History of early Jacksonville, Florida; being an authentic record of events from the earliest times to and including the civil war by Thomas Frederick Davis

Front matter

OFFICERS OF

JACKSONVILLE BOARD OF TRADE 1911

At the meeting of the Board of Governors of the Jacksonville Board of Trade held this date the generous offer of the compiler of this work, Mr. Thomas Frederick Davis, to turn over the publication of and revenue from this work to this organization was unanimously accepted and a vote of thanks was tendered to him for his patriotic labors in the interest of the City of Jacksonville in the gathering together of its most interesting history.

Contents

CHAPTER I— EARLY HISTORY OF THE LOWER ST. JOHNS: Discovery of the St. Johns by the French Huguenots — Erection of Fort Caroline — Capture of Fort Caroline by the Spanish and destruction of the French colony — Re-capture of Fort Caroline by the French and retribution of De Gourgues — Location of Fort Caroline — Fort San Nicholas — The St. Johns River. Pages 1 to 12

Chapter Ii— The Cow Ford

Indian name — The King's Road — English land grants — John H. Mcintosh — Spanish land grants — First settlement on site of Jacksonville — The Patriot war in Florida. Pages 13 to 20

CHAPTER III— PERMANENT SETTLEMENTS ON SITE OF JACKSONVILLE: Lewis Zachariah Hogans — The Taylor grant — Juan Maestre — East Jacksonville — Springfield — Riverside — Talleyrand. Pages 21 to 28

CHAPTER IV— THE FOUNDING OF JACKSON- VILLE: First hotel — John Brady — First store — Dawson & Buckles — Isaiah David Hart — Increasing travel — Jacksonville surveyed — Streets named — Lots sold — The founder of Jacksonville. Pages .... 29 to 38

CHAPTER V— ORGANIZATION OF LAW AND ORDER:

Courts established — First grand jury — First civil case — First lawyer — Public buildings erected — ■ First mills — Local conditions — Ferry across the St. Johns River — The early mail — Incorporation of Jacksonville and copy of charter — List of mayors — The Peninsular and Jacksonville Railroad — Newspaper started — Organization of Bank of Jacksonville — Great freeze of 1835 and complete list of severe freezes subsequently. Pages .... 39 to 62

CONTENTS

CHAPTER VI— THE SEMINOLE WAE PEEIOD: Opening of the Seminole war and conditions attending — The old block house — Attacks by the Indians — Attack on the Johns family — Panic of 1837 — Spectacular effort of Bank of Jacksonville to weather the panic — Osceola Nikkanoochee — Mulberry and silk worm culture — Dr. Abel Seymour Baldwin. Pages 63 to 78

CHAPTER VII— THE EARLY CHURCHES:

Founding and early history of the Methodist, Protestant Episcopal, Roman Catholic, Baptist, and Presbyterian churches at Jacksonville. Pages 79 to 91

CHAPTER VIII— IN THE FORTIES:

Population of Jacksonville and rate of increase — Early newspapers — Great storm of 1846 — Excitement in the quiet town — Local conditions during this period — First epidemic. Pages 92 to 96

CHAPTER IX— THE EARLY RIVER STEAMERS: History and romance of steam navigation on the St. Johns River — Jacksonville-Savannah steamers — Jacksonville-Charleston steamers — Jacksonville- New York steamers. Pages 97 to 103

CHAPTER X— JACKSONVILLE ABOUT 1850:

Describing the location of practically every house in the town with the names of those who occupied them (Much local history and tradition is given in this chapter). Pages 104 to 116

CHAPTER XI— 1850 to 1855:

Rapid growth of the town — Business — Curfew and crime — Relation between master and slave — Transportation — The plank road — Small-pox epidemic of 1853 — Local conditions of this period — Property valuation — Great fire of 1854 — Scarlet fever epidemic of 1854 — Real shot-gun quarantine — Rebuilding the town — The Judson Hotel — Hotel history — Trade and commerce. Pages ..... .117 to 138

CONTENTS

CHAPTER XII— 1855 to 1860:

Continued growth — Fire of 1856 — Jacksonville Light Infantry — Yellow fever epidemic of 1857 — General town improvement — Gas works — Telegraph — Florida, Atlantic and Gulf Central Railroad — Town bonded for $50,000 — Ceremonies attending completion of railroad — Aurora of 1859 — Conditions prevailing just prior to the civil war. Pages 139 to 149

CHAPTER XIII— LIFE IN JACKSONVILLE BE- FORE THE WAR: Character, pleasures, and pastimes of the people of Jacksonville ''in the happy days before the war.'' Pages 150 to 155

CHAPTER XIV— THE CIVIL WAR:

Organization of local troops — Fort Steele erected at mouth of the St. Johns — Troops depart for the front — News of the contemplated Federal occupation of Jacksonville received — Mayor's proclamation to the citizens — Flight of the residents — First Federal occupation — Proclamation of the ' ' loyal ' ' citizens of the United States — Skirmishes and first blood of the war near Jacksonville — Orders and reports of the Federal and the Confederate ofl&cers — The evacuation — Capture of the Confederate batteries on the St. Johns below Jacksonville — Second Federal occupation of Jacksonville — Federal gunboats go in search of river steamers — The evacuation — Third Federal occupation of Jacksonville — Town fortified against attack — Reports of Confederate and Federal ofiieers — Skirmishes — Lieutenant Buckman's railroad battery — Events during the occupation — The evacuation and burning of the town — Fourth Federal occupation of Jacksonville — Reasons therefor — Return of the Federal army after defeat at Olustee — Arrival of reinforcements — Confederate fortifications at McGirt's Creek — Skirmishing — Torpedoes placed in the river near Mandarin by '

CONTENTS

CHAPTER XIV— Continued

the Confederates, and destruction of three Federal transports at that point — Draughts made on Federal and Confederate armies near Jacksonville — Only small detachment of Confederate cavalry left in front of Jacksonville — Wonderful achievements of this remnant — Federal raiding parties- Evacuation of Camp Milton by the Confederates — Close of the war. Pages 156 to 192

CHAPTER XV— AFTER THE WAR:

Return of the old residents and conditions that confronted them — Military and civil city governments — Riot of the United States troops — Permanent withdrawal of the United States troops from Jacksonville. Pages 193 to 197

CHAPTER I.

THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE LOWER

ST. JOHNS/

Authentic history of the lower St. Johns River begins with May 1st, 1562, when Jean Ribault* and his French Huguenot colonists, sailing along the coast of Florida, came to the mouth of a large river, which they named the River May, in commemoration of the day on which the discovery was made. Crossing the bar in one of his smaller boats, Ribault landed on the northern side of the river and exchanged friendly greetings with the natives that had assembled to meet the strange white men; but after giving the Indians a few presents, he crossed the river and on a knoll near the shore he erected a stone column bearing the arms of France. The French then returned to their vessels outside the bar and sailed away to the north, eventually establishing the unfortunate colony of Charles Fort, on the coast of what is now South Carolina.

FORT CAROLINE.

About two years later, in 1564, Rene de

•^Some historians spell the name Bibaut.

Laudonniere, who was with Ribault on the former expedition, and who, with Eibault, had in the mean time gone back to France, returned to the Eiver May. With him came another colony of Huguenots, these people preferring the unknown dangers of the new country to the religious persecutions of the old world. Laudonniere landed and was directed to the monument left by Eibault, around which the Indians had placed wreaths in token of friendship, and baskets of fruit and grain as a peace-offering to the new-comers. The Frenchmen went up the river a short distance to observe the country, then boarded their vessels and coasted as far as Amelia Island; but they decided to return to the Eiver May and establish their colony on the southern bank, near a high bluff that they had previously examined. This was in June, 1564. The French at once began to fortify the place, by building a fort of logs and staves. It was in the form of a triangle and was of good size, since the colonists all lived within its walls. Soon after their arrival, a party of these Frenchmen sailed up the river twenty leagues, and it is safe to assume that these were the first white men to behold the site upon which Jacksonville now stands. There is a pleasing tradition that Ponce de Leon, in searching for the fabled ^'Fountain of Youth", camped for a while on the ground now occupied by South Jacksonville, but history does not record the incident with sufficient clearness to warrant its acceptance as fact.

The story of the colony at Fort Caroline is one filled with pathos and tragedy. In the beginning, the French enjoyed amicable relations with the Indians ; from the red men they drew largely for their subsistence, themselves neglecting to make provision for the emergencies that were bound to come. As a result of this inactivity, misfortunes began to multiply, and, naturally, discouragement then entered the ranks of the little band. A serious mutiny followed. Laudonniere, while he lay ill with fever, was seized and imprisoned on a vessel in the river, when the conspirators boarded two other vessels and set out upon a free-booting expedition along the coast. One of these vessels, after an eventful voyage, eventually returned to Fort Caroline, where four of the leaders met with summary punishment at the hands of Laudonniere, being hanged upon gibbets at the mouth of the river.

After a while, the Indians refused to share further of their stores, partly because their own stock of provisions was running low, and partly from the fact that nothing was given in exchange, the French by this time having exhausted their supply of exchangeable articles. The colonists were on the verge of famine. Laudonniere was persuaded to seize the great Indian Olata-Utina, chief of the country, and hold him as ransom for supplies. This scheme resulted disastrously to the French, inasmuch as little benefit was derived from it, while the enmity of their Indian allies and friends was incurred. Thoroughly disheartened, they decided at last to return to France. On August 4, 1565, Sir John Hawkins, returning from an expedition to the West Indies, unexpectedly appeared at the mouth of the River May. He visited Laudonniere, and seeing the plight of the Frenchmen, he supplied their immediate needs and sold them a vessel in which to make the voyage to France, taking in payment therefor a number of cannon from Fort Caroline. After the departure of the English, Laudonniere hurried his preparations for leaving Florida. When all was ready for the departure, Ribault, with seven vessels and more than 500 men, dropped anchor at the mouth of the river. Laudonniere was not aware that this expedition had been dispatched for his relief, and its arrival, near the end of August, 1565, caused him to change his plans.

CAPTUKE OF FORT CAROLINE BY THE SPANISH.

News of the French colony in Florida had already reached Spain. The Spanish king claimed the country by right of discovery, and this settlement at Fort Caroline incensed him to no small degree. Consequently, he fitted out an expedition and placed it in command of Pedro Menendez de Aviles, with instructions to drive the French from the shores of Florida. It was a peculiar coincidence that Menendez reached Florida in the vicinity of the present St. Augustine on the same day that Ribault 's relief expedition arrived at the mouth of the River May, each unaware of the presence of the other. Menendez was not long, however, in learning from the Indians that Fort Caroline was not far away, and immediately he sent his vessels to reconnoiter. Several of Ribault^s ships were at anchor outside the bar, but when the Frenchmen saw these strange vessels of war approaching, not knowing their intent, they slipped their cables and sailed away. And well for them that they did, as the Spaniards opened fire upon them and gave chase. After a pursuit lasting several hours, the chase was given up. A French ship followed the Spaniards at a distance, observed their landing, and then hastened to report the facts to Ribault. Ribault and Menendez made their plans simultaneously: the French sailed to attack the Spaniards, while the Spaniards marched to take Fort Caroline. Ribault 's fleet encountered a tropical hurricane and was wrecked on the coast between Matanzas and Mosquito Inlet; yet the same fateful storm contributed to the success of Menendez. On account of the tempest, the vigilance at Fort Caroline had been temporarily relaxed, and the Spanish forces experienced little difficulty in entering the fort and surprising the garrison, most of which was yet asleep. The assault was made about dawn, and after a feeble resistance the fort was captured.

Concerning the massacre at Fort Caroline many historians claim that there was an indiscriminate slaughter of the French, regardless of sex and age and only those persons who sought safety in flight, 60 in number, escaped the butchery of the Spaniards. Also, that Menendez caused his captives to be led out and hanged from the limbs of near-by trees. The garrison at Fort Caroline after the departure of Ribault consisted of 240 persons, mostly women and children.

The Spanish historians say that Menendez was not present at the fort when the massacre began, that he was in the rear collecting the stragglers of his force as they came up ; but hearing the clamor, he came running to the fort. When he perceived that his soldiers gave no quarter, he shouted in a loud voice, ^^At the peril of your lives neither kill nor wound any woman, cripple, or child under fifteen years of age ' \ by which it is claimed 70 persons were saved, the rest having already perished.

Likewise, there are two versions as to the correctness of the narrative regarding the hanging of the Huguenots. Some historians give it that Menendez erected on the spot a tablet bearing the inscription, "Not as Frenchmen, but as Lutherans''. Others disclaim this altogether, and the question probably never will be settled to the satisfaction of all.

Menendez took possession of Fort Caroline, changed its name to San Mateo, and garrisoned it with 300 soldiers. With his remaining force of about 50 men he returned to St. Augustine.

Laudonniere and 25 of his followers that managed to escape from Fort Caroline, waded the sawgrass marshes and after terrible hardships boarded two small vessels left by Eibault at the mouth of the Eiver May. They hastily set sail for France. A perilous voyage carried one of these ships to the coast of France, while the other, with Laudonniere aboard, landed at a port in Wales. Laudonniere returned to France and made a full report of the massacre at Fort Caroline; but the news was received with stolid indifference at the French court, the anti-Huguenot party being then in power. Very little is known about the other survivors ; most of them probably spent their lives among the Indians.

One Dominic de Gourgues, observing that this slaughter of his countrymen would likely go unavenged and believing that the honor of his country (France) demanded a retributive measure, took upon himself the responsibiltiy of equipping a private expedition against the Spaniards in Florida. In this enterprise he exhausted his own fortune and that of some of his friends; but at last he succeeded in procuring three vessels and 250 picked men. He sailed from France in August, 1567. After loitering and refitting in the West Indies, he sailed for Florida and arrived at Amelia Island in the spring of 1568. Menendez had erected two small forts at the mouth of the River May, now called the River San Mateo, after the capture of Fort Caroline, one on Batten Island and f^ one on the opposite side of the river. As De Gourgues sailed by these forts, their garrisons saluted him with their guns, supposing his vessels to be Spanish ; the Frenchmen returned the salute to confirm the error. iVfter enlisting the services of a large number of Indians, who, it appears, had turned against the Spaniards, De Gourgues and his allies crossed to Fort George Island at low tide, waded the intervening marsh, and fell upon the fort at Batten Island at day-break. When within 200 yards of the post they were discovered by the sentinel, who fired his culverin twice before he was killed. The garrison rushed out pell-mell, endeavoring to escape, but all perished on the spot, except fifteen ; these were taken prisoners and reserved for another purpose. De Gourgues had ordered one of his vessels to come up the river at the proper time, to convey his men across. In this way he crossed over, his Indian allies swimming alongside in great numbers.

The garrison in the fort on the south side of the river made no attempt at resistance and fled ingloriously toward Fort San Mateo. Few of them made their escape, nearly all being slain by the Indians. De Gourgues marched as rapidly as possible toward Fort San Mateo, capturing on the way a reconnoitering party of 60 Spaniards. He deployed his force skillfully so that every avenue of escape was closed, and most of the garrison fell into the hands of the Indians and perished. The prisoners that had been captured were led out.

De Gourgues lectured them, reciting the circumstances under which his countrymen had been slain. They were then hanged as ''Traitors, thieves, and murderers''.

Having now avenged what he believed to be the wanton slaughter of his countrymen, De Gourgues embarked for France early in May, 1568. Menendez had gone to Spain and was there while these events were taking place in Florida, but he set sail for St. Augustine about the time De Gourgues sailed for France ; somewhere on the broad Atlantic they passed each other, one sailing westward and the other sailing eastward. When Menendez arrived at St. Augustine and learned what had transpired during his absence his fury can be conjectured. De Gourgues landed on the coast of France in June. He immediately reported the success of his expedition, but he, too, was received coldly at the French court; in fact, it became necessary for him to seek safety in concealment. Later, however, he was appointed admiral in the French navy.

LOCATION OF FORT CAROLINE.

All traces of old Fort Caroline have long since disappeared, but its location seems certainly to have been at St. Johns bluff, on the south side of the river a few miles below Jacksonville. Its location was described precisely by Laudonniere and others of his time; and Buckingham Smithy who did a great deal toward clearing up the misty early history of the Spaniards in Florida, after a careful study of the original archives in Spain, came to the conclusion that the fort was at St. Johns bluff. It was not on top of the bluff, but at its base, near the water 's edge — a curious selection of a site for a fortification. In 1856, a handful of old Spanish coins cast prior to the year 1555, was found near the supposed site of Fort Caroline.

SUBSEQUENT EVENTS.

The Spaniards repaired and again garrisoned the forts on the St. Johns after the terrible retribution of De Gourgues, and although mutiny, desertion, pestilence, and famine followed one another at recurring intervals, these forts were maintained many years. Other posts were established also, among them one called San Nicholas (St. Nicholas), located near the present site of South Jacksonville. A long period elapsed, however, before history again takes up the record of events having a direct bearing upon this vicinity ; yet during this period there were numerous forays toward or from St. Augustine and the Colonies, and there are good grounds for the belief that many war parties camped upon a high bluff that stood at the foot of the present Liberty, Washington, and Catherine Streets, before crossing the river for a dash upon St. Augustine, or, returning tarried here for rest, preparatory for the long march northward.

In 1763, this bluff was described as being very imposing, and timbered with live oak, palms, and wild orange ; back from the river a short distance stood a small Indian village. At the foot of Liberty street there was a bold spring of clear, good water'.

FORT ST. NICHOLAS.

The location of Fort St. Nicholas was about a mile east of the present South Jacksonville ferry, back from the river 250 or 300 yards. Around the fort was a moat, or excavation, 100 feet square, and surrounding this was a cantonment or settlement, together with offices, quarters, and barracks for the men. Mr. Hudnall acquired the land upon which the fort stood, even while a part of the old fort was still in existence, and he leveled the timbers for use on his farm. He built his house directly on the east side of the moat, and while excavating found many Spanish coins*.

Toward the end of the Spanish rule, Fort St. Nicholas was maintained principally as a post to prevent smuggling.

THE ST. JOHNS RIVER.

The Indian name for the St. Johns Eiver was ^'Illaka", corrupted into "Welaka'' by the whites. Buckingham Smith asked an intelligent Indian what ''Illaka'' signified, and the reply was, ''Distinct, unusual, different from any other", meaning, as nearly as could be interpreted, that the river ran north'. The French called it the Riviere de Mai, or the River May. By the Spaniards it was first named San Mateo, in honor of the patron Saint Matthew, near whose day the capture of Fort Caroline took place; but later they changed it to the River San Juan, and from this name we derive the English St. Johns. John Bartram in his ''Travels'' speaks of it as the River St. Juan.

BIBLIOGEAPHY, CHAPTEE I.

1 History and Antiquities of St. Augustine; and History of

Florida, George E. Fairbanks.

2 Historical Sketch by J. M. Hawks in Jacksonville City

Directory, 1870.

3 Florida and the South, Brinton.

4 Columbus Drew, in Florida Times-Union, Trade Edition,

January, 1890.

CHAPTER II.

THE COW FOED.

The locality of Jacksonville was first known as the place where the Indians forded their cattle across the river, and was called by them ^^Wacca Pilatka^', signifying the place where cows crossed or could swim over'. An Indian trail ran from this place westward across the sand hills to the Suwanee Eiver, thence to Alapaha, Aucilla, Micasuki, and Tallahassee, towns of the Apalachees. The Spaniards called the ford at the St. Johns the ^'Pass of San Nicholas '', but it was known to all English-speaking people as the ^ ' Cow Ford. '''

THE king's road.

The path made by the Indians' cattle and by the pack-ponies of the traders in the course of time grew into a trail, then into a beaten track as travel increased, and culminated finally in the King's Road, made during the English occupation of Florida, about 1765. The route of this road was from the St. Marys River, opposite Colerain, Ga., to the Cow Ford, thence to St. Augustine and New Smyrna'. It met the St. Johns River at the foot of what is now Liberty Street, and began again on the other side directly opposite. Nearly all travel between St. Augustine and the Colonies passed over this highway, and therefore through the site of Jacksonville.

ENGLISH LAND GRANTS.

Soon after Spain ceded Florida to Great Britain, 1763, the Marquis of Hastings obtained a grant of 20,000 acres covering most of the land between Maxton's (now McGirt's) Creek and Trout Creek, embracing the present site of Jacksonville. About the same time the Marquis of Waterford obtained a grant, also of 20,000 acres, on the opposite side of the St. Johns, beginning at Pottsburg Creek'.

Upon the recession of Florida to Spain, all the British grants reverted to the Spanish crown, but the British subjects that left the country were remunerated for their land'. To obtain grants from the Spanish government now the practice was for the applicant to set forth his desires in a memorial to the governor of the province, asking for lands corresponding to the number of his family and his slaves, the location desired being described in the memorial. To these applications the usual reply of the governor was, '^Let the lands asked for be granted, without injury to a third person ". The fine estates left by the English on the St. Johns remained unoccupied for some time and became a prey to rapid decline', but the ease with which grants could now be obtained induced many new settlers to come to the St. Johns country.

In the spring of 1774, John Bartram, the botanist, visited the Cow Ford', and he mentions the existence of a public ferry here even at that early date. He bought a sailboat at an indigo plantation near the ferry, but he does not say from whom, nor on which side of the river the plantation was situated. There was a severe frost (freeze) in northern Florida during that winter, with snowfall, which the natives long afterward spoke of as ^^the extraordinary white rain''.

JOHN H. MCINTOSH.

About the year 1790, one John H. Mcintosh moved from Georgia into Florida and occupied lands on the north side of the St. Johns Eiver near the Cow Ford. Here he was appointed to some office by the Spanish governor. Mcintosh was a turbulent man, of a restless and reckless disposition, and in some way he aroused the suspicion of the Spaniards, with the result that he was arrested for intrigue in 1794 and sent to Havana, where he was confined in Morro Castle for a year.' There, perhaps, he worked out the plans that afterward made him a conspicuous figure in the country about the lower St. Johns.

After his release from prison, Mcintosh returned to Florida with a band of adventurers, and attacked and destroyed the Spanish post at the Cow Ford (St. Nicholas), together with the '^ Boats of the Eoyal Domain" on the river. How near an international affair this came is not recorded ; but he and the Spaniards seem to have made an amicable settlement, since some years later he was granted lands in the vicinity of the Cow Ford, where he became engaged in executing large contracts for the exportation of lumber, and incidentally lived like a lord. In the Jacksonville Sun and Press of August 11, 1877, there was a signed article written by Eev. J. N. Glenn, who was sent to St. Augustine in 1823, as a Methodist missionary. He says: ''General Mcintosh told me once that he had two boat loads of sea-island cotton he had raised up the St. Johns River, which he wished to pass the Spanish post at the Cow Ford, without paying the Spanish duties. Accordingly, he approached the officer in command of the post on the subject. Just then the boats hove in sight, coming down the river. The commander put up his spy-glass and remarked, 'There is too much cotton to let it pass\ The General then handed him a doubloon. He put the coin to one eye and the spy- glass to the other, and said, 'Too much yet.' The General gave him another doubloon. He then put a doubloon to each eye and said, 'I see no cotton now' ".

This is the same Mcintosh who afterward was one of the originators and the prime mover in the "Patriot" war in Florida. That his connection with this disturbance was the outgrowth of entanglements with Spanish laws in the execution of his lumber contracts, supplemented by a desire for further revenge for his imprisonment at

Havana, is a plausible surmise never presented before.

SPANISH LAND GRANTS.

Under date of January 3, 1791, Eobert Pritchard obtained a grant from Governor Queseda, for 450 acres of land on the north side of the St. Johns, opposite Fort St. Nicholas. A regular survey was made, and Pritchard took possession immediately, erected buidings, and planted crops. He died a few years later, but his heirs, through their authorized agents, continued to cultivate the tract, until driven away by the troubles about 1812 (Patriot revolution) . One of these agents was John Joseph Lain, who cultivated and lived on the land later granted to Mrs. Purnal Taylor, and afterward included in the plat of Jacksonville'. THIS WAS THE FIEST SETTLEMENT ON THE SITE OF JACKSONVILLE, OF WHICH THERE IS AUTHENTIC RECORD.

William Jones, on February 14, 1793, was granted 216 acres across the river near the present location of South Jacksonville, in fact, a part of that town stands on a portion of this tract. Jones was later accused of being a rebel against His Catholic Majesty, thereby forfeiting his rights to the premises. This tract was re-granted to William Hendricks, May 18, 1797'.

In February, 1804, Isaac Hendricks received a concession embracing a triangular tract of 350 acres, described in 1823 as being bounded south by McCoy Creek, east by lands granted to Hogans (the Taylor grant), and northwest by public lands. Hendricks built houses and cultivated this tract, and on September 28, 1816, he received title of absolute property to the same from Governor Coppinger. It seems that one John Jones, perhaps a kinsman of William Jones, claimed title to this tract, but his claim was set aside by the commission appointed by the United States Congress to examine titles in connection with Spanish grants in Florida'.

That there was quite a number of bona fide settlers near the Cow Ford prior to the year 1800 is certain, regardless of the fact that this locality was then the stamping ground of criminals from the Colonies, slave catchers, ruffians, and banditti of every description, resulting in a state of unbounded rowdyism that continued more or less until the end of the "Patriot" rebellion, and in a modified form for many years afterward.