Jackson township  was named after President Andrew Jackson. In its present limits it has existed as a township since 1850. Its first settlers were under the jurisdiction of Cool Spring township. The Zahnisers, who settled in the township in 1796, Peter Wilson,  the Revolutionary soldier, Thomas Hosack,  an officer in the war of 1812, founded families that were identified with all the subsequent history of the township or county. Using the waters of Mill Creek, Peter Wilson built a mill whose slow-turning wheel ground the grists of the early settlers. For the past thirty-five years a railroad has traversed the township, and since then the hills have produced abundant stores of coal and some of the most enterprising citizens of the township have been engaged in that industry.

Jackson Center has been a village since the forties [1840s], when a school, a church, a store, a tavern, a mill, and several other shops became the nucleus around which people lived town-wise. A postoffice was established in 1852, and was known by the name of Satterfield until 1876. Jackson Center was incorporated as a borough June 5, 1882.