In the last post, we were introduced to the area of Oak Grove and to its predecessor, Barrow’s Ferry.  This might be a good place to lay out my supposition on the location of Almirante, the community across the river from Oak Grove, which was also an early settlement along the Yellow River and where the first post office for the area was located. I bring this up now because in the early days of Oak Grove some of the community institutions drew from surrounding areas and we don’t have a really good sense of where some of these folks actually lived. It was not uncommon to own property in a variety of locations while living in only one. And they often changed where they made their residence, either temporarily, as with the seasons, or permanently for whatever reason. For instance, we know that Oak Grove involved persons who lived much closer to what is today Highway 189 and the Blackman community. It also drew persons from Covington Co, AL (from as far north as the current location of Pleasant Home) and from the community called Almirante, Florida.

When the Spanish were in control of Florida the river we call Yellow River was called Del Rio Almirante, the “River of the Admiral”. It then had a brief history as Yellow Water River once the Americans took over and then transitioned to Yellow River. As many of us panhandle descendants know there was once a community called Almirante near what is today Laurel Hill and is often put forth as the early settlement of Laurel Hill, like Barrow’s Ferry is the early rendition of Oak Grove. I don’t think the community of Almirante was as far east as Laurel Hill. As we go through some of these records, especially the early Yellow River Baptist Church records we will see that many of the early families who were settled around what would become Laurel Hill attended and were members of the church. Coming from that far away for church service would have been possible but certainly an all-day event. Other than depending on traveling preachers in its early years, that might have been another reason for just having services at the church once a month!  As you can see on the map, just east of the river in the northern part of Walton County is the designation “Almirante P.O.”.  It would appear to be just across the river from Oak Grove, possibly near what would be the present day location of Magnolia Cemetery or maybe a bit more east toward Almarante Cemetery.

Thomas G. Bradford – 1838 Florida panhandle (a portion of the original map)

We left Barrow’s Ferry in the last post just prior to the 1830 census. A handful of “industrious” farmers had settled on the upper banks of the river and one, likely John Barrow, had built a ferry to cross the river. Now let’s look at the 1830 census and see if it tells us much about the folks that were on both sides of the boundary between Walton and Escambia County in 1830 and who would eventually be members of the Oak Grove community.

Barrow’s Ferry/Oak Grove was actually in Walton County in 1830 but we find the folks populating the area that would become the community of Oak Grove in both the Escambia County census and some in the Walton County census. The following are in the Escambia County census for 1830: Thomas Baggett, Edmund Baggett, Absalom Stokes, Reuben Hart, Jr., Norman Morrison, Powell Smith, Rachel Devereaux, Wright Gascon (Gaskin), Robert McKennon, Reuben Hart Sr, Eli Horne, Isaac Hart, Joab Horne, Reuben Barrow, David Gartman, John Hart, and Jesse Senterfitt. The 1830 Walton County census is a bit trickier to pull the names out of, but not impossible, to at least identify some of the early settlers for Oak Grove and vicinity. They are near the end of the census as follows: Stephen Centerfitt (Senterfitt), John Stegall, Thomas Snowden, Peter Campbell, John McArthur, Jeremiah Savell, Celestine Philabert, Richard J. Compton, Allen McKaskill (McCaskill), Elizabeth Barrow (widow of John Barrow), John Campbell, Margaret McKaskill (McCaskill), and Jesse Dubose. This is a rough cut of names so I may have missed a few but we have a good start on the community.  Let’s do a bit of consolidating and sorting on these folks.

Those starting in NC and migrating to FL (based on census and family histories):

1. Thomas and Edmund Baggett (father and son) – NC/GA/FL
   • No enslaved persons
2. Norman Morrison – NC/FL
   • No enslaved persons
3. Robert McKinnon – NC/SC/FL
   • 6 enslaved persons: 1 F 24<36, 1 F 10<24, 1 F <10, 3 M <10
4. Reuben Hart, Sr. – NC/GA/FL/AL
   • 6 enslaved persons: 1 F 24<36, 3 F 10<24, 1 M 10<24, 1 M <10
5. Joab Horne – NC/GA/FL
   • 11 enslaved persons: 1 F 55<100, 2 F 36<55, 1 F <10, 1 M 55<100, 1 M 36<55, 1 M 24<36, 3 M 10<24, 1 M <10
6. John Steagall – NC/GA/FL
   • No enslaved persons
7. Peter and John Campbell (brothers) – NC/FL
   • No enslaved persons
8. John McArthur – NC/FL/AL
   • No enslaved persons
9. Allen McCaskill – NC/FL
   • No enslaved persons
10. Margaret McCaskill – NC/FL
    • 6 enslaved persons: 1 F 55,100, 1 F 10<24, 1 F <10, 1 M 10<24, 2 M <10

Those starting in SC and migrating to FL (based on census and family histories):

1. Absalom Stokes – SC/FL/AL
   • No enslaved persons
2. Wright Gaskin – SC/GA/FL
   • No enslaved persons
3. David Gartman (son-in-law of Joab Horne) – SC/GA/FL
   • 4 enslaved persons: 1 F 24,36, 1 F <10, 1 M 10<24, 1 M <10
4. Jesse Senterfitt (Stephen’s brother, step-brother of John Barrow) – SC/GA/FL
   • No enslaved persons
5. Stephen Senterfitt (Jesse’s brother, step-brother of John Barrow) – SC/GA/FL
   • 1 enslaved person: 1 M <10
6. Thomas Snowden – SC/FL
   • 1 enslaved person: 1 M 10<24
7. Richard J. Compton – SC/FL/AL
   • 6 enslaved persons: 1 F 36<55, 1 M 55<100, 1 M 36<55, 1 M 10<24, 2 M <10
8. Jesse Dubose – SC/FL/AL
   • No enslaved persons

Remaining (Unknown, LA & GA) (based on census and family histories):

1. Reuben Hart, Jr. – GA/FL
   • No enslaved persons
2. Powell Smith – Unknown
   • No enslaved persons
3. Rachel Devereaux (likely Muskogee (family history ethnicity), Cherokee or mixed blood, listed as a free person of color) – GA/FL
   • No enslaved persons
4. Eli Horne (likely relative of Joab) – Unknown
   • 1 enslaved person: 1 F 36<55
5. Isaac Hart (son of Reuben, Sr.) – GA/FL/AL
   • No enslaved persons
6. Reuben (N) Barrow (son of John & Elizabeth Barrow) – GA/FL
   • No enslaved persons
7. John Hart (son of Reuben, Sr.) – GA/FL
   • No enslaved persons
8. Celestine Philabert – LA/FL
   • 1 enslaved person: 1 F <10
9. Elizabeth Barrow (widow of John Barrow) – GA/FL
   • 4 enslaved persons: 1 F 10<24, 1 F <10, 1 M 36<55, 1 M <10

These families may or may not have all be in Oak Grove “proper”. This list may include some folks who were slightly outside of the geographic area we defined in the previous post and either around what would become Blackman or were in Almirante. Census can be tricky to use in determining locations within a county but I believe it is a good look at the families who settled in and around Oak Grove based on my own genealogical research on a number of these families. Most of these families had a stopover in Georgia for some length of time. Reuben Hart, Sr. was supposed to have migrated from south-central Georgia with some other families, though he was born in NC. It would be interesting to determine how many of these could have been moving together. Families who moved together were often related somehow and could lead to brick walls falling for family historians/genealogists from the area.

It would seem safe to say the following about Oak Grove in its early years as Barrow’s Ferry: 1) It was settled by somewhere between 30 and 50 families initially (I heard as a child that it was settled by 50 families so we may still be missing some), 2) Nearly all of the families originated in the U.S. in North Carolina, South Carolina or Georgia, 3) A large number of these families lived in Georgia for some period of time before migrating to Florida, 4) A number of these families are known to be related and many more may be since they may have migrated together from Georgia, 5) Some percentage of these families are believed to be Scots-Irish or Scottish in heritage though many of the Scots-Irish that settled in Walton Co settled across the river and much further east.

In a final statistical look, let’s look at totals of persons by category:

White Males         91   41%
White Females       75   34%
Enslaved Males      28   13%
Enslaved Females    21    9%
FPC Males            3    1%
FPC Females          5    2%
                   223

Most of these persons, or their children, will appear in the next post when we will look at the petition to Congress of 1839 and the 1840 census for Walton Co, FL.

For Sale:

YELLOW RIVER BAPTIST CHURCH MEMBERSHIP RECORDS: 1840-1950