Sea Scouts Ship 400
Jacksonville, Cherokee County, Texas
Marker Inscription
As a branch of the Boy Scouts of America, Sea Scouting promotes mental and physical fitness through maritime skills. In 1936, Jacksonville attorney John C. Box, Jr., organized a unit for local boys, sailing the Sea Scouts Ship 400. The Sea Scouts met in one of four buildings made of red ironstone by the works progress administration (WPA). One of the buildings was built in the shape of a hull and deck of a sailboat, fronted by a small amphitheater. This served as a classroom for nautical procedure, sail hoisting, signaling and knot tying. The ship 400 dissolved in 1951. In its 15 years of operation, the Sea Scouts provided a fun and educational opportunity during the depression, WWII and post-war Texas.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Sea Scouting, a branch of the Boy Scouts of America, taught boys seamanship and self-discipline, and in 1936 Jacksonville attorney John C. Box, Jr. organized a local unit that sailed under the name Sea Scouts Ship 400. The group met in one of four red-ironstone buildings raised by the Works Progress Administration — one shaped like the hull and deck of a sailboat, fronted by a small amphitheater — where members learned signaling, knot-tying, and nautical procedure. The ship stayed afloat for fifteen years, through the Depression and World War II, before disbanding in 1951.
Why it matters
It captures how Depression-era public works and youth programs together gave small-town American boys purpose and skills during hard and wartime years.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · John C. Box, Jr.
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Lon Morris College
Jacksonville, TX
Founded in Kilgore in 1875 by pioneer educator Dr. Isaac Alexander, this Methodist school became the oldest junior college in Texas. It moved to Jacksonville in 1894, operated as a junior college from 1912, and was renamed to honor Pittsburg banker R. A. "Lon" Morris in 1924. It was the first Texas junior college with a Phi Theta Kappa scholarship chapter and among the longest-standing members of the Southern Association of Colleges.
Jacksonville College
Jacksonville, TX
The East Texas Educational Society formed in 1899 to found a Baptist college offering academic and religious training, choosing Jacksonville for its three rail lines and good roads. The school opened that fall to 34 students in temporary quarters, soon moving into a building that was then the tallest in town, and enrollment reached 85 by the end of the first session. Emphasizing Greek, Latin, mathematics, and Christian studies, it passed to the Baptist Missionary Association in 1908 and grew steadily through the 20th century.
Newburn-Rawlinson House
Jacksonville, TX
The Rev. John Madison Newburn, who came to pastor Jacksonville's First Baptist Church in 1896, built this Victorian home with classical revival touches in 1903. Closely tied to Jacksonville College, the house served as a dormitory when campus housing ran short, and after a 1928 fire destroyed a small local hospital, Lula Newburn opened her home as a temporary hospital until a new one could be built. Owned by Newburn heirs, later a Rawlinson family home and a day care, it returned to Jacksonville College in 1994.
Jacksonville Independent School District
Jacksonville, TX
Jacksonville's settlers prized learning early, running a school by 1846 at the original townsite. After residents relocated near the railroad in 1872, they built the town's first public school the next year, and between 1905 and 1907 the city formed its own district with separate campuses for white and Black students. Those schools integrated in the late 1960s, and the district has since sent Olympic athletes, Grammy winners, and Tony nominees into the world.