiles, which he gave to Esau when he was famishing. At the instiga- tion of his mother he obtained by fraud from his blind father the blessing of the first born. Obliged to flee from his brother's wrath, he went at the command of his father to take a wife from the daughters of Laban, his mother's brother. On his way he saw in a dream the vision of a ladder reaching to heaven, which established him in the belief that he was the heir of the promise made to Abraham. He served seven years for the love of Laban's daughter Rachel, and was then disappointed by finding in his veiled bride her elder sister Leah. He served another seven years for Ra- chel, and six years longer for a herd, which he greatly increased by an artifice, and then de- parted with his wives, children, and possessions for the land of Canaan. On his way he met and was reconciled with Esau, immediately preceding which " there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. . . . And he said, Thy name shall