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Learn From the Past; Prepare for the Future

Picking Beans in Escambia Farms

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how our Florida panhandle ancestors produced their food, preserved it for the long winter and protected it from bad weather. While there is much about our current way of life that has its benefits, our fragility in the face of bad weather events is clearly laid out in front of us. These events should give us pause to ask ourselves if we should rebuild in the same way, live the same lifestyle and skate on the edge of the next disaster or maybe re-think what it means to be a 21st century resident in a country where fragility leaves us one step away from a life-threatening event. Hang with me here. This blog will be a combination of the past and the future and will hopefully give you some things to ponder.

While as a nation we seem to be more interested in dancing on the head of the pin when discussing climate change and how much humans are contributing to it, most of us can come through the current storms and acknowledge that they sure seem to be more intense, more frequent and more weird than when we were kids. If that is the case, what we have witnessed with Harvey, Irma, Marie (3 category 4/5 storms hitting U.S. land in one hurricane season) and now Nate is likely to repeat sometime in the future. Let’s ask ourselves what our ancestors, say 150-100 years ago would have done if this would have happened to them. How would they have been prepared and how would they have recovered? Would their vulnerabilities have been the same? What can that tell us about our own preparation for the next really nasty hurricane season.

This nation was built around family or yeoman farmers. Thomas Jefferson waxed eloquent on America becoming a nation of small farmers and the Florida panhandle was certainly that at the turn of the 20th century. These families owned, or had access to, acreage that they farmed with one or more cash crops and they had a “kitchen” garden and field crops that would feed the family through the year. In addition, they sometimes had a milk cow and in the south pigs were raised for meat. Chickens were also raised for meat and eggs. Fruit and nut trees were a long term investment in both food and a potential cash crop. If there was room, the family might have an acre or two in cane for molasses, again for both personal use and as a cash crop. In addition to cane syrup, having honey bees was a means of producing a sweetener that naturally had a long shelf life and added pleasure to a meal.  This production fed the family, provided some cash for things like taxes and the items needed that were not produced, and for exchange items with neighbors.

In 1885, the State of Florida agreed to conduct an agricultural census along with a state population census. The agricultural census on our ancestors is often overlooked because we tend to think of censuses as just population information. For the State of Florida, 1885 was a good year to do an agricultural census. There had been some recovery from the Civil War and Reconstruction but the severe price recession that occurred from 1882-1885 and the Panic of 1884 had impacted many family farmers. Whether we view the records for individuals, or for whole communities, it tells us how our ancestors conceived of their place in the economy and their responsibility in providing for their families both with food grown and with cash crops that generated money to purchase items.

I’ve been analyzing the 1885 agricultural census for the northeast corner in what is now Okaloosa County, for an upcoming book I’m writing on the community of Oak Grove. The total number of farmers was 122, with 102 of them owning their farms and the remainder being tenant farmers. There were 116 White and 6 Black farmers. Two of the white farmers were women. One page had all of the data but no names attached to each farm. The acreage owned ranged from a total of 8 acres owned by George HASKILL to 850 acres owned by Arch LINDSAY. The tilled acreage for nearly all of the farms, regardless of how much acreage was owned, was between 10 and 30 acres. Farms, including buildings, fences and land were valued from $50 to $1000 ($1260 to $25,200 today). Livestock valuation for the entire population of farmers was $32,228 in 1885 dollars while the total for the farm buildings and houses was only $20,910.

61% of the farmers had milk cows. Most of the farmers plowed with oxen but some used horses. About 60% raised pigs and 79% raised chickens. All but 11 raised Indian corn, which was ground into corn meal and grits. Oats and rice were also grown in the area but at a much smaller production. About half grew cow peas (most likely black-eyes).  About a third of the farmers raised cane for molasses and 17 had honey bees. 92 grew sweet potatoes (how many have had a meal of sweet potatoes, black-eyed peas with a bit of fatback and cornbread?) and peach trees were THE fruit of choice for this area of the Florida panhandle. Sixteen of these farmers raised cash crops for the local market.

The agricultural census didn’t ask about kitchen garden production because that was strictly for home consumption but I am told that the kitchen garden of the 1930s usually had tomatoes, onions, peppers, cabbage, turnips, collards, mustard, and beans. At harvest time items were individually canned or were combined as relishes and then preserved. Peas and beans would have been canned or dried in 1885 and frozen as electricity in the area became more abundant after WWII. Sweet potatoes, onions, cabbage, and turnip roots were wintered over as roots and corn would have been kept as a whole grain until needed and then taken to the grist mill for grinding.  Unfortunately, local grist mills for grinding grain quickly gave way to buying already milled grains at the local general store.  Food was at hand, little was needed from a store but most communities, even in rural areas had a small general store that carried basic goods and cloth.  And although the garden could be destroyed by the storm or fire or flood, chances would be that all wouldn’t be and your neighbor’s or family nearby might have less damage.  There was no FEMA and little to no help from outside your local community.  Neighbors helped neighbors.

allenstore
My Great-Grandfather’s General Store in Oak Grove, Okaloosa Co, FL

Most of us these days think that sounds like way too much hard work just to eat, especially when ready meals can be bought at the grocery store or the fast food restaurant. But if you are facing an emergency, which would you rather do: 1) drive to the grocery store and battle everyone else trying to “stock up”, or 2) go out the back door, harvest what might be ready in the garden and get out some of your prepared foods. The advantage we have today is we do have forewarning about storms. Intensity, path and speed is all pretty accurate and well in advance and yet many don’t seem to know how to be prepared without making themselves crazy beforehand (what is this thing about bottled water lines before storms?!) or dependent on outside help for basics afterwards. I think sometimes the gift of readily available stuff actually makes us more prone to fragility in the face of nature’s impacts.  And coupled with two or three generations that aren’t sure what the kitchen is for other than warming up a meal in the microwave and we are seriously vulnerable!

Now please, don’t misunderstand me. Regardless of how much we work at trying to be less fragile, some of us will always be in the wrong place at the wrong time. That is the nature of living on planet earth. But I do think we could, as individuals, make an effort to decrease our susceptibility to disasters (including structurally but that’s another post at another time) and economic downturns and thereby be less of a drain on community and national resources in the aftermath. While we may not be impacted by a storm, our food supply might be.  California, where fires have ravaged the countryside, and Florida, where Irma cut a path, are both significant food production centers. We will see those impacts next year. Disruption in gasoline distribution from Harvey in Houston impacts the cost and the ability to move food products from coast to coast. Flooding in the Midwest in the Fall can impact the harvesting of grains, which impacts both bread and meat prices. Whether we like it or not, we are part of an intricate and fragile web that will be impacted by storms of stronger intensity and increased frequency.

Migrant fruit pickers - Winter Haven
Family of Migrant Fruit Pickers from Tennessee – Winter Haven, Florida – 1937

The Great Depression in the 1930s put millions of people out of work. Hunger was prevalent and people picked up and moved to try and find work (many into Florida from other Southern states), or a better piece of land to farm, so the family could keep body and soul together (see The Great Depression: The Experiences of Samuel and Nealie Bell Nichols Marsh). That was slightly less than a century ago and at the time farmers were 21% of the population. There was 6,295,000 farms in 1930 and approximately 2,200,000 in 2010. That means unless you have some means of growing a few vegetables and you have some extra of the items you don’t grow, you are susceptible to disruption in your food supply after any number of disasters that might strike, especially if they come in multiples. Our food system is more concentrated and in the path of potential natural disasters.  Think about how lucky Houston and Florida were. If Harvey had made land fall at Galveston or the Houston Ship Channel as a cat 5 and then crept up over Houston and sat, how much of the grid would be down along with the massive flood damage? What if Irma had not brushed Cuba’s mountain area for a little over a day and made land fall at Miami before ripping north maintaining its strength through much of the peninsular? And then add the cat 4/5 land fall in Puerto Rico. How much worse would be all of the responses to the storms’ impacts?  And these are immediate impacts, not the ones we will feel over the next few years in our grocery bills and our national debt.

Our challenge today is not to go back and live as our ancestors did but to learn how they lived and survived and how we might apply that with the increased knowledge and technology we have today to make ourselves less vulnerable; physically, mentally and emotionally. Because we are vulnerable and the systems that surround us are much more fragile than we want to admit. Recently, Brock Long, the new FEMA director did a talk about the need for all Americans to develop “a true culture of preparedness”. I couldn’t agree more. And I’m not talking about wearing camo, hauling your rifle around with you and eating nothing but MREs. This is not a reality TV show about survival where you obsess on one possible scenario; it is about creating a lifestyle that is balanced, thoughtful, prepared and acknowledging of the gifts we have all been given. A bit more like our ancestors lived.  It is a part of your daily routine of preparedness and then you get on with enjoying the beauty and grace we have all been given between the storms.

Until Next Time.

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Questions of Honor and Courage: Individual Decisions During the Civil War

Many of us with ancestors in the Florida panhandle know there was a Union regiment of Southern men that served during the Civil War at Ft. Barrancas. Many of us have ancestors who served with that regiment and we have family stories or reasons that they served that we hold to be true. But most of us don’t know for sure why they made the decision to serve the Union and not the Confederacy. I have one of those ancestors, James M. Gaskins, and in trying to understand how he, and many of his neighbors, made that decision, I came to write my book on the 1st Florida Union Cavalry. In this blog I want to explore the issue of desertion during the Civil War.

After more than a century, it has become difficult to sort out the Unionist versus deserter versus draft dodger categories of descent from the Confederacy. Unless you are lucky enough to have letters from your ancestor in which they explained in detail their reasoning, we have to go on family stories, organizing the data that is available or guesses. Sometimes grappling with an ancestor who appears to be a Confederate deserter, who then joined the Union, is difficult and I have heard some interesting stories to explain the ancestor who joined the Union at Pensacola. One of my favorites was that he was promised by the Federals that he wouldn’t have to fight. Having served in the Army, I’m pretty sure that didn’t happen! Let’s start by setting some definitions that fit with the situation at the time.

A Unionist would be a person who was supportive of the United States and did not agree with the southern states seceding from the Union. That might have been based on opposition to slavery but more likely in the panhandle it was based on other factors such as concern over the impact on personal finances or business interests or a belief that there was still room for negotiating and being in the U.S. would be better than being separate.  There are a number of areas throughout the South where it is known that Unionist sentiments were high: 1) western VA, which seceded from VA and became W VA, 2) the mountains of NC, 3) northwestern AL, and 4) the eastern half of TN. In addition, there were smaller pockets in other southern states. In the Alabama Secession Convention representatives from northwestern AL pushed hard to remain in the Union (they too fielded a Union regiment of local men who fought in the northern AL and MS area). The Florida Secession Convention did have both Unionist and Cooperationists in attendance but in the end had only seven representatives vote against secession. Two of those were from Walton County.

During the war, the official definition for a deserter was someone who left their unit without authority and did not plan to return. As can be seen in compiled service records, many men would leave or overstay an authorized leave and then return on their own. They were trying to juggle family and military service, or deal with the demons within themselves that made facing another battle difficult. We need to remember that until the Civil War, civilian men were not used to prolonged military service. Militia requirements were generally three months between planting and harvest, or after harvest and before winter. A dodger was someone who made every effort to avoid being drafted after April 1862. This could be motivated by Unionist sentiments or concern for family or disinterest in military life. They often took to the woods, and coupled with deserters, became an additional problem in some parts of the South, including the Florida panhandle.

The Florida panhandle and South Alabama were both predominately yeoman farmers. The industrial exceptions (higher percentage of industrial capacity) to that was Santa Rosa County, FL and Baldwin County, AL and the plantation exceptions  (higher percentage of large plantations) were Henry County, AL and the eastern panhandle counties of Jackson, Calhoun and Gadsden. Both the Florida panhandle and South Alabama had slightly less a percentage of enslaved persons than their respective states. And if you excluded the plantation system counties listed above, the percentage was even smaller. In other words, many in this area were not heavily entangled in the Southern slave economy from a financial standpoint and may have resented the advantage that large plantations had in marketing cash crops.

The war saw the beginning of a military draft for both sides. Initial enlistments were for 12 months but that proved insufficient.  By April of 1862, the Confederacy initiated an unpopular draft. It required all white men between 18 and 35 to be drafted for a period of 3 years. It also extended the terms of the 12 month enlistees to 3 years. By September of 1862, the draft was extended to white men between 18 and 45 and by February of 1864 the age range was extended again to men between 17 and 50. The law also exempted a number of occupations: railroad and river workers, civil officials, telegraph operators, miners, druggists and teachers. In October of 1862, the law was amended to exempt anyone who owned 20 or more slaves and if a wealthy man was drafted he could hire a substitute. These last amendments were rescinded in December 1863 but the damage was done.  What had begun as an unpopular act because it limited or decreased individual freedom gave the appearance of the war being fought on the backs of men who had the least to gain from it.

Unlike the more wealthy, many men in the Florida panhandle did not have enslaved persons to do the work on the farm. Taking away the only adult male left the farming to women and children. This during the days of oxen and plow meant that many would not be able to sustain their farms, which was not only their livelihoods but where the majority of their food came from. The Confederate states made promises that these women and children would not go hungry, and some did try, but the general disruption of farms (produce stolen by opposing sides, conflict and inability to plant and harvest) and the poor rail transportation in the South meant that these families quickly were writing letters to soldiers and government officials begging for help before they starved to death.

After the Confederacy withdrew from Florida in early 1862, there was also the ongoing presence of the Union at Ft. Barrancas. Coupled with the gangs of deserters and dodgers, the blockade, and the agents of the Confederate government that confiscated farm produce from families already struggling to get by, things went from difficult to life threatening. All of these problems, coupled with some plantation owners resisting growing food crops and continuing to plant cotton, resulted in severe hunger. In 1863, there was a series of “uprisings” by women across the South demanding food supplies be made more available. The closest one to the panhandle was in Mobile.

All of these are political or social problems in the Confederacy that might cause a man to desert but for many there was also the horror of the battlefield. Florida regiments were in both the Eastern theatre under General Lee and in the Western theatre under General Braxton Bragg. The Western theatre, unlike the Eastern, did not see many victories. Bragg was a difficult personalty and did not get along well with many of his subordinates. His decision and communication skills appear to have been lacking. And when he failed, it was everyone else’s fault but his. He did have one friend, Jefferson Davis, so he remained in command until after Missionary Ridge. But the Florida boys in the Eastern theatre certainly did not have a much better situation. In several engagements, they were in areas of a battle where they took major losses, stripping the regiments to the bare bones.

Antietam, Maryland. Bodies of dead, Louisiana Regiment
Antietam, Bodies of dead Louisiana men

And finally, in addition to battles that were terrifying and maiming, there was the hunger and lack of clothing and shelter in the army. The poor rail system in the South not only impacted moving food around for the home front, it made it difficult to move supplies of all kinds to the front. The South had raised the cotton, they didn’t have the industrial capacity to make it into thread and clothes other than in small volumes and in the home. When my ancestors who served in the 6th Florida Infantry were transferred from Florida to Tennessee their commanding officer indicated they went without sufficient warm clothes and shoes, no blankets and few tents. Many Florida boys died of illness in the bitter winters of 1862 and 1863.

So, let’s put ourselves in some of our ancestors’ shoes. Most of them were oriented toward their local community, some to their state and fewer to the nation. Most were yeoman farmers or small merchants. Most were not heavily entangled in the slavery-based economic system. When the war started, many figured it didn’t matter which “nation” they were in as long as they were left alone to take care of their families. Some did feel an allegiance to the U.S. and felt that either this was not the time to try independence and/or it wasn’t the right reason to secede. Many probably shared some of the concerns the fire-eaters hammered home about the impacts of freed slaves on the South. So those that could justify the secession in their heads based on their own beliefs signed up for 12 months, those that couldn’t, stayed home and planned to see what would happen. But that didn’t work once the draft was in place.  Many of these men had to make a decision based on what they thought was best for them and their families. Some took to the woods and swamps.  Some were drafted and when their regiment was called up to leave the state, they deserted. Some went through a few battles, then deserted. Some got letters from home and then deserted.

Northwest Florida & South Alabama in 1860 with counties marked that contributed a significant number to the 1st Florida Union Cavalry
Stars are the nine counties contributing the most men to the 1st Florida Cavalry. The circled area is where a sizable proportion were in 1860.

In October 1863, when the Union decided to create the 1st Florida Cavalry Volunteers, many of the men who would ultimately join had already deserted, or had been laying low since early 1863. Word spread that the Union was recruiting Southerners and would pay a bounty for enlistment. It started as a trickle and became a steady stream. By the end of the war, 704 men had joined, or attempted to join, the 1st Florida. Nearly, all of the men who joined were from the panhandle of Florida and South Alabama and a large percentage of them were from just nine counties: Baldwin Co, AL; Santa Rosa Co, FL; Walton Co, FL; Holmes Co, FL; Covington County, AL; Coffee County, AL; Dale County, AL; Henry County, AL and Washington Co, FL. And a large percentage of the men from these nine counties that joined the 1st Florida were from just four of these counties: Santa Rosa, Walton, Covington and Coffee. They were not all deserters or dodgers but many were. Some were underage for the draft in 1863, but reached it by 1864, and decided to join the Union rather than the Confederacy. For some of these, their older brothers, who were in the Confederacy or already deserted, followed them to Ft. Barrancas.

This was not an easy decision. If captured by the Confederacy, they were immediately shot or hanged. The decision could threaten their families left behind though some came from communities that were sympathetic (see my post on Oak Grove, Okaloosa Co, FL). The bounty wasn’t immediate, most had to wait until they were mustered out in November 1865 before receiving it all. Weighting all of the above, some made the decision to join the Union and stay until the end and fight when required to.

Is it more honorable to fight for a nation you’ve only known for a short time and don’t have a dog in the hunt or to make a choice that keeps you closer to home and better able to help your family? Which is more courageous? Was it Unionism, battle fatigue, concern for family, concern for their own persons, anger over the draft or some other decision, or a combination. I would guess for many it was a combination because even today, most of us do not make life changing decisions lightly or by just looking at the polar opposite arguments. Why would we expect our ancestors to be any different?

I will be on a panel on October 6th (2:30-3:45 pm) talking about the Civil War in the panhandle at the Gulf South Historical Association’s History and Humanities Conference at the Pensacola Beach Hilton (GSHA 2017 Program). I hope to see some of you there.

Until next time.

Resources:

 

1st FL hdcvr

  • The 1st Florida Cavalry Union Volunteers in the Civil War: The Men and Regimental History and What That Tells US About the Area During the War by Sharon D. Marsh
  • No Soap, No Pay, Diarrhea, Dysentery & Desertion: A Composite Diary of the Last 16 months of the Confederacy from 1864 to 1865 edited by Jess Toalson
  • Desertion During the Civil War by Ella Lonn
  • A Higher Duty: Desertion Among Georgia Troops During the Civil War by Mark A. Weitz
  • Divided We Fall: The Confederacy’s Collapse From Within: A State-by-State Account by Calvin Goddard Zon
  • More Damning than Slaughter: Desertion in the Confederate Army by Mark A. Weitz
  • A Rich Man’s War, A Poor Man’s Fight: Desertion of Alabama Troops from the Confederate Army by Bessie Martin
  • Loyalty and Loss: Alabama’s Unionists in the Civil War and Reconstruction by Margaret M. Storey
  • Southern Unionist Pamphlets and the Civil War edited by Jon L. Wakelyn
  • Rich Man’s War: Class, Caste and Confederate Defeat in the Lower Chattahoochee Valley by David Williams
  • The Confederate and Neo-Confederate Reader: The “Great Truth” about the “Lost Cause” edited by James W. Loewen and Edward H. Sebesta

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Randal Fulford of Holmes County and his Experience in the 4th Florida Infantry

Randal Fulford of Holmes County was a young man when the Civil War started.  I believe he had been orphaned as a young boy and raised by his mother and stepfather.  He could read and write and did well on his farm and in raising children that were active participants in Holmes County.  His life will be covered in greater detail in my upcoming book on some of my ancestors’ experiences of the War and their lives before and after. I hope some of my efforts to figure out how he came to be in Holmes County to be helpful as you solve your ancestral brick walls and integrate your ancestors into the history of the area.

Randal’s name came to me from my paternal grandmother. She was a wealth of information on both her family and her husband, my grandfather’s, family. As I mentioned in my post on my MARSH line in Holmes County, my grandfather died three years after they were married. Nana, which is what I called her, sat down with me and did her best to share everything she knew. She was my best interviewee; informative and entertaining. I only found about three small errors in her memory. She remembered her great-grandfather’s name as Randal and his mother’s name as Joann or Joanna. She thought he was from Georgia originally and either he or his father had served in some war (they both did, just different wars). She thought his father had died when he was very young and was named Randolph or Randal. She wasn’t sure if Randal had any siblings but she was sure he had lived most of his life in Holmes Co. With that I started my search.

This was before much was online, though I did have access to an excellent genealogy library (Clayton Library) in Houston. I found him after the War but couldn’t find anything before. I began to think he had been born under a rock and raised by wolves. Then I joined Ancestry.com. My search turned up a Randal FOREHAND in a household with James and Jane FOREHAND. There was a younger girl two years younger than him, then there were three more children where the gap between Rebecca and the next one was three years. I rechecked my notes – Nana seemed sure his last name was FULFORD. I saved it just in case. The 1860 census turned up nothing in Holmes County so I widened my search and found him in Coffee Co, AL as a mail carrier and listing his name as Randal FULFORD. Right age to be the Randal FOREHAND in the 1850 census.  Not long afterwards I found information that James FOREHAND had been a postmaster in Holmes Co. I went back and tried to find James and his wife in the 1860 census. This time his wife was listed as Joanna. In time, I discovered that one of Joanna and James’ son was a witness to Randal and his wife’s marriage, that Joanna lived next door to Randal and his family after the War until she died, and that a descendant of another of Joanna and James’ sons remembered that Randal was related to the Forehands somehow, though he wasn’t sure how. I am still trying to confirm Randal is the son of Randolph FULFORD from Lowndes Co, GA and that his mother was Joanna, who married James FOREHAND. All good things in time.

I turned to try and find any records in the War because it was likely he served. He was just 20 years old in 1861. He joined the 4th Florida Infantry, CSA, Co H on 18 Sept 1861 for a period of 12 months. That means he joined before the draft and he did re-enlist for the duration of the war in 1862. What I don’t know clearly is whether this was because he had strong beliefs in the cause of the Confederacy, he felt more allegiance to the Confederacy versus the U.S. government, he was a young man in need of some adventure, or he thought it was the right thing to do or some mix of all of them. Regardless of what we have been told as Southerners, these decisions were not always cut and dry. Just like today, people can and will come to different decisions with the same basic information. There could be a lot of reasons to support the secession of Southern states, or not to support it, or change your mind during the war; and all occurred during the war on both sides.

The 4th Florida Infantry’s first assignment was in Fernandina (Amelia Island), Florida guarding one of the two railroad terminus of the Florida Railroad, the largest rail system in Florida in 1861. In March 1862, he was detailed to pull up track because the troops were withdrawing to Jacksonville. Three companies of the 4th were left behind to protect citizens as the evacuations proceeded. This withdrawal, like the one from Pensacola, was very difficult on the local residents. Much of Jacksonville was burned by the Confederates as they withdrew to move across the panhandle.

The following month the troops of the 4th Florida were transferred to Mobile, AL where Randal served a short time as part of the Provost Guard while troops were being transferred north. The 4th Florida was soon after transferred to Tennessee under the command of General Braxton Bragg. Randall would not return home until months after the war was over.

Once in Murfreesboro and Nashville, TN, the 4th FL Infantry occupied the area between Lebanon and the Nashville turnpike. In October 1862, Randal was admitted to the hospital in Tullahoma. While his diagnosis isn’t listed, the most likely causes of illness during the war was infectious disease and dietary deficiencies/diarrhea. A few days after being admitted he was assigned on extra duty as a cook. Let’s hope he didn’t have Hepatitis A! He did miss the Battle of Stone’s River while in the hospital, possibly a blessing since the 4th Florida Infantry suffered large losses in the battle.

Between May and August of 1863 the 4th Florida Infantry was in Mississippi in Stovall’s Brigade. Here they engaged the Union forces under Grant a number of times trying to hold the Federals back from cutting the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River. Food and water for the Confederate troops in Mississippi was scarce and poor quality and again Randal found himself in the hospital, again with no diagnosis listed in his records.

The 4th Florida Infantry and their division returned to Tennessee in August/September 1863. Soon afterwards, Chattanooga was abandoned by the Confederacy, moving south to Rome and Atlanta, GA. General Bragg lost a couple of opportunities to engage with the Federals in this movement south either through poor leadership and communication or in-fighting among his subordinates. On the night of 17 Sept 1863, the temperatures dropped to freezing as the army under Bragg was finalizing his plan to attack the Union at Chickamauga. Fighting started two days later on the 19th. The 4th Florida Infantry was heavily engaged in the battle and it was a Western Theatre victory for the South, something that was somewhat elusive during the war in this area. The Federals withdrew to Chattanooga where the siege that would lead to Lincoln promoting General Grant to head all the Union forces occurred. Grant arrived in Chattanooga and took charge of getting the Federals out of the predicament they were in. It took them two months but they did come out and the Battle of Missionary Ridge ensued. It would be Randal’s last battle.

Prisoners of War, Chattanooga, TN, at the Railroad Depot
James Duke drawing of Rock Island Prison

The 4th Florida was stationed near the top of the ridge but this battle is where the Union forces started climbing the ridge and just kept pushing until they overran the Confederate forces at the top. Their success was a combination of persistence and poor placement of the Confederates on the ridge so that firing down the ridge was extremely difficult.  Randal was wounded in the right hand and taken prisoner on 25 Nov 1863, along with many young men serving in the 4th FL. He was transferred to Rock Island, IL and arrived there in December 1863. He would remain there until 22 Jun 1865 when he finally took the Oath of Allegiance and headed home.  Rock Island became notorious for its reported abuses of prisoners and offers of easier conditions if they would take the Oath of Allegiance. I am positive it wasn’t a vacation resort and many abuses did occur but he thankfully survived because if he hadn’t, I wouldn’t be here.

Five Generations of Descendants
My Dad, his mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and great2-grandmother in Bonifay (Mary Susan on the far right)

He married Mary Susan (or sometimes Susian) Webb, daughter of Williford N. WEBB and Susan MERCER WEBB on 3 Apr 1866 in Bonifay, Holmes Co, Florida. Randal and Mary Susan had ten children: Vicie Leavina, an unknown child, Susan Melinda (my 2nd great-grandmother), Martha, Rilla A., Columbus Alexander (first county agent in Holmes Co and school superintendent in 1912), Randolph Marion, Joseph Thomas, another unknown child, and Ada M. There was a young man in Mary Susan’s household in 1920 by the name of George Ellis that is listed as her “adopted son”. I don’t know if his last name is ELLIS or FULFORD. He hasn’t appeared in any other records and presents a mystery to yet solve.

Vicie FULFORD NEWTON
Rilla FULFORD TYSON
Columbus Alexander FULFORD
Randolph FULFORD
Joseph FULFORD

Randal and Mary Susan homesteaded 60 acres in Holmes County, completing the requirements to obtain ownership in 1890.  According to the 1885 agricultural census for Holmes Co, his farm was diversified with animals, grains, fruit trees and honey bees.  Randal died 12 Jan 1899 in Bonifay, Holmes Co, FL and is buried at East Mt Zion Methodist Church. Mary Susan lived another 35 years as a widow. Mary Susan filed for a Confederate pension from the State of Florida in 1923.  Randall never filed for a pension while he was alive, possibly because he wasn’t poor enough.  Their son, Columbus Alexander, married later in life to a younger woman and had six children, the youngest of which I came to know through the Internet in the 1980s. A wonderful woman who shared pictures and stories and her excitement in life and pride for her family. While no one seems to have a picture of Randal, the pictures of his sons tells me he was likely tall and thin, and handsome. The Confederates didn’t provide any description of him. The Federal records on his time at Rock Island are still being waded through since there is no index, though the online records are here along with prisoner of war records from several other prisons.

I’ve written this on Randal for a number of reasons:

  1. We are coming up on the 154th anniversary of his capture at Missionary Ridge.  Many of our ancestors from the panhandle saw Missionary Ridge as the end of their service and the beginning of being a prisoner.
  2. To encourage others to put a complete history together on their ancestors’ service. I find so many who find someone with the right name in an index and just take that and are happy with it.  Try to get to know them and their experiences.  It makes history so much more interesting.
  3. To share a story of the meanderings that can occur in genealogy before you get to some meaningful historical details.
  4. And most importantly, to honor a man I did not know, and may not have agreed with on his outlook on life, but that I can still respect and love.  He lived in a another era and people really did see many things differently than today.  We can’t change that and should not try to force our views on dead ancestors.  It tortures history and makes it harder to really learn anything about the time, or who we are now and how we got here.  Who we are as people, or as a nation, is the sum total of all experiences; good and bad, past and present; and must be accepted, resolved and learned from or they just cause wounds that fester.  Something we might need to learn/practice as a Nation because shouting invectives, threatening and destroying doesn’t heal anyone’s wounds.  And only seeing one side won’t get you to healing either.

Until next time.

Resources:

  • The Florida Memory Blog; “Battle of Missionary Ridge: Florida and the Civil War”, posted 25 Nov 2013
  • Library of Congress Photographic Collection
  • By the Noble Daring of Her Sons: The Florida Brigade of the Army of Tennessee, by Jonathan C. Sheppard
  • Civil War Journal and Letters of Washington Ives, 4th Fla C.S.A., by Jim R. Cabaniss
  • The Battles for Chattanooga: The Shipwreck of Their Hopes, by Peter Cozzens
  • Chattanooga: A Death Grip on the Confederacy, by James Lee McDonough
  • Rebels at Rock Island: The Story of a Civil War Prison, by Benton McAdams

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The Little Red (or White or Log) Schoolhouse in Northwest Florida: The Student Experience

Bay County One Room Schoolhouse

This week we will skip forward a bit and leave the system and enter the schools of our ancestors. Many of our grandparents and great-grandparents in Florida attended those famous one-room schoolhouses. Generally, this meant all of the students were in the same room, studying materials for their own level; and the older students helped the teacher with the younger students. Many of us, because we grew up with school for nine months in each of twelve years, think these early schools were similar to what we experienced. They weren’t in many ways.

In the early years, school was voluntary and if you read the previous post you may have noticed that the student was counted if they attended at least 4 months. That generally allowed these little household workers to assist on the farm and still attend school. If you meander through the censuses after 1870, you will notice that the number of months a student attended was recorded. I would suggest picking an ancestor who was a child during the late 19th and early 20th century, finding the censuses they are in and see if they attended in the previous year and how many months they attended. You might notice some or all of the following: 1) Students could generally read before they could write, 2) One or more sons might not attend because they were needed on the farm, 3) Girls did attend relatively early in the development of Florida schools on a par with the boys.

Early in Florida’s schools, textbooks were bought by the student’s parents and often what they could find, so students came with a variety of textbooks.  That had to have been a challenge for the teacher and the students.  Subjects in the late 19th century, at least for the larger schools, included: reading, writing, elementary arithmetic, spelling, geography, U. S. and Florida history, and physiology and hygiene.  In some of the more established and better funded schools there would sometimes be physical and political geography, bookkeeping, English grammar and composition.  By the end of the 19th century there was a push for all schools to include agriculture and manual crafts for boys and cooking and food preservation for girls.  These morphed into Shop and Home Ec by the time I came along.

Textbooks did become standardized and eventually provided by the school system.  See here for a textbook from 1904. The McGuffey series of Readers and Primer were often used as textbooks. These placed a heavy emphasis on articulation and accenting and emphasizing words in reading or reciting out loud (see McGuffey Readers here). I now understand why Mabel Peaden, schoolteacher at Blackman and classmate of my grandmother, was so fond of standing up and reciting poetry and LONG dissertations at church homecomings.

The other big difference between then and now for the students was that public education, available to all, only went through the 8th grade. High school was a late addition to public education in Florida.  In the late 19th and early 20th century, high school was separate and not everyone could attend.  The main ones in the panhandle that I could find references to were: Westville High School, Westville (1891) and Escambia High School, Pensacola (1886).

Chason School, Calhoun Co, FL, 1890s
Red Bluff School, Escambia Co, FL 1909

Early on in Florida’s history, school could take place in a house in the community or another public/private building such as a Masonic building. It appears that school buildings began consistently appearing in the panhandle after 1885. Because traveling great distances would have likely discouraged attendance for 4 months, schools began springing up (and was encouraged) in every township. If there wasn’t enough support for that, children could go live with family or friends that were closer to a school. If you spend time with census records you will occasionally find children who aren’t part of the family but a little research may show them related. There were a number of reasons for farming out children for periods of time, school was likely one of them.

Negro Schoolhouse in Florida before 1930
Public School Building in Carrabelle, FL, 1910s

By the end of the 19th century, schools were better attended and would-be teachers had Normal Colleges available for teaching certificates. Schools for black and white students were separate, but I’ve found in my reviews of census records for the panhandle that the black children seem to have been more likely to have attended school in the previous year, than white children, especially in rural areas. Funding for school buildings and maintenance had improved significantly by the 1890s, textbooks were specified and available and teachers received some standard education before certification. Two of these teacher schools available to would-be white teachers from the panhandle were the State Normal College in DeFuniak Springs (1887-1905) and the Florida Normal Institute in Madison in the early 20th century.

State Normal College in DeFuniak Springs
Madison Normal Institute 1908

At the same time that the State Normal College in DeFuniak Springs was started for white teachers, Florida also began a teachers college in Tallahassee, known as the State Normal College for Colored Students, to train black teachers.  This was a significant step forward, since prior to this, black teachers had little availability of standarized education for the teaching profession.

Schools began to be consolidated in the 1920s and 30s.  Populations had grown and the cost of maintaining schools was becoming more expensive.  The small, community schools gave way to bigger facilities, separation of grades and the addition of 4 more years of compulsory education, though you could still “drop out”.  Subjects became more varied, even while the basics were emphasized.

My great-grandfather was a teacher, William Franklin King attended the State Normal College and graduated in 1892 with his Licentiate of Instruction.  He came back to Oak Grove in what would become Okaloosa County, Florida and taught school at the Oak Grove school until it burned down in 1923.  For a few more years he taught school in the second-floor of the Yellow River Baptist Church until the children from Oak Grove were sent to Blackman to school and a few years later to Escambia Farms.  Grandpa King taught all of his children and a couple of his grandchildren before he “retired”.  The Florida Department of Education tried to send him a small pension check for all of his years of teaching.  He returned it with a note that he hadn’t done anything for the money so he was returning it.  My how things have changed.

Oak Grove School 1914
Blackman School 1929

These two sets of photos are dear to me.  The first one is the class of 1914 in Oak Grove and includes my grandmother, Alma King, and a number of her younger siblings.  This would have been taken just a few months before she agreed to marry my grandfather and they eloped.  It is the only photo I’ve been able to locate for the school as I’ve been researching the history of Oak Grove.  It is an old newspaper photo so the quality is poor.  Since, according to the Memories of a Schoolhouse article, Mabel Peaden had an original photo, I have to wonder what her family did with the piles of stuff she accumulated before her passing.  The second photo is a few years after the Oak Grove students were sent to Blackman.  It includes several of my grandmother’s youngest siblings and several of my mother’s older sisters (One is missing.  Aunt Marie was so shy I’m betting she found some reason to stay home on this day.) and most of the rest are related in some way.  I am not sure who put the names to the last one (the list of names was in the piles of miscellaneous papers with the Yellow River Baptist Church records and the original photo is in the possession of the granddaughter of my great-aunt, Ovella King, who is in the photo) but all that I know from other photos appears correct.  If you can name any of those where there is a blank, please contact me.

So, we come to the end of our schoolhouse journey.  I hope it was worth the trip.

Until next time!

Resources

  • History of the Public School Education in Florida by Thomas Everette Cochran, 1921.
  • From Cabin to Campus: A History of the Okaloosa School System by Nancy M. Kenaston.
  • Pillars of the Republic: Common Schools and American Society, 1780-1860 by Carl F. Kaestle.
  • Florida Memory some of the above photographs are on their site.
  • Fort Walton Beach Playground Daily News, “Memories of a Schoolhouse Still Shine After 2 Generations”, by Bruce Koehler, 24 Feb 1985, page 2B

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The Little Red (or White or Log) Schoolhouse in Northwest Florida: Creating the System

I am a student of history and genealogy but before that I was a lover of education, of pretty much every subject.  And importantly for this blog, a product of the educational system in Florida.  This post will be the first of a two-part series on the effort to establish that educational system in Florida. In this post, I am going to try to outline the process of trying to get a “common school” system in place, first in the territory of Florida and then in the state; hopefully, without putting the reader to sleep or tying my brain into knots.

To start this process of looking at how Florida came to have a common or public school system, it is best to go all the way back to 1822. This was the year Florida became a territory of the United States and the year that every 16th section of each Township was set aside to aid in the maintenance of primary schools. For any of you not clear on what Townships were, I will do a Cliff Notes version. Describing land by the geographic features and trees on property, as was the method in the original thirteen colonies and what would become Texas, Tennessee and West Virginia, quickly became a bit troublesome. If you’ve ever read a deed from one of these states, you know what I mean.  A grid system was set up and used for much of the federal land that came under government control as the nation expanded. This grid system was called the Public Land Survey System. Each Township grid was divided into 36 sections, each one square mile. A more detailed explanation is located here.  Because these lands were for the use of the schools, they are often the location of early school buildings.

The first organized effort to establish an educational system occurred on 22 January 1831 when the Florida Education Society was formed in Tallahassee. They were established to collect and distribute educational information and to attempt to establish a general system of instruction that would be suited to the needs of the territory of Florida. During its existence, this group doesn’t appear to have accomplished a lot, especially in the panhandle. They were recognized in later reports on the schools for increasing the awareness of the importance of an educational system. However, it appears to have been an uphill battle. In a report from 1832, the “apathy and prejudices of the people of Florida” toward education was cited as an ongoing issue.

In January of 1827, the Federal government passed an act giving the governor and the Territorial Legislative Council the power to take possession of the 16th section of each Township mentioned above and lease them by the year and to appropriate the money received from the rental of the property for use by the schools. They were also charged with preserving the lands from intrusion and trespass. The following year the Territorial Legislative Council passed a law allowing those leases.

Beginning in 1828, and going until Florida became a State, there were a series of laws passed tinkering with the school system they hoped to create. While we need to give them an “A” for effort, it appears that these laws were never really executed with any consistency. Governor W. D. Moseley’s speech to the assembly in 1846 indicated poor enforcement against trespassers and the neglected and squandered funds that were received. Just before Florida became a state the educational system could be summarized as follows:

  1. The administration of the schools was in the hands of a Board of Trustees for each Township, the Judges of the County Courts, and the Secretary of the Territory.
  2. The trustees were elected by popular vote.
  3. The trustees cared for and rented out the 16th section lands, appropriated the revenue, established and maintained the schools and did whatever else was needed in relationship to the welfare of the schools. They were also to report annually to the judges of the county on the number of teachers, the numbers of students, and the subjects taught.
  4. The judges of the county served as school superintendents. They were to see that the 16th section lands were cared for, ensure the funds derived from the lands was appropriately used and had general oversight. Their report to the Secretary of the Territory was to address the condition of common school education in their respective counties.
  5. The Secretary of the Territory compiled all of these reports and presented the information to the Legislative Council.
  6. There was no provision for the building or maintenance of schools, the length of the school term, the subjects to be taught, textbooks to be used, or the certification of teachers.
  7. In 1838, a law had been passed to require each county to send one young man to the Dade Institute of Florida to be educated as a schoolmaster.
  8. Income to sustain the schools came from four sources: a) The 16th section lands, b) The net proceeds of escheated (transfer of property title to the state when a person dies without will or legal heirs) property, c) The funds obtained from the national treasury under the surplus revenue act, and d) 10% of all territorial tax and auction duties received to be used for the education of poor, orphaned children.

The children of the wealthier class of territorial residents often went to private academies or institutes. These were mainly primary and secondary combined, but the limited records available would indicate mostly primary. Those that I’m reasonably sure were in the panhandle were: 1) Pensacola Academy, 1831; 2) Marianna Academy, 1833; 3) St. Andrews College, Washington Co, 1838; 4) West Florida Collegiate Institute 1844.

Florida had arrived at statehood, with its first Constitution adopted in March 1845. The state was limited in what it could do with the 16th section lands so in 1847 they asked Congress for permission to sell these lands and invest the proceeds in a permanent fund to support common schools. This was approved in December 1848. In 1849, the first law establishing a school system in the new state was passed. The state would establish common schools that would serve all white children of the State between the ages of 5 and 18. Overhead costs were managed by the Register of the land office, who also was to act as State Superintendent of Schools. The Judges of Probate were still to act as superintendents of schools within their counties, and a local Board of Trustees was to be elected by taxpayers annually within each school district. At the same time, a new act was passed to increase funds for the common schools. Sources of funding included: a) 5% received from the United States for sale of public lands within the State, b) Proceeds of all escheated estates, c) Net proceeds from property found on the coasts or shores, or brought into the State’s ports, that were from wrecks, d) And all other property thereafter granted for the support of common education.

Between 1845 and 1869, the state again went through a series of adjustments to the system, trying to improve it and encourage people to support and send their children for education. The War for Southern Independence (a.k.a. War Between the States or Civil War) put a temporary hold on any progress since the State found itself the location of some consistent conflict between sides, especially in the panhandle. As had occurred during the territorial period, the majority of interest for common school establishment appears to have been outside the panhandle, around St. Augustine and Jacksonville, and also Tallahassee. It is hard to tell from the limited records available whether that is because people were not interested, the men in charge at the local and county levels weren’t doing their jobs adequately, the population who were interested preferred private academies or the records have just been lost to time.

Regardless of the challenges of war time, Florida did make some progress toward public, common schools during the early years of statehood. According to a table in Everette’s book (see below), from 1840 to 1850 the number of academies and other private schools increased from 18 to 138 and the number of public, common schools increased from 51 to 97.

After the war, efforts began to provide education to the children of persons who had been freed from slavery during the war. These efforts were initially conducted primarily by northern benevolent associations such as the African Civilization Society and the Missionary Society of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. They had established around 30 schools by the end of 1865. In January 1865, a law was passed establishing a public education system for these children. The governor was to appoint a superintendent to organize schools and to employ competent teachers. The schools would be supported first by a tuition fee of 50 cents per month from each pupil and a tax of $1 dollar on “all male persons of color between the ages of 21 and 45”.

The State Constitution of 1868 contained an entire article on the structure and provision of education in Florida. It established a Superintendent of Public Instruction; the requirement that the legislature provide a uniform system of common schools and a university, as well as the maintenance of these facilities; specified means of financing; required that the education be free for all children; distribution to the counties of the interest from the education fund based on the number of children in each county between the ages of 4 and 21 years; a requirement that each county raise a sum not less than 1/2 of the amount received from the State for the support of education within the county; and created a Board of Education composed of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Attorney General and the Secretary of State.

Starting in the 1870 census, we see the question on whether a children had attended school within the year. We can see a variation of this question for all subsequent censuses. If you spend time studying census records on either side of your ancestor’s entry, you can begin to see literacy increasing over time for those born in Florida.

I know this blog was a bit dry, but I thought it would be helpful to understand the early years before we have some fun with the later 19th and early 20th century schools.  Next time we will look inside some of the schools of the late 19th and early 20th century in the panhandle.  There will be lots of photos and some analysis of education levels over time and subjects taught.

Until next time!

Resources

  • History of the Public School Education in Florida by Thomas Everette Cochran, 1921.
  • From Cabin to Campus: A History of the Okaloosa School System by Nancy M. Kenaston.
  • Pillars of the Republic: Common Schools and American Society, 1780-1860 by Carl F. Kaestle.
  • Florida’s 1838 Constitution
  • Florida’s 1868 Constitution

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Early Northwest Florida Churches

I have to admit that one of the many things I find interesting in history is the efforts to organize churches early in human settlements. Churches served a number of purposes other than the education and nurturing of the soul; they were ways for people that were often scattered, isolated and busy trying to survive to get together, share a meal and exchange information and a way to encourage good behavior when law enforcement was nearly non-existent. And to be honest, I do love visiting old church cemeteries and just being at peace in the quiet of the cemetery. My Mom claims that I’ve trained my car to automatically stop at old cemeteries. Frankly, it is a joint effort of the car and my foot!

Recently, I was meandering through some old, local newspaper articles and stumbled across an article on Yellow River Baptist Church in Okaloosa Co, Florida that cited a book published by the Daughters of the American Revolution on The Pioneer Churches of Florida. Published in 1976, in coordination with the DAR’s local chapters and some local historical groups, it was a short narrative on each county’s oldest known church. I found the book through Abe Books and ordered it. When it arrived, I spent about an hour reading it and particularly dissecting the section on Yellow River Baptist Church.

Before I get to the details on Yellow River Baptist and how that fits with my other efforts to put the history and chronology together for the church and the Oak Grove community, let’s look at the other panhandle counties and their first known churches, at least known by those who were asked in 1976. Also, this would not be a list of the oldest churches in the panhandle. The oldest churches tend to be concentrated where the population settled first. For instance, there are a number of older Baptist churches than some of the later ones listed but they are in counties where there was an even older church, of any denomination, in that county.

Bay County – formed in 1913 from Calhoun and Washington Counties
St. Andrews Presbyterian Church – organized on 13 September 1886 at the home of Hiram Mapes by the Commission of the Presbytery according to the DAR book. The church’s website confirms that date.

Calhoun – formed in 1838 from Franklin, Jackson and Washington Counties
According to the Malachee Baptist Association Minutes of 1972 and the DAR book, a Baptist church was organized in Calhoun County in 1873. The church was called Magnolia and the Rev. Otis Walden was pastor. The Florida Memory site has a document online that also indicates the church was organized in 1873.

Escambia – formed in 1821, one of the two original counties
St. Michael’s Roman Catholic Church dates to 1559 when the Spanish arrived at Pensacola Bay on August 14th. The chapel was originally on Santa Rosa Island according to the DAR book. The church’s website confirms that date. The website indicates that the parish was canonically established on 10 May 1781.

Franklin – formed in 1832 from Gadsden and Washington Counties
Apalachicola Trinity Episcopal Church was chartered in 1838. The Rev. Fitch W. Taylor from the Diocese of Maryland conducted services there as early as 1835 according to the DAR book. Their website indicates that it was charted in 1836.

Gulf – formed in 1925 from Calhoun County
St. John’s Episcopal Church was organized around 1875. In the 1940s an agreement was reached for the Presbyterians (the First Presbyterian Church of Wewahitchka) and Episcopal congregations to share the church according to the DAR book. I was able to find a website that appears to be the right Episcopal Church but it does not provide any historical information.

Holmes – formed in 1848 from Jackson and Walton Counties
Sandy Creek Baptist Church was organized around 1844 according to the DAR book. I could not find anything online as to its continued service though the church and cemetery are on Find-A-Grave and the marquis in front of the church appears to be current.

Jackson – formed in 1822 from Escambia County
Campbellton Baptist Church was founded in 1825 according to the DAR book as Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church. Campbellton Baptist Church is the second oldest Baptist Church in Florida according to my research on Baptist Churches. It is the oldest Baptist church in the panhandle but Pigeon Creek Baptist Church in Callahan, Nassau County is the oldest having been founded in 1821. Jackson County’s oldest church is now known as First Baptist Church of Campbellton.

Liberty – formed in 1855 from Gadsden County
Corinth Baptist Church was founded in 1871 according to the DAR book. Florida Memory has documentation of the church’s history online. The church’s website confirms their history.

Okaloosa – formed in 1915 from Santa Rosa and Walton Counties
Yellow River Baptist Church was found in June 1840 according to the DAR book. They don’t currently have a website but I’ve seen the founding document in the church’s records so I know this is a fact (See more detail below).

Bagdad United Methodist Church
Bagdad United Methodist Church

Santa Rosa – formed in 1842 from Escambia County
First Methodist Church in Milton was established soon after Protestantism was permitted sometime between 1821 and 1824 according to the DAR book. The DAR book indicates that the church they are referencing actually started in Escambia County because Santa Rosa did not come to be a county until 1842. It appears to indicate that many of the congregation moved to Milton/Bagdad and by 1837 the first buildings were going up in Milton/Bagdad. The website for the First United Methodist Church of Milton doesn’t match this history, indicating establishment around the time of the Civil War. After a bit of searching, I found that the church described in the DAR is actually the Bagdad United Methodist Church, and this history is confirmed by their website.  They indicate their founding in 1830 which fits in the somewhat convoluted history in the DAR book.

Euchee Valley Presbyterian Church
Euchee Valley Presbyterian Church
Euchee Valley Cemetery

Walton – formed in 1824 from Escambia and Jackson Counties
Euchee Valley Presbyterian Church was established on 26 May 1828 according to the DAR book.  However, the historical marker at the church indicates 27 May 1827.  Their Facebook page has some good photos of the church and the cemetery.  This is a beautiful country church with a peaceful cemetery next to it that is worth the meandering walk among the headstones.  According to their historical marker, the cemetery is the resting place of two signers of Florida’s first constitution.

Washington – formed in 1825 from Jackson and Walton Counties
Only church recorded as early was in Bay County by 1977 according to the DAR book. I found this hard to believe that there were no early churches in Washington County, even though they did lose territory to other counties over the years parts of the remaining county were certainly settled early. So, I did a little online research. According to Dale Cox’s website Explore Southern History, Moss Hill Methodist Church traces its history back to the 1820s.

Northwest Florida’s early churches covers the gamut of denominations; 5 Baptist churches, 2 Methodist churches, 2 Presbyterian churches, 2 Episcopal churches and 1 Catholic church. I would say from reading the book that some of the counties interpreted the defining of the earliest church in the county in a variety of ways but most of these would seem to be accurate based on the settlements in the various areas of the panhandle.

Now to my favorite church subject: Yellow River Baptist Church. (previous posts on the church: here, here, and here)  The book has some good information on the early church location and buildings. The information was submitted by the Historical Society of Okaloosa and Walton Counties but reading the info sure makes me think of Mabel Peaden. Mabel had a wealth of historical detail that she loved to share and she was the Church Clerk for a time and attended the school that was in the area of the original church. Let me just quote the book, “The first services were held in a log building, one mile northwest of the Oak Grove Bridge on the Yellow River. The second building, on the same location, was erected in 1884 and was used until a rectangular two-story, unpainted frame building was erected and dedicated in 1905. We have no record of the fourth building. The fifth and present building (in 1976) was constructed of cement block in 1961.” A little further on they state, “ The first settled pastor was the Reverend George Miller, 1840-1844.”

Yellow River Baptist Church Current Bldg
Church burned by arsonist
Either the Church built in 1884 or the old schoolhouse

The fourth building was actually the third building with the top floor removed (see photo at top). That “remodel” is mentioned in the records. There is now a sixth church building (left above). The fifth building (top right) was burned by arsonists in August 1981.

It is difficult to know if the “Oak Grove Bridge” is the bridge that existed in 1976 and built around World War II or the older bridge that was a little south of the existing bridge, but regardless if you use Google Earth and draw a line northwest of the bridge, a mile is located behind the existing church at or near the Old Yellow River Cemetery. This cemetery has not been well cared for and is on property not now owned by the church. The persons owning the property over the years have not always chosen to regard the cemetery as sacred ground. It is sometimes referred to by locals as the “Old Black Cemetery” but my early research indicates not all those with headstones remaining are black, though they may be mixed blood. This may actually be the original church cemetery. The early church had both black and white members. It was common in the early days of America to bury people of color, criminals, those of less than honorable behavior, etc. on the north side of the cemetery property.  That may mean there is more of this cemetery south of these gravestones and among the trees being logged by the current owner.  The cemetery continued to be used for a couple of decades after the church moved.  It is a shame that when the church moved west of its original location, they were not able to protect the cemetery from thoughtless land owners.

Unearthing the Yellow River Baptist Church’s history, one book at a time, one newspaper clipping at a time and one land deed at a time is something I enjoy immensely.  Especially when I can couple that with preserving, transcribing and digitizing the old church records. I suspect my grandfather, John Jesse Barrow, Jr and my great-grandfather William Franklin King, both of whom helped to get the church back to full strength in 1938, are watching over my efforts.

Identifying the churches that were available to your ancestors (where they attended, what denomination it was and what the church believed) provides a deeper understanding of your ancestors, their neighbors and community and how they may have conducted their lives.  It takes genealogy beyond the collection of names to understanding your ancestors in the context of their lives (not what you want them to think or do or be) and the events they lived through. Don’t overlook these records if they are available for your ancestors’ lives. As I move from research to writing a history of the community of Oak Grove, I plan to have a chapter on the church and possibly a booklet on just the church. If all goes well, that will happen near the end of next year.

Until Next Time!

Resources

  • The Pioneer Churches of Florida, published for The Daughters of the American Revolution, September 1976
  • Yellow River Baptist Church Membership Records by Sharon D. Marsh, 2016 (all proceeds from the sell of the book goes back to the church).
  • The Twelve Baptist Tribes in the USA: A Historical and Statistical Analysis by Albert W. Wardin, Jr., 2007.
  • A History of Florida Baptists by Edward Earl Joiner, 1972.

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Hurricanes: Occurrence and Survival for Our Northwest Florida Ancestors

Pensacola after 1906 hurricane

I will assume most of you already know we are into hurricane season. Every year, most of us check our batteries, flashlights and canned goods just in case we have the big red “X” on our backs this year. But have you ever given any thought to how our ancestors anticipated beforehand and coped during and after a hurricane? My ancestors were in the panhandle from about 1821 on, so I figure they got some pretty good experience with preparing for, living through, and recovering from a hurricane. Let’s take a look at the hurricane experiences of Northwest Florida from 1837 to 1949.

Most of us have lived our entire lives with reasonably accurate hurricane forecasting, FEMA and relatively effective local and national responses after a hurricane. Sometimes we know days in advance that the storm is heading our way. If we are inclined toward at least basic preparedness we make a last minute review of supplies and maybe make a trip to the store for something we need. Why bother though? When there will be food and water afterwards thanks to the State or the County or the Feds? One good reason to bother is that may not always be there or can’t get to you quickly. And then you will not be able to care for your family or any neighbors who might need help. There is a reason the airlines always tell parents to put the mask on themselves first, then their children. To put it gently, if you don’t, you become part of the problem, not the solution.

We do know that the panhandle was hit by a number of hurricanes during the very early years of Spanish settlement in Pensacola. In 1559 the new Spanish colony of Pensacola was devastated by a hurricane to the point that the Spanish thought better of settlement by 1561. But records don’t get reliable until after Florida became a territory of the United States in 1821. One of the best sources of information on Florida hurricanes is found in a book by the same name by Jay Barnes. The following table was extracted from the narrative on early hurricanes.

Date Locations Impacted Severity
7 Aug 1837 St Mark’s
30 Aug 1837 Apalachicola Severe
Oct 1837 First hit Mexican coast in the Gulf, turned northern & hit Brownsville & Galveston, veered east and passed over New Orleans & Mobile and north of Pensacola.  Crossed the southeastern states and exited into the Atlantic near Charleston.  Moved north & destroyed the paddle-wheel Home, killing 90 Severe
September 1841 St. Joseph Severe
22 Sept 1842 Pensacola Moderate
5 Oct 1842 Lighthouse at East Pass lost 30 feet of height, Apalachicola, St. Mark’s, Tallahassee Severe
13 Sept 1843 Port Leon on the banks of the St Mark’s River Severe
September 1844 Apalachicola Moderate
23 Aug 1850 Apalachicola Moderate
August 1851 Apalachicola, Tallahassee, St. Mark’s Severe
24 Aug 1852 Pascagoula, Mobile but effects of winds and water were felt in Pensacola.  Pensacola got more than 13 inches of rain from the 23rd to the 26th Severe
9 Oct 1852 east of Apalachicola, St. Mark’s & Newport Moderate
30 Aug 1856 Cape San Blas, near Panama City, Apalachicola, Marianna Severe
11 Aug, 14 Sept & Oct 1860 All three hit Louisiana, Mississippi & Alabama but Pensacola received high winds & rain Moderate
July 1870 Mobile & Pensacola Moderate
3 Oct 1877 Cape San Blas, St. Mark’s Moderate
20-31 Aug 1880 Apalachicola & Pensacola Moderate
9-10 Sept 1882 Pensacola Moderate
21 Jun 1886 Apalachicola, Tallahassee Moderate
 8 Oct 1894 Apalachicola, but every place between Pensacola and Jacksonville received some damage Moderate-Severe
7 July 1896 east of Pensacola Severe
2 Aug 1898 between the Apalachicola and Choctawhatchee Rivers.  St. Andrews Bay reported 18.29 inches of rain during the week of the storm Severe
11-14 Sept 1903 near Apalachicola Category 1
September 27, 1906 near the Alabama & Mississippi border but did severe damage in Pensacola (see photos) Severe
September 4, 1915 Apalachicola Minor
October 18, 1916 Pensacola Category 3
September 28-29, 1917 Pensacola east to Panama City Category 2
Setember 15, 1924 Port St. Joe Category 1
September 18-21, 1926 Crossed the Gulf and had a second landfall along the Alabama/Florida border (see photo) Massive
September 28-30, 1929 near Panama City Moderate
July 31, 1936 Pensacola, Ft. Walton Beach, Valparaiso Category 3

A couple of things jump out at me when looking through the listing. The area around Apalachicola was a difficult place to live in the 19th century, and the area around Pensacola was a good runner-up. In reality, if the storm was very big it covered all of the area between them.  Our ancestors were tough if they settled here early and stuck it out. If hurricanes didn’t get you, the epidemics, Indians or critters might. Until 1870, people were truly on their own when it came to hurricanes. There was no forecasting, little ability to track and monitor (reports from ships might indicate a potential problem but no way to know where it was headed) and no ability to spread the word that bad weather was heading their way. It would be a matter of their experience telling them one morning that the air felt different or was coming from an unusual direction, the wind was gusty, the air smelled saltier, the sky to the south was darkening and clouds were what my grandmother used to call “angry”. If things deteriorated through the day, by mid-afternoon they might decide they needed to take care of a few things around the farm then settle in to ride out whatever was coming. Or if they were busy, they might not realize the impending weather until there was little time left. Regardless, you would gather everyone in the house and hope and pray.

After 1870, when President Grant signed a proclamation giving the Signal Corps responsibility for forecasting and warning of hurricanes, things got a bit better in the larger towns (which weren’t abundant in 1870 in the panhandle) but any of our ancestors who were in the backcountry were still pretty much on their own. By 1900, the forecasting was getting a better and the warnings were improving. While most of the storms that hit the panhandle were relatively less severe than many had been in the 19th century, there were a couple of category 3 storms and one massive storm in September 1906. Pensacola was on the “dirty” side of the 1906 hurricane and took a severe beating. In 1926, the Great Miami Hurricane that devastated south Florida, crossed the peninsular, entered the Gulf and had a second landfall along the Alabama/Florida border. From what I can gather, the storm had thankfully lost some of its strength as it traveled the Gulf waters but still did damage in and around Pensacola.

 

 

 

“Monarch” steamboat aground after the 1906 hurricane – Pensacola, Florida. 1906
View of hurricane damage – Pensacola, Florida. 1926

Honing your senses to read weather patterns would have been a valuable survival skill that most of us have no clue about these days. Since moving to the country, I’ve learned to pay attention to the sky.  But I would not put my current skills up against a hurricane. I have a weather alert system for back-up; though I have to admit when it goes off in the middle of the night, I sometimes want to stomp on it.

The other thing about hurricanes is you can find yourself isolated for a while after they pass. Roads have debris on them, water flooding them or both. That wonderful thing called electricity on-demand is generally not responding. Water may not be safe to drink without boiling it or it might not be available at all. If we think about our ancestors in this regard, we can imagine the following: 1) They came out of their houses, or what was left of them; sized up the damage and got to work. No one was going to come in and give them money to rebuild.  2) They were farmers and preserved foods by canning, salting and root cellar. That was ongoing. Food did not go to waste because you never knew when a disruption would occur. Even if it didn’t look too good, if it was eatable they did something with it to fill the hunger spot. Prepping, as it is called these days, was part of life not an extra activity. But hurricanes could destroy the coming years crops and mean what you had to eat was what you already had put up that didn’t get destroyed.  3) They checked the well and cranked up some water for cleaning and drinking.  4) Cooking was already by fire in the fireplace kitchen so they might be constrained by the wood they had protected from rain and flood before the storm and set some additional logs to dry.  5) They checked on their extended family and neighbors and shared if they could and helped where it was needed.

Someone asked me once why hurricanes don’t scare me. They were from California so I figured I could ask them why they weren’t afraid of earthquakes, but I didn’t. I explained that as bad weather goes, hurricanes and tropical storms get a lot of coverage and the forecasts are pretty good unless you are ignorant of how to understand them. I’ve been through quite a few, the advantage of many decades on the Atlantic or Gulf Coast. Donna in 1960, Cleo in August 1964, Dora in September 1964, Gladys in October 1968, Eloise in September 1975, David in September 1979, Alicia in 1983, Chantal and Jerry in 1989, TS Frances in 1998, TS Allison in 2001, and Ivan in 2004. I think I might have a PhD in hurricane survival though I’ve not been through anything more than a category 3 and a couple of tropical storms with enough water to float a battleship. Still, I’m always pleased when another year passes without one visiting.

Which brings me to the weather we’ve experienced on the Gulf Coast so far this summer. The ground is saturated and the rivers are high.  If we get a hurricane or another tropical storm this year, after or in the middle of all of this rain, we will all need snorkel and fins. So, might I suggest that even if you aren’t one to stock up on batteries, flashlights, lanterns, canned food and bottled water; this might be a good year to do that. Put yourself in your ancestors’ shoes. What can you do right now to be better prepared for any more bad weather this year? If it doesn’t come, that’s great. Nothing you’ve done can’t be carried over to next year or used this year. Put stuff in place now and then get on with life. I was raised to be prepared for an “oops” event.  Less stress.  Which is good because I’m not crazy about shopping for groceries, especially when everyone is acting frantically.

May we all have a quieter rest of the year. Until next time.

Resources

  • Florida Hurricanes by Jay Barnes

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Northwest Florida History & Genealogy: My Current Projects

Drawing of Richmond Barrow homestead

This post will be a little different.  I’m going to talk about my current projects in history and genealogy of the Northwest Florida panhandle and then do some encouraging for readers to take on similar projects.

I posted on my Facebook page a few weeks ago on the recent appearance of the original Yellow River Baptist Church records from 1840 to 1890. These records had disappeared several decades ago and as with most breaks in institutional memory just passed from thought and was assumed lost. Then I found out last year that someone had brought them to Baker Block Museum and they had photocopied and returned the records to this person. That led to the book the Church, the Museum and I published last year on membership records. There were a number of problems with the copies available to me in the project. 1) Some were quite difficult to see when printed because the resolution was not high and they were saved as .jpg files; a format that loses resolution over time when saved. 2) The transcriptionist at the Museum apparently had access to image files that no longer were with the others, so there was no way to put a new set of eyes on the pages to improve the transcription of the minutes. 3) That led to me wondering if all of the pages had been copied or were some missed in the process.  4) The Museum indicated that the pages were badly scrambled so trying to put the pages in sequential order so the minutes made sense was a real challenge in some cases. 5) It was obvious to me that the membership lists had consisted of two pages for each list of names. The left page listed the names and the right-hand page listed dates such as when the person joined the church, was baptized or left the church. Very little notations included death dates and at no time did the church record birth dates. In fact, children were not included as members until they had their own experience of God, reported that and was accepted as members. When these pages were copied no effort was made to link the two pages because no effort was made to document the pages in the order they were in, or note what was on the back of a page, so the files were just a big pile of unsorted images.

I admit I added a request in my prayers that the person who had them would be called to bring them to the Church before they crumbled to dust. Now in my sixth decade I’ve noticed that we don’t always get what we pray for because it isn’t the right thing to happen; regardless of whether we understand why it isn’t. The other thing I’ve noticed about praying for something is it doesn’t always happen when I want it to. I also pray for patience so I find I get lots of opportunities to practice patience but I’ve not just had it given to me; unfortunately for those around me. And then in May of this year, Pastor Nixon called me and announced that a man had appeared at the church after Sunday service and handed over the records. Maybe not a miracle, but certainly a blessing. I hope to be able to address each of the problems listed above and conserve the records so they are with the Church at least to their 200th anniversary in 2040 and images survive for many years after that. Going through these records is just fascinating to me though the minutes are often routine and nothing eventful happened. However, there are tidbits there that give a glimpse of the Church and the community it served and I hope to extract those out as part of my next project.

Any of you who know me, or follow me on Facebook or have read all or most of my blogs, know I’m very interested in the community of Oak Grove in northern Okaloosa Co, FL. Oak Grove was one of the earliest panhandle communities in the territory of Florida settled by Americans.  It was originally referred to as Barrow’s Ferry. On the upper Yellow River just south of the Alabama line, it was never incorporated as a town but was the seed for a lot of the settlement that extended south as Florida became a territory, then a state. If you don’t know where this Oak Grove is located, drive east on Highway 2 from Blackman and turn left on Yellow River Baptist Church Rd just before you get to the river. If coming from Crestview, cross the river and take a right on Yellow River Baptist Church Rd. If you are sensitive to your surroundings you may feel an instant sense of traveling back in time. When you get to the fork in the road, look to your right and you will see where the General Store, run by William F. King, was located. Stay to your right and keep driving until you get to the Church. This was the heart of Oak Grove, figuratively and literally. As late as the 1940s there would have been farms all around you. Now there are pines.

Oak Grove, Okaloosa Co, FL
Center where the old road (now Yellow River Baptist Church Rd) crossed the river. Hwy 2 would be built straight across above where the road dipped.

I’ve decided to turn my interest in all things good, and not so good, about Oak Grove into a One-Place Study with an eventual book and maybe a website that pulls all of the records available together, by links or transcriptions. I am currently trying to locate the school that burned in 1924. A wonderful example of not asking obvious questions of my grandparents, both of whom attended the school.  I believe I have a pretty good idea but no clear documentation. If anyone out there knows where it was or has seen anything clearly locating it, please share with me. I’ve almost completed the extraction of census records for the community from 1830 to 1940, including the 1885 agricultural census for the area. From there I will be doing extractions of land records to put folks on a map to see relationships and connections. School records if available, military service throughout the period and of course the church records will provide additional information.

Which brings me to my final project – the earliest cemeteries in the area. I now know that Stewart Cemetery is the oldest cemetery in Okaloosa County based on known burials. Early families sometimes buried their kin on their property and of course early markers were wooden and lost over time but Stewart does have a known burial from July 1840. The next oldest is Magnolia Cemetery, just across the river with a burial from December 1843. Both of these men were Revolutionary War veterans. Stewart Cemetery was purchased by Yellow River Baptist Church in 1901 from I. [Isaac] H. And Rozilla Harrison. The Harrisons, a black couple who owned a fair amount of property in Oak Grove in the early 20th century, had acquired the cemetery property from Dugal Stewart when he sold it with some surrounding acreage to Rozilla in 1884. That he sold it to Rozilla and not the couple is an interesting point to pursue in time.

Within 15 years, the Church experienced a long period of drought with no ongoing pastor and membership fell off substantially until the late 1930s when efforts were made  (by two of my ancestors) to find a pastor and revitalize the church. Unfortunately, like the problem with the disappearing church records above, institutional memory is easy to lose. I suspect the deed to the cemetery disappeared during this time. Of course, the county knew the church owned the property, as did some of the church members, but with the surrounding land being bought and sold and consolidated even more it become harder for this little church to exert its rights; even though the last purchase in the early 70s clearly noted on the deed that the purchase excluded the 4 acres known as Stewart Graveyard. When I stumbled over reference to the ownership of the cemetery and brought it to the church, they asked me to proceed to re-establish the link between the church and the cemetery. That has been done. A survey has been completed and documentation provided to the land owner with property around the cemetery. Next effort for the church is some work on the grounds and fencing.

Oak Grove, Okaloosa Co, FL
Church and Old Yellow River Cemetery on 1941 aerial map
Oak Grove, Okaloosa Co, FL
Stewart Cemetery on 1941 aerial map

My next effort is some mapping and documentation of burials in Oak Grove’s cemeteries. There are three cemeteries in the area immediately around the Church. Stewart Cemetery is about 1.5 miles northeast of the church. There is an old graveyard directly east of the church that is sometimes referenced as the “Old Black Cemetery” and sometimes as the “Old Yellow River Cemetery”. There aren’t many headstones left (about 19) there and it is on private property, as far as we know. It has been badly abused and needs some TLC. The earliest visible grave there is 1859 (Daniel R. Baggett). It is my guess there are earlier ones but the headstones have been lost. My Mom remembers numerous, wooden headstones at this cemetery when she was a kid.  I believe this cemetery is near where the schoolhouse and the original church was located. It appears from some preliminary research that not all graves are black community members but several of them, both black and white, are recorded as church members in the remaining church records. This may be the earliest church cemetery but that needs a lot more research.

And finally there is the existing church cemetery with the earliest known grave from 1893. Ann Dixon was the wife of A. B. Dixon, one of the early postmasters in the area. They are both buried in the existing church cemetery along with William Coplin and Roseda King. These are the oldest known burials in the current church cemetery though there appears to be areas around these headstones that are graves without headstones and one grave badly damaged with no identifiers visible. The year 1893 for one of the first burials would fit with the purchase of this church property. Documenting all of these graves, the people’s connections to the community and each other, and preserving these resting places is very important to me. I have known ancestors in two of these cemeteries and enough “missing” ancestors from this area that I may have some in the third. It would be great to do a project that identifies grave locations without headstones using ground penetrating radar. It doesn’t hurt to dream! There are resources out there and companies who work with churches and communities to map cemeteries.

After completing all of the above, I hope to work on, and succeed in getting a historical marker for Oak Grove and the church. All of the above should make that easier.

So, you can see while these are different projects they all fit together nicely. I now want to make a suggestion. If you have one or more ancestors that helped settle a small community in the panhandle and are interested in looking at the bigger environment that contained and supported them, consider doing a project such as my One-Place Study on Oak Grove. The northwest panhandle of Florida, especially the northern part, constantly gets the short end of the stick when it comes to information and celebration. There is Pensacola, and the rest just doesn’t exist in written histories of Florida to any great extent.  I don’t take it personally any more, I just have decided to try and do something about it. A whole lot of people in this area love history and genealogy. Let’s put it to work to help others. Let’s begin to get all of our wonderful research together to put our local and family histories out for others to appreciate and learn from in a way that connects the dots and the families.

This month I’m doing two talks on my book on the First Florida Cavalry Union Volunteers.  On 13 July, I will be speaking at the Jay Historical Society meeting at 6:00 pm.  Address is 5287 Commerce St, Jay, FL.  On 23 July, I will be talking at 2:00 pm to the Santa Rosa Historical Society about the First Florida and the role of Milton and Bagdad in the Civil War at the Imogene Theater, 6866 Caroline St in Milton, FL.  I will have both paperback and hard cover books for sale and will be glad to autograph.  If you are a modern reader and have the Kindle app, my book is available from Amazon for their Kindle.

Tomorrow is a national celebration of our American history. Enjoy it. Be safe and responsible. Be with family. And think about the above and what you might be able to do to add to our local history.

Until next time!

Resources

  • One-Place-Studies.org is a website that provides connection to others working on one place studies.  While many of these studies are in the United Kingdom (they do appreciate genealogy a lot over there!), there are some here in the States and there needs to be many more.
  • University of Florida, George A. Smathers Library Map and Imagery Collection (http://cms.uflib.ufl.edu/maps/collections.aspx).
  • Florida Memory

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The Three Seminole Wars: Florida’s Forgotten Wars, Part 2

The Second Seminole War has the distinction of being the most expensive Indian conflict, as well as the longest, in America’s long history of Indian conflicts. In 1823, the U.S. government negotiated the Treaty of Moultrie Creek establishing a reservation in the middle part of the Florida peninsula. In addition, several chiefs were allowed to keep their villages along the Apalachicola River.

Lead Up to the War: 1827-1835

The Seminoles gave up the remainder of their lands in the panhandle and moved to the reservation. The U.S. government built Fort King near modern Ocala, FL and by 1827 the Army was reporting that the Seminoles had moved to the reservation and all was peaceful. Unfortunately for the future, the blacks who lived among the Seminoles, was an issue that the new white settlers were deeply troubled by. While these Black Seminoles lived in separate villages and maintained some cultural differences from the Seminoles, there was a long and deep connection between the two groups of people. With white settlers bringing in enslaved black persons, these black settlements tormented the white settlers and caused continuing conflict between the white settlers and the Seminoles.  They were seen by the white settlers as an obvious draw to escape for the enslaved persons around the reservation.

In 1828, the federal government closed Fort King, leaving the Seminoles short of food. Hunting wasn’t sufficient within the reservation and they left the reservation looking for game. This led to increased conflicts with the surrounding white settlers. And as I mentioned in my previous post, Andrew Jackson was also elected President in 1828. His position was clear on removal and within two years Congress passed the Indian Removal Act. The foundations were in place for the second war with the Seminoles.

The 1832 Treaty of Payne’s Landing called for removal west, if the land was found suitable by members of the tribe. A few Seminoles traveled to the Indian territory and signed that the land was suitable after talking with the Creek Indians that were already there and visiting areas of the proposed new settlement.  There was significant pressure from some members of the Army for these Seminoles to sign. They returned to Florida and promptly withdrew their support.

In 1834, the people in the villages along the Apalachicola River moved west. The Senate also ratified the Treaty of Payne’s Landing. Since it had been negotiated in 1832, the government considered the three years given in the treaty for the Seminoles to move had started in 1832, though they didn’t ratified it until 1834. The government re-opened Fort King and appointed a new Indian Agent to convince the Seminoles to move. The Indians were called to Fort King but they firmly told the Indian Agent they weren’t moving. Wiley Thompson, the Indian Agent, called for more troops to be sent in and in early 1835 he called the Seminoles back and read them a statement from President Jackson that said that if they didn’t move, they would be forcibly removed. After a heated exchange, the Indians asked for, and received, a delay for the move until the end of the year.

The Second Seminole War: 1835-1842

The situation continued to deteriorate as some of the Seminole leaders became more adamant that they, and their followers, would not move. In August 1835, the Army’s mail carrier was murdered delivering mail between Fort Brooke and Fort King. At this point both sides began gearing up for war. Militia units requested weaponry, settlers moved to nearby Forts, and the Seminoles began attacking more settler activity. Supply trains were attacked, plantations were attacked and burned and white settlers were killed. On 23 December, two companies of militia under Maj. Francis Dade left Fort Brooke with the Seminoles shadowing them. On the 28th, the Seminoles attacked and all but three of the 110 men in the militia were killed. This became known as the Dade Massacre and was the start of the Second Seminole War.

Seat of FL War 1838 Washington Hood

The Second Seminole War lasted seven years and in the end only produced a half win. The Seminoles, knowing they were outnumbered and outgunned, used guerrilla tactics against the Army. The Army didn’t begin to “succeed” until they began burning villages and food supplies. In the end, the win came because most of the Indians had been killed either in battle or by disease and starvation. Most of the remainder were rounded up and shipped to Indian Territory (Oklahoma). A few hundred Seminoles were left in south central Florida in the Everglades, primarily because the government was ready to end the war and the Army in Florida was simply unable to round up these holdouts.

The Third Seminole War: 1855-1858

An unsettled peace resulted for thirteen years. The white settlements around the Everglades continued to expand and cries to move the remaining Seminoles continued. The Third Seminole War was less a war than a series of raids and counter attacks. It was initiated by an Army surveying team burning an Indian settlement outside the Everglades and the Seminoles retaliating with a raid near present day Fort Myers. The Army had learned from the Second Seminole War and made every effort to destroy food supplies when found. After three years, weary and starving a few more Seminoles agreed to move west but a few refused and retired deep into the Everglades.  Their descendants remain there today.

1856 Florida G. W. Colton
Florida, 1856, G. W. Colton

Finding Ancestors Who Fought in the Wars

The most likely of the three wars to produce a Florida ancestor is the Second Seminole War but the Third is also a possibility.  The First Seminole War might yield an ancestor that moved to Florida after the war from Georgia or Tennessee. The government did not have a large, standing Army and depended heavily of militia units, even though they were often discounted by the regular Army as unreliable. Militia units were generally from a particular locale, often led by a civilian-soldier and composed of civilian-soldiers and the men were generally enlisted for only short periods of time. This allowed these men to fulfill their duties to the militia and maintain their farms or businesses but did prove challenging to Army continuity. And because these men were citizen-soldiers some were maybe not into battle as much as someone trained to that profession.

First, identify an ancestor who would have been an adult male during the time periods of the wars. Remember the First Seminole War had militia from Georgia and Tennessee and then regular Army and Lower Creeks made up the remainder of the force. I find that Fold3.com is the better pay-for site for an initial search but Ancestry.com also has some records. Another possibility that is free, but can take more time, is located at the University of Florida, George A Smathers Library and is online. It is a digital copy of the book, Florida Department of Military Affairs, Special Archives Publication Number 68, Vol 2. This is a muster roll of all of the militia units in the Seminole Indian Wars. The search button is near the top in the middle of the page. Read the instructions for searching or you really will be spending a lot of time looking and not finding much.

Muster Roll Barrow's Co 1Muster Roll Barrow's Co 2Muster Roll Barrow's Co 3

Let’s say I didn’t know whether my ancestor Richmond Barrow, from Oak Grove, Santa Rosa Co (Okaloosa today) in northwest Florida, had served in any of the Indian Wars but his age would make that a possibility. Since I know his first name often is spelled with and without the “d” at the end and sometimes as Richman, I just put in the name Barrow and hit search. I get three results. The first one isn’t applicable and the second is a man I know is Richmond’s brother Reuben N. Clicking on that one gives me a company of men from Yellow River and going to the next page shows that Richmond served as Reuben’s 2nd Sergeant. You can save to a .pdf the pages you want using the “print” button at the website or a screen capture if preferred. When I do a screen capture to save as a .jpg I use the program FastStone Capture.  If saving to pdf from the print function I find it best to save an extra page at the front and back of the pages you want, just to be safe. I’ve sometimes had it cut off the first page.

Now that you have an ancestor that served (do your due diligence to make sure the man with the same name is your ancestor. The other names should be neighbors of your ancestor; another good reason to pay attention to neighbors when you look at census records).   Now go to the Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office Records. Many of the men who served were given land grants for their service.  Don’t make the mistake of only searching in the area where they lived. Land grants could be anywhere in the country. Under location scroll all the way to the bottom and click on “Any State” and leave “Any County” as is. Use the name as it was written on the muster roll or just search on last name but with common surnames that can be overwhelming. If nothing comes up, go to searching alternate spellings of both first and last names. Search warrantees and patentees (both checked). What you are looking for are Accession numbers beginning with “MW” which stands for military warrant.

Barrow Richmond MW_Patent_0915-370

If I do all of the above, including resorting to alternate first name spelling, I find a military warrant record for “Richmon Barrow” issued under the authority of the ScripWarrant Act of 1850. He received 159.75 acres in Escambia Co, FL. If you click on the patent image you will see that this is the right Richmon because it will list the company he served in that led to the issue of the land grant. In the case of Richmon[d] he sold the right to the grant to John M. Robertson who received the warrant.

Fold3 has a number of records available that can be searched, as does Ancestry, that can add to this initial information. Look at all records mentioning your ancestor, not just the records that pertain directly to them. These records where they were witnesses for another person can provide greater detail on the events these men experienced.

After researching Richmond and the Second Seminole War, I found that 1) he first served in the 7th Florida Militia, Long’s Co. as a private and then in his brother’s company 1st Regiment Florida Militia, Capt Barrow’s Mounted Co. as a 2nd Sergeant. 2) he received a land grant in Escambia Co, FL and sold it to John M. Robertson. 3) Reviewing the list of privates in Barrow’s Co. tells me I have a number of other ancestors to research in more detail.  Being a curious family historian, I now want to know where these two companies were stationed during the war and what they might have been involved in. I have more ancestors to research and I would like to know more about John M. Robertson. Is he a stranger or somehow related to the family?

I hope this encourages you to dig into your ancestor’s lives while doing genealogy and begin to sense what they experienced. Don’t just collect names from “shaky leaves” or Ancestry Public Member Trees and assume it is correct (I don’t find a lot of it is, sourcing is seriously lacking.  And those leafs don’t always connect you to the right John Smith!) or look your ancestor up in the census, record the info, and feel you are done because you can create a tree with names on it. If you are wanting to know who you are by looking at what your ancestors brought to your being, you need to do real research and put some life to their lives as seen from today.

Until next time

Resources

  • Florida’s Seminole Wars: 1817-1858 by Joe Knetsch
  • History of the Second Seminole War, 1835-1842 by John K. Mahon
  • Reminiscences of the Second Seminole War by John Bemrose
  • The War in Florida by Woodburne Potter
  • Osceola and the Great Seminole War: A Struggle for Justice and Freedom by Thom Hatch

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The Three Seminole Wars: Florida’s Forgotten Wars, Part 1

Map of East and West Florida 1794

I find that if modern day Floridians know there was a Seminole War in our past, they often have a vague notion of what is known as the 2nd Seminole War. It was a war, of sorts, then it ended and Florida became a State. Oh, and Andrew Jackson fit in there somewhere and marched across the panhandle. These statements are certainly true, though some were in the 1st Seminole War not the 2nd, but do not provide much context about our ancestors’ lives during the early years of the territory and the State. My guess is if you had ancestors in Florida during the period of the 2nd Seminole War (December 1835-August 1842) or the 3rd Seminole War (1855-1858), they likely served for at least a brief period, especially in the 2nd which was protracted and participation widespread. That may be true even if your ancestors were in Georgia, Alabama or another deep south State since a number of them provided militia units during at least one of the three wars. In this blog and the next, I am going to try to give a broad overview of the three wars, provide some information on the records out there that might be informative on an ancestor’s service, and provide one of the rosters of men who served in the 2nd Seminole War from what was then Walton Co, but would soon become Santa Rosa and eventually Okaloosa Co, Florida.

The Second and Third Wars to Expand America

The War of 1812, another often forgotten war in America’s past, was fought between June 1812 and February 1815. Near the end of the war, Andrew Jackson and his men marched through the panhandle on their way to New Orleans, where they fought a decisive battle against the British after the war was actually over. But the victory made him a national hero. He was in the area because he was leading the militia against the Creek Indians (Muskogee) in what is known as The Red Stick War, mostly in Alabama but also into Florida. The Red Stick War ended in August 1814 at the Treaty of Fort Jackson, freeing Jackson and his men to march to New Orleans via the Florida panhandle. He essentially invaded Florida and drove a British force from Pensacola. It was good practice because three years later he would return to Florida in what is known as the 1st Seminole War.

If you try to lock down dates for the 1st Seminole War you will find your eyeballs spinning. During this time period, the deep south and the Gulf Coast was the southwestern frontier. Native peoples were desperately trying to stop the encroachment of Americans onto their lands. Misunderstandings, confrontations, and indiscriminate murder occurred on both sides. Therefore, the dates can range from 1814 to 1819 to just 1818 depending on how the source views its own history and involvement in the many events occurring in this area that involved native peoples. But basically the major events occurred after the War of 1812 was over but most flow from events that occurred during the War of 1812. In 1814, while Britain and the U.S. were still at war, the British had built a fort at Prospect Bluff on the Apalachicola River and armed the Creek and Seminole Indians and many runaway slaves who were living with the Indians. A company of Royal Marines under the command of Lt. Colonel Edward Nicolls arrived and was invited to relocate to Pensacola. It is these British marines that Andrew Jackson and his men drove out of Pensacola on their way to New Orleans. The marines returned to the river fort and remained after the war was over.

Nicolls provisioned the fort and turned it over to the Seminoles and fugitive slaves. Word of this fort made the settlers in Georgia and Alabama anxious and for good reason. The conflicts between natives and settlers were almost continuous along the U.S. and Spanish border.  In addition, the runaway slaves were certain to be a bad example for the slaves in south Georgia and Alabama, according to the meme of the time. This fort came to be known as Negro Fort since most of the people who stayed were runaway slaves and not the Seminoles who had no interest in the fort. It did not take long for Andrew Jackson to address the problem in his usual way.

In April of 1816, Jackson notified the Spanish Governor that if the Spanish did not remove the fort, the Americans would. The Governor’s response was that he didn’t have the troops to accomplish that so Jackson assigned Brig. General Edmund Pendleton Gaines to take the fort. Gaines had Fort Scott built on the Flint River just above the Florida border. Gaines intended to supply the fort via New Orleans and the Apalachicola River. This would serve two purposes: 1) the Americans could keep an eye on the Fort even though in Spanish territory, and 2) if they fired on the Americans that would be excuse enough to destroy the Fort.

In July, the supply ships reached the Apalachicola River and Clinch, who had been assigned to build Fort Scott, met the fleet at the Negro Fort with about 100 American soldiers and 150 Lower Creek Indians. Clinch’s two gunboats took positions across from the Fort and waited. The men in the fort fired but without experience in using cannon the threat didn’t amount to much. The Americans fired back and the ninth shot hit the powder magazine, leveling the fort and killing more than 250 men, women and children. The Americans withdrew back to Fort Scott.

But the conflicts continued. In February 1817, after raiding and stealing parties had gone back and forth for months, a Mrs. Garrett and her two children were killed by a Seminole raiding party in Camden Co, GA. This set off the final chain of events that would lead to the 1st Seminole War and the transfer of Florida from Spain to the United States.

The First Seminole War Begins (200th anniversary this year)

In November 1817, a conflict developed between the Miccosukee in southwestern Georgia and the commander of Fort Scott. Chief Neamathla of Fowltown challenged the use of the land on the eastern side of Flint River. The commander insisted that the land had been ceded to the U.S. by the Creeks. Neamathla insisted that the Miccosukee were not Creeks (Muskogee) and Creeks had no right to cede Miccosukee land. The Miccosukee were driven out of the village. A week later a supply boat carrying supplies for Fort Scott was attacked on the Apalachicola, killing about 40 to 50 people, including seven wives and possibly some children. Six survivors made it to the Fort. General Gaines was ordered to invade Florida and pursue the Indians but he had left for East Florida to deal with pirates.  Andrew Jackson was ordered to lead the invasion.

In March 1818, Jackson entered Florida with 800 U.S. Army Regulars, 1000 Tennessee volunteers, 1000 Georgia militia and about 1400 Lower Creek under the command of Brig. General William McIntosh, a Creek chief. They marched down the Apalachicola River to the Negro Fort where they built Fort Gadsden. They then set out for the Miccosukee villages of Tallahassee and Miccosukee and both villages were burned. From these two locations they marched to Fort St. Marks.

Here Jackson seized the Spanish fort and imprisoned Alexander Asbuthnot, a Scottish trader living in the Bahamas. Asbuthnot traded with the Florida Indians and had written letters for them to both British and American officials. It was believed he was selling guns to the Indians and preparing them for war. Two Indian leaders were also captured and summarily hanged without trial. The troops left St. Marks and attacked and destroyed some villages along the Suwanee River. Here he declared victory and sent the Georgia militia and Lower Creeks home. The remaining troops marched back to St. Marks.

Two Seminole Chiefs Captured with Alexander Arbuthnot at St. Marks
Trial of Ambrister During the Seminole War

Around this time the Army captured Robert Ambrister, a former Royal Marine, and a self-described British agent. A military tribunal was called and both Ambrister and Asbuthnot were charged with aiding and inciting the Seminoles to war with the U.S. Both were found guilty and sentenced to death but the tribunal changed the sentence for Ambrister to fifty lashes and a year at hard labor. Jackson would have none of it and had both hanged.

Andrew Jackson's Route in West Florida, 1818
Jackson’s Route Across the Panhandle in 1818

General Jackson reported later that he heard a report that the Indians were being supplied by the Spanish at Pensacola so he left Fort Gadsden and marched to Pensacola with about 1000 men (see map above.  Route near the northern end of the panhandle.  Note towns named from this 1829 effort to document the route). The Spanish governor protested, which did not slow Jackson down. He arrived in Pensacola and the Spanish withdrew to Fort Barrancas. Jackson and his men took Pensacola and the two sides exchanged fire for a couple of days and then the Spanish surrendered.

Negotiations had already begun between the U.S. and Spain for the purchase of Florida. For a time the Spanish protested Jackson’s actions by ending the talks. John Quincy Adams, who was then Secretary of State and handling the negotiations, wrote a letter apologizing for the seizure and indicated that it was not the policy of the U.S. to seize any Spanish territory. Spain resumed negotiations. Adams demanded that Spain either control the inhabitants of East Florida or cede it to the U.S. Spain ceded East Florida and renounced all claims to West Florida. The U.S. took possession of Florida in 1821. As I’ve covered in an earlier blog, immigration of Americans into West Florida in significant numbers began between the treaty signed in 1819 and the official transfer in 1821.

Florida 1822
Florida 1822

In 1823, the U.S. tried to settle the Seminoles on a reservation in the central part of the peninsula. The Seminoles did move onto the reservation but clashes continued sporadically. The white settlers wanted removal and the call for removal never ceased. The Seminoles were not interested in moving. The blacks living with the Seminoles continued to create misunderstandings and hostility between the white settlers and the Indians by just living with Seminoles and discouraging the Seminoles from moving. In 1828, the U.S. closed the fort they had built close to the reservation and the Indians looking for food wandered off the reservation. Also in 1828, Andrew Jackson was elected as President. Two years later Congress passed the Indian Removal Act which required Indians to move west of the Mississippi. In 1832, a treaty was negotiated for the Seminoles to move west if the land was found suitable. The Chiefs that went to Indian Territory to inspect the land on the Creek Reservation and signed a document indicating the land was acceptable, but took their signing back when they got home. The villages along the Apalachicola moved west. Those in the central part of the peninsula did not. In June 1835, an incident occurred between some white settlers and a group of Indians that touched off the next conflict with the Seminoles.

War came in December 1835. Next time we will visit the 2nd and 3rd Seminole Wars and look at some militia records for troops from the panhandle.

Until next time.

Resources

  • Florida Memory.  A great resource for early Florida photographs and maps.  The route of Jackson’s march and the two scenes from the war are from Florida Memory.
  • Florida’s Seminole Wars: 1817-1858 by Joe Knetsch
  • Battle For the Southern Frontier: The Creek War and the War of 1812 by Mike Bunn and Clay Williams
  • Tohopeka: Rethinking the Creek War & the War of 1812 edited by Kathryn E. Holland Braund

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