In the mid 1800s, Madison County residents created a settlement about a quarter-mile east of this site from farm fields, prairie grass, broken forests, and the National Road, which here was little more than a scraped-earth track carrying people, produce, mail, and merchandise to and from growing Mississippi River markets. Known locally as the St. Louis Wagon Road, it brought customers from surrounding towns to the first businesses and helped a small group of shops grow into a community. Farmer Jacob Schutz built the town's first house on the National Road and sold whiskey by the gallon to travelers. In 1849, Jacob Schroth bought land from Schutz and opened a store, tavern, and hotel with a barn and wagonyard on the road, and the following year blacksmith Jacob Willi opened a shop in the settlement. The businesses established by Schutz, Schroth, and Willi started the settlement that grew into the village of St. Jacob. By 1870, the St. Louis, Vandalia and Terre Haute Railroad was carrying passengers between St. Louis, Missouri, and Terre Haute, Indiana, with stops in National Road communities including St. Jacob, and the village's business and residential growth shifted north from the National Road to the rail line.