Jerseyville, Illinois

Jerseyville is the county seat of Jersey County and home to 8,465 residents. Jerseyville was also a minor stopping point on the historic Underground Railroad before and during the Civil War. The “Little Red House” and a few other residences were utilized as stations for the Underground Railroad until the end of the Civil War, with some residences having false cellars that were used to hide slaves searching for freedom. In recent decades, Jerseyville has been a testing ground in the agricultural biotechnology field. Monsanto owns a facility located just south of the city, which in 1987, was the site of the world’s very first biotechnology field trial – first with tomatoes and later that year with soybeans.