Jacksonville, the first county seat of Telfair County, was named for General Andrew Jackson. From 1807 to 1812, court met in various homes, and in 1812 a courthouse was erected on the site of the present Methodist Church. Jacksonville was an important point on the Blackshear Trail, which followed the Altamaha and Ocmulgee rivers from Darien to Fort Hawkins. Two miles away, a blockhouse, one of three in the county, was built by General David Blackshear as a refuge and a house of thanksgiving. The center of a large and wealthy plantation economy, Jacksonville was a landing for freight and passenger traffic on the river before and for some years after the War Between the States. In 1870, McRae became the county seat. Among Jacksonville's distinguished early settlers were General John Coffee, a soldier, pioneer surveyor, and member of Congress, and General Mark Willcox, an Indian fighter; each had a Georgia county named for him. Other pioneer residents included the McRae, Clements, Hatton, and Pridgen families.