EDITORS NOTE: This is a work in process be patient " I'm slow, but I'm sho !!! "

CRACKER BORN, CRACKER BRED, AND WHEN I DIE I'LL BE CRACKER DEAD !!

EARLY FLORIDA PIONEER ROOTS
Hill McInnis Wear Lee Jackson Woodward Sears White Curry Nobles Garrott

Spain sold Florida to the U.S. around 1825 and thus began one of the longest land giveaways in the history of our country. These land grants lasted till as late as the 1870's and beyond.

Try as they may, Florida was a hard sell for the government in the
early 1800's, not many were willing to brave the rigors of life in early Florida.
If you didn't starve to death or disease didn't kill you, there was still the indians, 'gators, painters', skeeters, bellboys and a host of other calamities that could befall you any second.
Indians were still a very real threat until as late as the 1840's as far north as present day Lafayette County. The last of the Seminole Wars ended this threat for the most part in the early 1840's. (for some silly reason they thought the place belonged to them just because they were there first.)
Florida was admitted into the union in 1845. The early settlers for the most part were farmers. Game was plentiful and fishing was good. So these early pioneers scratched out a living in the rich sandy soil, living close to the land and one day at a time taking whatever mother nature chose to dish out.
From this point onward Florida progressed into the state of today, with the exception being that brief period of time between 1860 to 1865 when our nation as a whole came to a standstill to settle its own differences. Florida for the most part played no significant role in this as a state. Though many volunteers from Florida fought gallantly for both sides in many battles from the Virginias to Louisiana.
As far as the Civil War in Florida it was almost a casual affair, just another hardship to deal with. This is not to say passions were not high, as everywhere else in this country, opinions and loyalties were on both sides. One thing I can say for them Florida Rebels, theirs was the only Confederate capitol that was never captured. (ie Battle of the Natural Bridge)
These early pioneers were a special breed , hale and hardy and it took quite a few years for this special breed to filter in out of the Virginias, Carolinas, Alabama and Georgia but, Florida was better for it.

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