FLAGLER COUNTY, FLORIDA A CENTENNIAL HISTORY Logo of Flagler County Seal of Flagler County A Presentation Focusing on this Recently Released Local History Book by Randy Jaye
INTERESTING FLORIDA & NE FLORIDA FACTS • Florida has the longest European-Influenced history in the United States. • In 1513, the Spanish politician and explorer Juan Ponce de León led the first known European expedition that officially landed in Florida ( La Florida ), somewhere in the northeastern area, but there is no “Plymouth Rock” to mark the exact historic location. • It is estimated that there was approximately 350,000 indigenous people living in the Florida peninsula at the time of European contact (1513); 150,000 in northeastern Florida. • Florida was under Spanish Rule for 288 years; British Rule for 20 years; Independent Rule for 11 years; and has been under American Rule for 195 years (23 years as a Territory and 4 years under the Confederate States of America). Florida became a state in 1845. • St. Augustine was founded in 1565 (and was the first permanent European Settlement - today it is the ‘Oldest City’ in the Continental United States). • Jamestown, Virginia (the first permanent English settlement in the Americas) was founded in 1607 - (42 years after St. Augustine). • Boston was founded in 1630 - (65 years after St. Augustine). • Philadelphia was founded in 1682 - (117 years after St. Augustine). • Washington, DC was founded in 1790 - (225 years after St. Augustine). 2 FLAGLER COUNTY, FLORIDA: A CENTENNIAL HISTORY - BY RANDY JAYE
BEFORE FLAGLER COUNTY (INDIGENOUS PEOPLE) Drawing of a Timucuan round house dwelling with several native Americans navigating a Indian Shell Midden at Shell Bluff County Park. dug out canoe on an adjacent waterway. St. Johns Period pottery, shells and bone A midden (a.k.a. kitchen midden or fragments discovered in Flagler County. Recent archaeological discoveries shell heap) is an old dump site for The St. Johns culture (an at the Page-Ladson history site domestic waste. Typical artifacts archaeologically defined culture) near Tallahassee has verified that found within middens are animal existed in northeastern Florida from humans have been in the northern bones, human excrement, botanical 500 BC until shortly after European Florida area for over 14,000 years. material, various shells, charcoal, contact in the 17 th century. The St. A tribe of native American people pollen, man-made artifacts such as Johns culture is defined in terms of that the Europeans called pottery, jewelry and tools that are pottery styles and existed based on Timucuans were settled in the associated with past human the exploitation of marine and fresh northeastern section of Florida at occupation. water resources. Human villages the time of European contact. and camps were obviously located Approximately 250 years later they near water sources. were extinct. FLAGLER COUNTY, FLORIDA: A CENTENNIAL HISTORY - BY RANDY JAYE 3
BEFORE FLAGLER COUNTY (EUROPEAN INFLUENCE ) Logs being transported to the Neoga Bulow Plantation – ruins of a huge 19 th century saw mill via steam powered narrow sugar mill complex. gauge local railroads (their engines were sometimes called ‘dummies’) - Drawing of Fort Fulton (Seminole War Fort ). Present-day Flagler County was a circa late 1800s. land of plantations from the 1700s to The Second Seminole War (1835- Prior to Henry Flagler’s the end of the Second Seminole War 1842) devastated the present-day standard railways local (1842). To date, there has been over Flagler County area as the Seminoles narrow gauge railcars were 20 plantations identified through and their allies burnt down most of the best automated historic documentation, but many the plantations and many other transportation for lumbering more existed and have not yet been structures including bridges. The and agricultural operations properly researched. They planted huge and prosperous plantation as roads were poor and and harvested various crops and economy never recovered and the automobiles and trucks were employed a workforce (mostly made area’s population declined. not yet in common use. up of human slaves of African origin). FLAGLER COUNTY, FLORIDA: A CENTENNIAL HISTORY - BY RANDY JAYE 4
FLAGLER COUNTY BECOMES OFFICIAL The bill to create Flagler County passed in the 1917 session of the Florida Legislature and was signed by Governor Sidney Catts on April 28, 1917. A referendum on whether or not to create the county passed on June 11, 1917 despite some political and public objections from Volusia County. County government officials were appointed by Gov. Catts and they officially took office on July 1, 1917. Flagler County’s First Day Celebration was held on July 2, 1917 in its new county seat of Bunnell. Several thousand people were in attendance and guest speakers included Gov. Catts and J.E. Ingraham (the Vice President of the Florida East Coast Railroad and mayor of St. Augustine). The new county did not have much money so a two-story building in Bunnell was leased to house county offices. The courts were held in a vacated large upstairs room in the Masonic Lodge building in Bunnell. In 1924, a new county court house was built. 5 FLAGLER COUNTY, FLORIDA: A CENTENNIAL HISTORY - BY RANDY JAYE
FLAGLER COUNTY WAS CREATED FROM PARTS OF ST. JOHNS AND VOLUSIA COUNTIES Circa 1917 Circa 1910 Left: A circa 1910 map featuring St. Johns and Volusia counties showing towns such as Neoga, Espanola and Bunnell that are now in Flagler County. Right: In 1917, Flagler County was created from the southern section of St. Johns County and the northern section of Volusia County and comprises a total area of 571 square miles. FLAGLER COUNTY, FLORIDA: A CENTENNIAL HISTORY - BY RANDY JAYE 6
WHY WAS FLAGLER COUNTY CREATED The biggest reason is an ages-old one: money. In the early 1900s, people living in what is today Flagler County had to travel many miles to transact business at the county seats of St. Augustine (St. Johns County) and Deland (Volusia County). This was a time consuming, costly and an annoying inconvenience while the area’s population and business activities were growing. These challenges fueled the desire of local residents to petition the Florida Legislature for the creation of a new county. An independent county also meant that local community leaders would have more control over political, administrative and economic decisions. A local delegation attended the 1917 session of the Florida Legislature with intensions to convince the state Senate and House of Representatives that a new county needed to be established. This delegation was led by Isaac I. Moody Jr. who was the chairman of the Board of County Commissioners of St. Johns County and represented a considerable portion of the area. The Senate and House of Representatives passed the legislation and Flagler County was founded on April 28, 1917. What’s in a name? Some of the members of the legislative delegation proposed the name of Moody County, but Isaac I. Moody declined having the county named after him and suggested the name of Flagler County in honor of Henry Morrison Flagler. Some of the delegation thought the name of Flagler County would entice Henry Flagler’s widow, Mary Lily Kenan Flagler Bingham (1867-1917), to donate money to build a new county courthouse. But, she never donated any money and died soon after the county was founded on July 27, 1917. 7 FLAGLER COUNTY, FLORIDA: A CENTENNIAL HISTORY - BY RANDY JAYE
FATHER OF FLAGLER COUNTY: ISAAC I. MOODY Isaac I. Moody Jr. (1874-1918) moved to St. Johns County in the early 1890s and first worked in the turpentine business as a woods rider in Bunnell. In 1901, he married Dora Lee in Appling County, GA. In 1909, Moody was named the president of the Bunnell Development Company. This company advertised ten and twenty acre tracts for sale in northern newspapers to allure people to relocate to the area with the possibility of year-long harvests. In the center of a large tract of land they planned the town of Bunnell which was chartered in 1913. He became one of Bunnell’s first city commissioners. In 1916, Moody and his business partner “Major” Lambert purchased seven thousand acres of fine farming lands in present-day Flagler County, which was considered to be some of the best land in northeastern Florida. He was a 32nd degree Mason (both Scottish and York rites), and a member of the Morocco Temple of Shriners at Jacksonville. In 1917, he was appointed as the new county’s first state representative. He continued with various business ventures, community activities and county government responsibilities until his untimely death. He was born October 27, 1874 in Appling County, GA and died at the age of 44 on December 17, 1918 in Bunnell, FL due to an influenza epidemic. Portrait of Isaac I. Moody – circa 1895. 8 FLAGLER COUNTY, FLORIDA: A CENTENNIAL HISTORY - BY RANDY JAYE
SOME LOCAL FOLKLORE • Henry Flagler attended Flagler County’s First Day Celebration. • Amelia Earhart landed an airplane at the Flagler Beach Airport. • Flagler County was once the “Hanging Capital” of Florida. • Rear Admiral Richard Byrd’s airplane landed at the Flagler Beach Airport. • Northeastern Florida is sheltered from Major Hurricanes. 9 FLAGLER COUNTY, FLORIDA: A CENTENNIAL HISTORY - BY RANDY JAYE
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