May 26 1939

April 26, 1939

"The court house at Eucheeanna burned sometime during 1885, but no record can be located that gives the date of such; the only mention of this in the Commissioners Minutes is to effect that during the recent fire, law books and Fla. Statute books were destroyed, and ordered that the Clerk write the Secretary of State requesting new books. Nov. 2, 1885

Temporary offices were located at storehouse of A. L. McCaskill of Eucheeanna, for a rental of $6.00 per month. No mention as to size or location of this building. Vol. I pp 1. Meeting held June 1, 1885.

Meeting held Feb. 22, 1886; votes of Spc. election for the selection of county site canvassed, election being held Feb. 16, 1886 with results as follows: DeFuniak 317 votes; Mossyhead 114 votes; Eucheeanna 107, and Argyle 32 votes. This information recorded in "Commissioners' Minutes" Vol. 1 p. 11.

Offices moved to DeFuniak Springs, March 27, 1886. Mr. C. C. Banfill, president of Lake DeFuniak Land Company offering a block for construction of Lake DeFuniak Land Company offering a block for construction of courthouse and jail, and furnishing a house to be used for county officers, rent free until date of March 1, 1887. Proposition accepted Feb. 22, 1886. Recorded in "Commissioner's Record" Vol. 1, p. 14.

Rental of room for county purposes rented from M. A. Cawthon & Son, DeFuniak for $200. per annum, March 7, 1887. Recorded in "Commissioners Record" Vol. 1, p. 35.

Contract for court house awarded to M. M. Tye, at a special meeting July 18, 1887 at a bid of $9900.00. "Commissioners Record" Vol. 1 p. 42.

Contract for new court house awarded A. C. Sanford, Montgomery, Ala. at a meeting Jan. 5, 1926, bid being $103,771.75. "Commissioners Minutes" Vol. 7, p. 205.

The information given on these items in the Commissioners Records are not explained enough to give a clearer picture than as before mentioned."

MAY 26 1939

WPA

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF WALTON COUNTY

"In the spring of 1820, Neill McLendon of North Carolina made his way into what is now Walton County. Going on foot and alone into the Euchee Valley, he formed a friendly alliance with Sam Story, the chief of the Euchee Indians, and received from the chief a gift of as much land as he chose to 'blaze' around".

Thus does Caroline Mays Brevard describe the first settlement of Walton County by a Scotchman, who, returning for his wife and children, left a comfortable settlement to brave new perils. Later West Florida was to become too crowded for him and he was again to break with the old and set out for Texas.

The trail the McLendons blazed into the wilderness was soon after taken by other Scotch Presbyterians, the McKinnons, the McCaskills, and the McLeods, some of whom came direct from Scotland. These pious Scotch made up a hardy band of pioneers who industriously set about building up a permanent community. To it "the name, Euchee Anna, was given in compliment to the Euchee Indians and to Mrs. Anna McLeod, wife of one of the leaders of the enterprise".

Living at peace with the Indians, these sturdy settlers built log cabins, [schoolhouses], and churches and cleared and planted land. Inseparable as they were by common heredity and environment they remained for several years isolated from the world save for infrequent trips to Pensacola for supplies in boats of their own rude construction. Thus they sought among themselves for social pleasures and round them in logrollings, cornshuckings, cane grindings, spelling matches, and quilting bees.

Indeed, these people were so self-sufficient that they even furnished their own historian in Colonel John L. McKinnon, a son of the pioneer, whose volume History of Walton County graphically describes the life of these early Floridians around the clock and around the sun.

Despite the early settlement (it was prior to the formal transfer of West Florida by Spain to the United States) of this territory by the Scotch, the county, on its creation December 29, 1824, out of Escambia County by an Act of the Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida, was named in honor of a non-resident, Colonel George Walton, secretary of West Florida in the provisional government under Andrew Jackson.

Section one of the Act creating Walton County redefines Escambia County, particularly the eastern boundary as a line beginning at the east end of Santa Rosa Island

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and running due north to the Alabama line. Using this as the western boundary of Walton County, section two of the same Act further defines the boundaries: "That there be, and hereby is established a county to be comprehended within the following boundary lines, beginning on the boundary line at the north east corner of Escambia County, running east along the boundary line of said Territory to a point on the said line, whence a line running south east will strike the south east side of Hickory Hill, thence a direct line to Wood's ferry on Bear Creek, thence down said creek to St. Andrew's Bay, thence through the middle of said bay to the Gulf of Mexico, thence along the shores of the Gulf to the beginning, to be called Walton County".

From 1824 to 1915 the boundaries of Walton County have a history of their own. In 1846 a southeastern portion of the county is used to help form Washington County while two years later a northeastern part is used for a similar purpose in the case of Holmes County. In 1851 and 1853, after the creation of Santa Rosa County, small changes were made in the western boundary of Walton County, one adding to and the other subtracting from its territory. In 1913 when Bay County was created out of Calhoun and Washington Counties Walton County regained part of the territory yielded to Washington County in 1846. Finally, in 1915, Okaloosa County was formed from eastern portions of Santa Rosa and western parts of Walton, leaving the latter defined today by Section 11, Article I, Chapter II of the Revised General Statutes of Florida, 1920: "Walton county shall be comprehended with the following boundaries-- beginning on the Alabama State line where it is intersected by the line dividing centrally range eighteen west; thence south along the section lines to the line dividing townships two and three, north, in range eighteen, west; thence east to the Choctawhatchee river; thence down the main channel of the Choctawhatchee river to a point where said Choctawhatchee river intersects the range line dividing ranges seventeen and eighteen, west; thence south along said range line to the Gulf of Mexico; thence in a westwardly direction following the meanderings of said Gulf to the range line dividing ranges twenty-one and twenty-two, west; thence north up said line to the dividing line between Florida and Alabama; thence easterly along said State line to the place of beginning".

The first county site of Walton County was at Alaqua, a small settlement some fifteen miles southwest of Defuniak Springs. However, a short time later it was moved to Euchee Anna. Here in 1885 the courthouse burned down and the records of the first government of the county were destroyed. Thereafter a rented building served as a courthouse until February 16, 1886 when by a special county election DeFuniak Springs was selected as a new county site. Here again a rented building was

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PRINTED REFERENCES

Brevard, Caroline M., A History of Florida, from the Treaty of 1783 to Our Own Times, two volumes, The Florida State Historical Society, Deland, Florida, 1924.

Cutler, Harry G., History of Florida, three volumes, The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, Illinois, 1923.

Rerick, Rowland H., Memoirs of Florida, two volumes, The Southern Historical Association, Atlanta, Georgia, 1902.

OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS

Acts of the Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida, 1824.

Acts of the General Assembly of the State of Florida, 1848, 1851, 1853.

Acts of the Legislature of the State of Florida, 1913, 1915.

Revised General Statutes of Florida, 1920.

MANUSCRIPT REFERENCES

Nettles, B. J., Manuscript History of Walton County, Historical Records and State Archives Surveys, Florida Works Progress Administration, Jacksonville, Florida, 1937.