Photograph: Florida Memory Photo Project, Florida State Archives, Tallahassee, Circa 1880s home of Dr. James Middleton Jackson, Sally Shands, and Mary Glenn (Shands), his wife.

By Toni C. Collins, President, Levy County Historical Society, Inc. 

            The Town of Bronson, partnering with the Levy County Historical Society, has submitted an application to the Florida Division of Historic Preservation for an historic marker to recognize the historic home of Dr. James Middleton Jackson and his wife, Mary Glenn (Shands) Jackson. The circa 1880s structure currently serves as the Town Hall of the Town of Bronson.

            The families of Dr. Jackson and his wife migrated to Florida from Chester County, South Carolina about 1846 and settled in Hamilton County, Florida. Jackson graduated from the Medical College of New Orleans, later Tulane University, and the couple married in 1858. In 1863, Jackson enlisted in the Levy County Confederate Company of Captain E.J. Lutterloh to serve as their surgeon.

            Dr. Jackson cared for the people of Levy County for more than 50-years, not only as their physician and healer, but also as a member of the Levy County School Board and the County Commission. Mary came from a family who worked long and hard to bring health care to North Central Florida.

            James and Mary’s son and only child, James Jr., was born in 1866. He followed in his father’s footsteps and graduated from Bellevue Hospital Medical College in New York. In 1896, James Jr. set up his medical practice in Miami, Florida, and for many years served as the city’s physician. Upon his death in 1924, the Miami City Hospital was renamed the Jackson Memorial Hospital in his honor.

            The Jackson home was originally located where the Drummond Community bank is located today and was moved to its present site on March 15, 1998.

            The Historical Society members are currently conducting the research on the family of William R. Coulter who donated the land for the Levy County Courthouse, the Bronson Methodist Church, the Bronson High School, and the cemetery at the rear of the Courthouse. The cemetery was named the Coulter Cemetery by the Bronson Town Council and an historic marker also is planned for that site. The small cemetery is the final resting place of a number of prominent Levy County citizens.

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Town of Bronson, Florida, Posted April 25, 2020