How Jacksonville Was Founded: From the Cow Ford Crossing to the 1822 Survey

City records give both years: the Council marks June 15, 1822, while the City's FY2024 financial report says Jacksonville was founded in 1832 (Council Resolution 2007-707-A; FY2024 ACFR).

Resolution 2007-707-A commemorates the town's founding by Isaiah D. Hart on that June day. The state marker titled The Beginning says the original survey of Jacksonville started in June 1822 from a bay tree at the foot of Market Street (Florida Division of Historical Resources). Resolution 2007-707-A, adopted June 12, 2007, credits the Jacksonville Historical Society, area historians and Hart's descendants with keeping the June 15 date, and the Council marked the 185th anniversary on Friday, June 15, 2007 (Council resolution).

The 1832 date appears in the economic section of the City's annual comprehensive financial report for fiscal 2024, in the sentence that also records consolidation with Duval County in 1968 (FY2024 ACFR). The report does not say what happened in 1832, and the Council resolution does not mention that year; neither document explains the other's date.

The port authority offers a third marker of 1822: JAXPORT's timeline says residents around the Cowford petitioned that year for port of entry status and took the name Jacksonville (JAXPORT).

Last verified: October 18, 2026, against four Duval County state marker texts, City Council Resolution 2007-707-A, the City's FY2024 annual financial report and JAXPORT's port timeline.

The Cow Ford was a narrow St. Johns River crossing near a clear freshwater spring, used by Indians and early travelers (state marker, Site of Cow Ford).

Its Indian name Wacca Pilatka, meaning Cow's Crossing, was shortened by the English to Cow Ford, according to the Jacksonville marker. The English turned an old Timucuan trail into King's Road and used the Cow Ford to carry it over the river, the Jacksonville marker says (state marker). The City Council resolution dates King's Road to the mid 1760s, describes it as the only road through the area's woods and marshes, and says its path ran through land that is now the site of City Hall, directly through the Council Chamber (Council resolution).

Isaiah Hart, the resolution says, watched the number of travelers on King's Road at the Cowford crossing and believed a town there would prosper (Council resolution). Jacksonville was known as Cow Ford for many years, according to the state marker, which stands on Bay Street on the courthouse grounds (state marker).

The state marker for Dr. James Hall names Robert Pritchard as the first settler of Cow Ford, arriving in 1783 and dying in 1803, and says Hall himself settled near Cow Ford in 1790, when Florida was Spanish territory (state marker, Dr. James Hall).

Hall, the marker says, was the first known American physician to keep up a medical practice in Florida, was banished from East Florida by the Spanish in 1810, and returned in 1822 to what had become Jacksonville after Spain ceded Florida to the United States on February 22, 1819 (state marker). He later testified at Spanish land grant hearings and died on December 25, 1837.

Isaiah D. Hart arrived at the Cowford on the north bank of the St. Johns in 1821, months before Florida officially became a United States territory, according to the Jacksonville City Council resolution (Council resolution). With what is believed to be $72 in cattle, he bought 18 acres on the north bank from Lewis Zachariah Hogans, built a log cabin and became one of about 15 settlers there with his wife and two young sons. He then proposed to neighbor John Brady, another major landowner near the crossing, that they give their own land to lay out the streets of a town.

Jacksonville's first streets were surveyed in June 1822 from a bay tree at the foot of Market Street, and the original plat held 20 squares bounded by Ocean, Duval, Catherine and Bay streets (state marker, The Beginning).

The bay tree was a property line. The City Council resolution says Hart and Brady agreed on it, at the river just west of the Cowford crossing, as the dividing point between their lands (Council resolution). Market Street was laid out first and Bay Street next, fixing the founding location at the southwest corner of Market and Bay. The state marker adds that one of the first lots sold for $12, in the center of the present courthouse block (state marker).

The Council resolution says many of the Jacksonville street names reflected the patriotism of the founding citizens, and that General Andrew Jackson was honored as the town's namesake at its founding on June 15, 1822 (Council resolution). Hart's role in the town's public spaces continued: the City of Jacksonville says the square now called James Weldon Johnson Park was set aside in 1857 by Isaiah Hart, whom it calls the founder of Jacksonville (City of Jacksonville).

Duval County was established on August 12, 1822, the same year as the Jacksonville survey, and was named for William Pope Duval, Florida's first civil governor (state marker, Duval County's First Court).

The county held its first court on December 1, 1823, when some 200 settlers gathered at the corner of Market and Forsyth streets in Jacksonville to watch Judge Joseph Lee Smith preside, according to the marker on East Forsyth Street (state marker). Construction of the first Duval County courthouse began two years later at the northeast corner of the same intersection.

JAXPORT's timeline picks up the next chapter of Jacksonville growth: it says that by the time Florida became a state in 1845, Jacksonville was an important port for the timber and cotton trades (JAXPORT). The City's FY2024 financial report records that Jacksonville consolidated with Duval County in 1968 (FY2024 ACFR).

Three state markers in Jacksonville mark the founding sites: Site of Cow Ford on Bay Street at the courthouse grounds, The Beginning at Bay and Market streets, and Duval County's First Court on East Forsyth Street (Florida Division of Historical Resources).

The Beginning and Duval County's First Court list their sponsors as the Jacksonville Historical Society, the Florida Historical Society and the Florida Board of Parks and Historic Memorials (state markers). The Beginning gives its location as the intersection of Bay and Market streets at City Hall, and the Cow Ford marker gives Bay Street on the grounds of the courthouse, so both founding markers sit along Bay Street (state markers).

The original street names are still part of Jacksonville addresses. The Council resolution lists Forsyth, Monroe, Adams, Duval and Newnan among the first names (Council resolution), and other Duval County markers give their locations on East Forsyth Street, Monroe Street and Duval Street (state markers). The city's first and oldest park, now James Weldon Johnson Park, has survived disasters and hosted several presidents, the City says (City of Jacksonville).