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Source
State Library of Florida, WPA - Historical Records Survey, County Histories
Description
Brief history of Putnam County, Florida collected by the Works Progress Administration's Historical Records Survey.
Date
April 5, 1937
Contributors
Format
Coverage
Personal Subjects
Corporate Subjects
Subjects
Geographic Term
Note to Researchers:
Though the WPA field workers included extensive citations for the factual information contained in these county histories, it should be noted that these historical narratives were produced in the 1930s by federal government employees, and might reflect the inherent social biases of the era.
FRANK P. INGRAM
ADMINISTRATOR WPA
PUTNAM
W. A. MCMULLEN, JR.
ASST. ADMINISTRATOR
FLORIDA WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION
(STATE OFFICE)
EXCHANGE BUILDING
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA
Palatka, Florida
May 17, 1937
PLEASE ADDRESS REPLY: ATTENTION
Mrs. Catherine Masters
Supervisor HRS and SAS
906 Bisbee Building
Jacksonville, Florida
Dear Mrs. Masters:
The following is the information requested in your letter of the 6th.
COUNTY:
Date of creation of first county government,
April 30, 1849.
Original form of government: Clerk of Circuit Court, Sheriff, Tax Assessor, Tax Collector, Justice of Peace, Board of County Commissioners.
Present form of government: Same as above.
(Above taken from "First County Elections", pp. 1)
Date of first meeting of County Commissioners; and other county officials: May 8, 1849.
(This information from "Minutes of County Commissioners", Book AA, pp. 1)
INCORPORATED TOWNS:
Palatka: Incorporated, -- 1854.
Original form of government: Council form, with Mayor, Aldermen, Assessor, Collector, Treasurer, and Town Clerk.
Present form of government: Commission-Manager Plan, with five Commissioners, one of whom to be Mayor.
Date of change: January 7, 1924.
Unable to locate original Charter.
Present Charter in vault of City Clerk, City Hall.
(Above information given by custodians of City Records)
Title
Historical Sketch of Putnam County
Subject
Cities and towns--History
Florida--Putnam County
Seminole War, 2nd (1835-1842)
Railroads
Works Progress Administration, Historical Records Survey
Description
Brief history of Putnam County, Florida collected by the Works Progress Administration's Historical Records Survey.
Creator
Works Progress Administration, Historical Records Survey
Source
State Library of Florida, WPA - Historical Records Survey, County Histories
Date
1937-04-05
Contributor
Anderson, Margaret B.
Canova, Leon J.
Format
local histories
Language
eng-US
Type
Text
Identifier
wpa_county_history_putnam_01
Coverage
Depression Era Florida (1926-1939)
Thumbnail
/fpc/memory/omeka_images/thumbnails/wpa_county_histories.jpg
Geographic Term
Putnam County (Fla.)
Palatka (Fla.)
Ocklawaha River (Fla.)
ImageID
wpa_county_history_putnam_01_01
wpa_county_history_putnam_01_02
wpa_county_history_putnam_01_03
wpa_county_history_putnam_01_04
wpa_county_history_putnam_01_05
wpa_county_history_putnam_01_06
wpa_county_history_putnam_01_07
wpa_county_history_putnam_01_08
wpa_county_history_putnam_01_09
wpa_county_history_putnam_01_10
wpa_county_history_putnam_01_11
wpa_county_history_putnam_01_12
Subject - Corporate
Wilson Cypress Company
Edgar Plastic Kaolin Company
Subject - Person
Marver, James
Putnam, Benjamin A.
Hart, Hubbard L.
Gray, H. A.
Transcript
FRANK P. INGRAM
ADMINISTRATOR WPA
PUTNAM
W. A. MCMULLEN, JR.
ASST. ADMINISTRATOR
FLORIDA WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION
(STATE OFFICE)
EXCHANGE BUILDING
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA
Palatka, Florida
May 17, 1937
PLEASE ADDRESS REPLY: ATTENTION
Mrs. Catherine Masters
Supervisor HRS and SAS
906 Bisbee Building
Jacksonville, Florida
Dear Mrs. Masters:
The following is the information requested in your letter of the 6th.
COUNTY:
Date of creation of first county government,
April 30, 1849.
Original form of government: Clerk of Circuit Court, Sheriff, Tax Assessor, Tax Collector, Justice of Peace, Board of County Commissioners.
Present form of government: Same as above.
(Above taken from "First County Elections", pp. 1)
Date of first meeting of County Commissioners; and other county officials: May 8, 1849.
(This information from "Minutes of County Commissioners", Book AA, pp. 1)
INCORPORATED TOWNS:
Palatka: Incorporated, -- 1854.
Original form of government: Council form, with Mayor, Aldermen, Assessor, Collector, Treasurer, and Town Clerk.
Present form of government: Commission-Manager Plan, with five Commissioners, one of whom to be Mayor.
Date of change: January 7, 1924.
Unable to locate original Charter.
Present Charter in vault of City Clerk, City Hall.
(Above information given by custodians of City Records)
FRANK P. INGRAM
ADMINISTRATOR
W. A. MCMULLEN, JR.
ASST. ADMINISTRATOR
FLORIDA WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION
(STATE OFFICE)
EXCHANGE BUILDING
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA
Page 2
PLEASE ADDRESS REPLY: ATTENTION
Welaka: Incorporated, June 21, 1887
(Recorded in "Deed Book" 15, pp. 91-95, Clerk's Office, Palatka, Florida)
Original form of government: Mayor, Clerk, Marshall, Aldermen, (Council Form)
No change in form of government.
Unable to locate original Charter.
Interlachen:
Incorporated, January 24, 1888.
(Recorded in "Book of Conveyances No. 15", pp. 564-575, Clerk's Office, Palatka, Florida.)
Original form of government; Mayor, Marshall, Clerk, Alderman. (Council Form)
No change in form of government.
Unable to locate original Charter.
N.B.: The official seal of Interlachen, was designed by Elihu Vedder, [an] artist of Rome, Italy, and recorded in "Book of Conveyances" No. 15, pp. 564-575, in Clerk's Office, County Court House, Palatka, Florida.
Pomona:
Incorporated, May 19, 1894.
(Recorded in "Book of Incorporations" No. 1, pp. 7, in office of Circuit Clerk, Putnam County Court House, Palatka, Florida)
Original form of government: Mayor, Clerk, Alderman, Marshall. (Council Form)
No change in form of government.
Unable to locate Original Charter.
FRANK P. INGRAM
ADMINISTRATOR
W. A. MCMULLEN, JR.
ASST. ADMINISTRATOR
FLORIDA WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION
(STATE OFFICE)
EXCHANGE BUILDING
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA
Page 3
PLEASE ADDRESS REPLY: ATTENTION
Crescent City:
Incorporated, June 5, 1883.
(Filed in County Clerk's Office, Palatka, June 13, 1883, in file box in basement vault marked "Incorporation Papers")
Original form of government; Mayor, Councilmen, Clerk Marshall. (Council Form).
No change in form of government.
Unable to locate original Charter.
The suggestion was made by custodians of these records, that the original charters were probably on file in Tallahassee.
Yours very truly,
Margaret B. Anderson
(Miss) Margaret B. Anderson
Box 2, Palatka, Florida.
FRANK P. INGRAM
ADMINISTRATOR WPA
PUTNAM
W. A. MCMULLEN, JR.
ASST. ADMINISTRATOR
FLORIDA WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION
(STATE OFFICE)
EXCHANGE BUILDING
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA
Palatka, Florida
April 5, 1937
PLEASE ADDRESS REPLY: ATTENTION
Mrs. Catherine Masters
Supervisor HRS and SAS
906 Bisbee Building
Jacksonville, Florida
Dear Mrs. Masters:
Attached you will find a history of Putnam County, which was written and sent in by Mr. Leon J. Canova. I understood from him that he was limited to a certain number of words, and so had condensed it accordingly.
Yours very truly,
Margaret B. Anderson
(Miss) Margaret B. Anderson
COPY
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF PUTNAM COUNTY.
Putnam County was created on January 13, 1849, from portions of Alachua, St. John's, Marion and Orange Counties, with an area of 772 square miles, or about 494,000 acres, Palatka being made the County seat.
The first known settlement in the area now comprising this county was that of one hundred families established as a colony of Denys Rolle, an Englishman, in 1765, who had obtained about 40,000 acres on the east side of the St. Johns River, some three miles southeast of Palatka. The colony made little progress and was entirely dissolved when the British Government ceded the territory back to Spain.
In 1770 Lord Tucker, of the English nobility, settled at Welaka, but his holdings there were not of long duration.
"Bartram's Travels" published in 1769, describes Palatka as an Indian settlement with eight or ten habitations, considerable plantings, and a large orange grove.
James Marver was the first white settler in Palatka, where he and two companions, Hines and Woodruff, are said to have acquired land grants. [They] built a lodge at the foot of the present Main Street. The mention of them is very vague. It is likely they settled on the English grant obtained by Balen Copp, which covered more than the entire area of Palatka.
In 1774 the English firm of Spaulding and Company opened a trading post on the west side of the river, a few miles north of Lake George.
In 1882, Palatka became a prominent point of transit between St. Augustine and the Arredonda land grant in what is now part of Alachua County, when Moses E. Levy became interested with Arredondo and others in its development.
- 1 -
Early in 1830, Dr. Brush of Baltimore, seems to have acquired the lands and trading post formerly occupied and operated by James Marver.
At different times during the Indian Hostilities Palatka was the [headquarters] of Generals Worth, Winfield Scott, Taylor, Lieutenant Sherman and Major Benjamin A. Putnam, after whom the county was named. Major Putnam was an experienced and active [Indian] campaigner out of St. Augustine, but finally made his home in Palatka, where some of his descendents are still living. He was the first President of the Historical Society of Florida, when organized in 1856.
During the Seven Years Indian war, Palatka was a port of entry, George Lucas being the first collector, and Robert R. Reid, son of former Governor Reid, was the second. The port was abolished in the early seventies.
The first newspaper in this section was "The Whig Banner", which was first published on June 20, 1846, at Palatka.
In October 1852, the first school in the County was started in the Court House.
Palatka was incorporated as a town in 1853.
The St. James Methodist Episcopal Church was established in Putnam County in 1850; St. Marks Episcopal Church in 1853; the Presbyterian congregation of eight was called together by Rev. Joseph H. Quarterman at the Court House on the first Sunday in November 1855, and St. Monica's Catholic Church was founded December 8, 1858.
A small log house which was used as a powder magazine during the Seven Year Indian war (1835-1842) stood near the site of the present Presbyterian Church until comparatively recent years.
In the early part of 1855 the "Palatka Southern Sun" was published.
- 2 -
On February 2, 1856, "The National Democrat" was published at Palatka by Calvin Gillis.
In 1855, Mr. Hubbard L. Hart bought the stage line running from Palatka to Tampa, which he operated for several years. He then put on a line of stern wheeled steamers to ply between Palatka and Silver Spring, which except when interrupted by the war (1861-65) he continued until the latter 90's.
About 1855 Captain H. A. Gray started the first line of barge freighters, propelled by poles in the hands of darkies, on the Ocklawaha River. From Palatka to Silver Springs required three weeks - now accomplished in two days. He then built a boat, the first steamer to ply on the Ocklawaha between Palatka and Silver Springs, the great scenic route of Florida.
On January 1, 1857, the public school system was inaugurated in Putnam County.
The Civil War paralyzed the development of the county and great hardships followed. Palatka was several times shelled by gun boats, Portions [sic] of the breast-works thrown up for defence, may still be seen. At one time it was occupied by 5,000 Federal troops.
Captain H. A. Gray, the Ocklawaha pioneer, joined the forces of Captain Dickison, and it was he who commanded the ambushed forces consisting of a few men at Horse Landing, which after a forty-five minute fight, without the loss of a single man, captured the Federal gun boat COLUMBINE, which sustained a loss of 72 men killed.
In a spirited skirmish near Palatka in the summer of 1864 with Federal forces, Captain Dickison's son, Charles, was killed. The Federals were worsted and evacuated Palatka that night.
- 3 -
In 1869, George W. Pratt established the "Eastern Herald", the name of which was later changed to the "Palatka Herald", which still continues weekly publication.
Early in the 70's the traffic of steam boats on the St. Johns river waxed into keenest competition as to prices of passage and freight, as well as in speed. All of those boats burned pine wood and every river dock was crodedly [?] piled with cords of this fuel. Piratical freighters with lights doused, would quietly slip up to the docks at night and steal every stick of wood stacked on them. It became an art with some of the river captains of independent lines.
Boats from Charleston, S. C., plied to Palatka, the head of deep water navigation, and there was a mixed fleet of river steamers ranging in size from tiny puffing launches, and cumbersome slow, stern and side wheelers, to swift, palatial boats handling freight, but principally the passenger trade. Two lines for years operated between Jacksonville and Palatka, each with a steamer leaving both ends of the line every morning. Often these boats were packed with a sporting crowd, the betting was heavy, and excitement ran high throughout the 150 mile race. The captains were skilled jockeys constantly trying to pocket the other fellow, run him aground, or hold him at a dock, landing his own boat in a manner to block the other's landing, or clearance from a dock. The writer has seen them stand with revolver ready to shoot any deck hand of the opposing craft who touched his lines in order to remove those of the other boat from underneath them. Fist fights between passengers were frequent occurences, and at night when the opposing deck hands were ashore, clashes were frequent, and killings not uncommon.
- 4 -
Only one steamboat line remains of the many which formerly operated on the St. Johns, and that is the "St. Johns Transportation Company", which operates freighters from Jacksonville to Sanford.
In 1881 the Florida Southern Railway acquired the 1876 Charter of the Gainesville, Ocala & Charlotte Harbor Railway, which had done no construction. In 1882 it constructed a narrow gauge from Palatka to Gainesville, and from Rochelle southward to Ocala, and thence to Leesburg and Brooksville, and from Leesburg to Astor and Eustis.
The Jacksonville, Tampa & Key West Railway originated from the Tampa, Peach Creek & St. Johns Railway, incorporated in 1878. From 1882 to 1884 it constructed 55 miles from Jacksonville to Palatka.
The Palatka & Indian River Railway began building south from Palatka in October 1885, completing a line to Sanford by February 22, 1888.
In 1882, J. J. White started building the St. Johns & Halifax Railway from Rolleston, his objective being Daytona. This was a narrow gauge lumber and logging road, and was completed through to Daytona in 1887.
On November 4, 1884, a disastrous fire swept Palatka and destroyed the business section of the town. The Court House and county records were untouched.
In 1889 the Georgia Southern & Florida Railway built into Palatka from Macon, Georgia.
The county now possesses 134.58 miles of railroads. There are 280 miles of automobile highways in the county.
The principal resources are lumber, naval stores, farming and trucking, with Irish potatoes taking the major position. Citrus
- 5 -
fruits, bulb and fern raising, pecan and a large acreage of tung oil trees now coming into bearing.
What is said to be the largest cypress mill in the world, is operated by the Wilson Cypress Company at Palatka. It was established more than forty years ago.
There is a cypress tank factory which has been in business continuously for fifty years, and there is a thriving furniture plant doing business all over the south.
The Edgar Plastic Kaolin Company beginning operations at Edgar in the western part of the county nearly fifty years ago, is still functioning, with increased facilities and output. The range of uses for which kaolin may be employed are wide and varied, perfumes, cosmetics, spark plugs, insulators, and bath tubs, are a few.
While Palatka is still a winter resort, it was at its peak in this line during the three closing decades of the last century. Jay Gould was one of its distinguished visitors in the eary 70's, and ten years later a grand ball and reception was tendered General U. S. Grant at the Larkin House, when he visited Palatka. John W. Gates, the noted plunger of "Bet a million" fame, father of the Texas Oil Company, wintered here for a number of years.
Isaac Elwood, who made a fortune in barbed wire, had a winter home here. James R. Mellon had a winter home here, which he unfailing occupied for more than forty-five years prior to this death.
There are approximately 1500 fresh water lakes in Putnam County, all of which abound in fish. The county has over a thousand miles of river frontage and is the only county through which the St. Johns River flows.
About May 5, 1892, Palatkans, by killing the bandits who staged
- 6 -
the first and only robbery of its kind ever to occur in the state, put a stop to it. These robbers held up a train just north of Sanford and killed the express messenger four days earlier. After a spectacular chase they reached the railway bridge at Buffalo Bluff, about six miles south of Palatka. There a young lad named George Wurtz under fire from the advancing robbers, killed one of them, wounded another, who turned back to hide in the swamp, while the third jumped into the river, swam ashore and fled across the country, to be captured two days later, near Gainesville. The one who took refuge in the swamp was surrounded by a posse from Palatka and was brought out dead. The two bodies were put on exhibition at the Court House for a whole day. That swift application of Florida justice hung a red flag which to this day commands wholesome respect.
Written by Leon J. Canova
ATTESTED: (Signed) R. F. Adams
: (Signed) Henry McKenzie
- 7 -
SKETCH OF PUTNAM COUNTY COURT HOUSE.
May 8, 1849:- First meeting of County Commissioners. Site and building offered for Court House by the Estate of Dr. N. Brush. No description of lot given.
April 1, 1850: Above offer declined, but property leased for five years.
Feb. 5, 1855:- Judge Bronson offers to donate site for permanent Court House - Lot 1, Block 24; 100 ft. on Lemon Street, thence 300 ft. on Second (now Foruth) Street, thence 100 ft. on Orange (now Reed) Street. Offer accepted and advertisements for bids ordered for erection of building.
Mch. 12, 1855: Bids inspected and contract awarded to H. R. Blanchard for $2500.00
Apl. 2, 1855: Decided to borrow $3000.00 from the School and Seminary funds under charge of the State, at 8% interest, for erection of Court House.
May 12, 1855: First meeting held in new Court House This building was continuously occupied, with a few additions and changes, until it was decided to acquire the balance of the block on which it stood, and erect a new and modern building.
Dec. 2, 1909: Cornerstone was laid by Mason for new Court House.
Aug. 1910: New Court House finished, accepted, and first Court held in same.
1926: A large two story annex was built, and basement floors and walls of original building, cemented, and some of them were fire-proofed.
From 1909 until 1926 many records laid in these base ment rooms without floors or ventilation, and were completely destroyed by rats, termites, and other insects. There has never been a fire in the Court House.
Margaret B. Anderson
Chicago Manual of Style
Works Progress Administration, Historical Records Survey. Historical Sketch of Putnam County. April 5, 1937. State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory. <https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/321151>, accessed 9 March 2025.
MLA
Works Progress Administration, Historical Records Survey. Historical Sketch of Putnam County. April 5, 1937. State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory. Accessed 9 Mar. 2025.<https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/321151>
AP Style Photo Citation
(State Archives of Florida/Works Progress Administration)