#91 Governor John Milton (100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida)

Gov. John Milton
(D) Florida

Governor John Milton is #91 on my list of 100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida. Please click here to see the full list as it is posted.

Born in Louisville, Georgia, on April 20, 1807, Governor Milton was a descendant and namesake of the famed English poet John Milton, who wrote Paradise Lost. The governor's grandfather was a soldier of the American Revolution and his father, General Homer V. Milton, served with distinction during the War of 1812 and Creek War of 1813-1814.

As a boy, the "Governor" - as he is generally known around Jackson County - studied at an academy in his hometown of Louisville and excelled in subjects that included Greek, Latin, English and mathematics. He was undoubtedly a bright and talented individual who was admitted to the bar in Georgia before he was 20 years old.

Leaving his hometown, Milton went on to practice law in Columbus, Georgia, where he was also elected to the rank of colonel in the Georgia militia (forerunner of today's Georgia National Guard). He ran for U.S. Congress in 1832 as a supporter of John C. Calhoun's theory of nullification.

Columbus, Georgia

The Nullifcation theory held that a state, by virtue of its sovereign status, could overrule or nullify actions of the Federal government that were not beneficial to the state. Milton lost that race, but remained an adamant supporter of states' rights and opponent of the growing power of the Federal government.

On August 11, 1834, Milton was arrested and charged with murder after he shot a man with whom he had been engaged in a personal and political dispute:

This day has terminated the controversy between Col. John Milton and Maj. J.T. Camp, by the death of the later. Col. Milton understanding that his life had been threatened by Maj. Camp, procured a double barreled Gun, and walked over to Nicholas Howards Store, and discharged the contents of one of his barrels into his back, and while falling discharged the other into his left breast. -

New Orleans, Milton's one-time home.
Photo courtesy of Brian Mabelitini

Milton turned himself in to local authorities, but was acquitted in a trial that began less than two weeks later. The jury determined that he had acted in self defense as Camp had threatened to kill him.

By 1835, Milton had relocated to Mobile, Alabama, where he continued his practice of law. He raised a company of cavalry during the Creek War of 1836 and took part in the movements that sent many of the Creek Indians west on the Trail of Tears.

Following the death of his first wife, Susan Amanda Milton, the future governor remarried Caroline Howze with whom he eventually had ten additional children. He and Susan had parented five children, but only one - William Henry Milton - survived the diseases of that day to become an adult.

Seeking more fertile ground for his law practice, the future governor moved to New Orleans and lived in Louisiana until 1845. It is believed that he was the same John Milton who was listed as having been badly injured during a steamboat explosion that took place on the Mississippi River at New Orleans on July 1, 1845. Among the "gentleman" passengers on the boat was a "John Milton" who was reported to have been badly scalded by steam.

Sylvania Plantation Marker at Blue Springs

Not long after this accident, Milton began his move from Louisiana to Jackson County. Through family connections he acquired the plantation of the late William Robinson at Blue Springs, which he expanded tremendously during the late 1840s and 1850s. Eventually his "Sylvania" plantation grew to include more than 6,000 acres of prime Jackson County land.

Always active in military and political affairs, John Milton was elected Major General of the 1st Division of the Florida Militia in 1849 and to a seat in the Florida Legislature one year later. Even though Jackson County was then a "Gibraltar" of the now-defunct Whig Party, Milton was a dedicated Democrat. His popularity is evidenced by the fact that he was elected to the legislature from a county controlled by party other than his own.

Old State Capitol in Tallahassee, Florida

In 1860, Milton was elected Governor of Florida by a commanding margin in the same November election that saw Abraham Lincoln elected President of the United States. In Florida, Milton received 6,994 votes in that election, compared to 5,248 for his opponent. Abraham Lincoln did not receive a single vote in Florida.

Although in those days the Governor-elect did not take office for nearly one year after being elected, Governor Madison S.Perry worked closely with his successor. It was Governor-elect Milton who announced Florida's secession from the portico of the Old Capitol on January 10, 1861.

Old Capitol as it appeared when Milton was Governor
State Archives of Florida/Memory Collection

Governor Milton assumed his office in October 1861. By that time Florida was part of the Confederate States of America. The governor would lead his state through nearly four years of war against the United States, even though he had been elected to his post while Florida was still part of the U.S.

His tenure as governor was remarkable as he was tasked with protecting the citizens of a state all but abandoned by the Confederate military. On their own and with little help from the Confederate capital in Richmond, Governor Milton and the Florida Legislature raised and equipped troops both for the Confederate armies and the defense of Florida.

Old Capitol Building in Tallahassee

The governor also stood up for the poor people of his state in the face of acts that reflected the growing desperation of the Confederate government. When Confederate commissary officers began seizing the last cows from the widows and children of Southern soldiers, Milton pleaded their case to Richmond. When the wives and children of a group of Unionists from Taylor County were seized by the Confederate army and placed in a concentration camp near Tallahassee, Milton secured their freedom and had them passed through the lines to their husbands and fathers.

Battle of Marianna Monument

Milton played a critical role in maintaining Florida's transportation systems during the war and in providing for the families of soldiers. His efforts helped secure the Confederate victory at Olustee on February 20, 1864, and when Marianna was attacked on September 27 of that year, he rushed forward to Chattahoochee determined to oppose the Federal advance in person if the enemy continued to advance.

On March 6, 1865, Confederate troops that included the Governor's sons - Major William H. Milton of the 5th Florida Cavalry and Cadet John Milton of the West Florida Seminary (today's Florida State University) - defeated a Union attempt to take Tallahassee and nearby Thomasville, Georgia. Dr. Charles Hentz, a Confederate surgeon who knew the governor well, remembered that things did not seem right with him in the wake of the dramatic victory:

Gov. Milton's grave at St. Luke's Episcopal Church

Governor Milton made an address to the soldiers in the Capitol. I had observed him when we were going down, walking up & down the Depot platform with an air of the most profound abstraction and dejection. I think he must have been suffering from some disease of the brain.

Less than one month later, Governor John Milton was dead. His life came to an end from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his Sylvania plantation on April 1, 1865. While many of blamed Milton's death on suicide, recent research has produced a copy of a special Extra issue of the West Florida News from the week of his death that indicates the fatal gunshot wound was fired by accident. Milton was preparing for a bird-hunting expedition with his son when his shotgun accidentally discharged.

The Governor is buried at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Marianna, alongside his father and many other members of his family. The Milton family remains heavily involved in business, legal and community improvement efforts in Jackson County to this day.

To learn more about Governor Milton's life and administration, please consider my book: The History of Jackson County, Florida: The War Between the States. It is also available at a discounted price for Kindle readers.

#92 The Two Egg Stump Jumper (100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida)

Giant footprint (just left of my shoe)

The Two Egg Stump Jumper, a mysterious cryptid that roams the woods and swamps between Two Egg and Lake Seminole is #92 on our list of 100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida!

Usually seen at night as it runs across dirt road through the headlights of oncoming cars, the Two Egg Stump Jumper is said to be an upright creature that is covered with a long growth of white or gray hair. Not as big as a traditional Bigfoot or Sasquatch, it favors the swamps and bayous around the Parramore area of the county.

Giant footprint (my shoe used to show scale)

In fact, the Stump Jumper has made a new appearance!

A check of an area near Circle Hill Baptist Church where sightings often take place turned up an array of fresh tracks, broken tree trunks and other signs that a large creature had been active in the area. A trail of fresh tracks was found passing through a boggy slough, while others were found in a recently cleared area nearby.

So far as is known, no one has ever photographed the Two Egg Stump Jumper. Sightings usually take place so fast and the eyewitnesses are so stunned that they do not have time to react and reach for a camera or camera phone.

Here are a couple more photos from its latest appearance. Read about other sightings at www.twoeggfla.com.

Broken tree trunk in area where tracks were found

Trail of giant tracks through swampy area.

#93 Irwin's Mill Creek (100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida)

Irwin's Mill Creek in Jackson County, Florida

Irwin's Mill Creek, a beautiful clear-water stream, is #93 on our list of 100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida.  Please click here to see previous installments on the list.

Once called the Ekanachattehatchee or "Red Ground Creek," Irwin's Mill Creek is fed by small springs just north of the Alabama state line. It flows to the southeast through Alabama's Chattahoochee State Park and across the line into the northeast corner of Jackson County. It flows into the Chattahoochee River just north of the State Highway 2 bridge into Georgia. The nearest landing is at Neal's Landing Park.

Irwin's Mill Creek

The creek is an ecological treasure. Very few spring-fed streams flow into the Chattahoochee River and Lake Seminole, but Irwin's Mill Creek looks more like one of the beautiful spring runs that feed the Chipola River than it does one of the sloughs and backwaters of Lake Seminole. It winds through a stunning floodplain swamp and at most times of the year is so clear that the bottom is clearly visible.

Historically, it flows through one of the most significant spots in Jackson County. The famed Money Pond, which supposedly holds the treasure of the pirate and adventurer William Augustus Bowles ("Billy Bowlegs"), is near and the creek forms the northern limits of the 18th century Creek Indian town of Ekanachatte ("Red Ground"). Please click here for more on the Money Pond.

Irwin's Mill Creek

Even before the late 1700s and the time of Bowles and Ekanachatte, the creek was a major landmark.The Spanish first pushed west from Mission San Luis (present-day Tallahassee) during the 1600 to bring the Christian faith to the Chacato (or Chatot) Indians. This tribe lived between the Chipola River and Holmes Creek in western Jackson County, northeastern Washington County and southwestern Houston County, Alabama. They were closely allied with a neighboring tribe that the Spanish called the Chisca but which many researchers believe were the ancestors of the modern Yuchi.

Irwin's Mill Creek

The Yuchi today are considered by the U.S. Government to be part of the Creek or Muscogee Nation, but historically they were an independent people. They have their own language, customs, ceremonial practices and traditions. They helped incite the Chacato people to rebel against and drive out the Franciscan missionaries, an act that brought the wrath of the Spanish military down on both groups.

When the Spanish first arrived, it appears that the Chisca or Yuchi lived in a village along the banks of Irwin's Mill Creek. The fled west into Walton and Okaloosa Counties after the Chacato rebellion, but for nearly one century afterward the site of their village on Irwin's Mill Creek was known as the Chiscatalofa Old Fields. The word "Chiscatalofa" literally means Chisca Town.  A village by that name remained associated with the Lower Creeks until their removal on the Trail of Tears in the 1830s, but the original Chiscatalofa was in the northeast corner of Jackson County.

Irwin's Mill Creek

When the Red Ground Creeks arrived to establish Ekanachatte in the 1760s, they settled on the Chiscatalofa Old Fields since they were easier to clear for farming than the surrounding old grown forests.

After Ekanachatte was destroyed in 1818 and while Florida was still a Spanish colony, American settlers began to drift into the vicinity and settle on the abandoned fields of the village. Among those who established farms along what they called the "Conchatty Hatchy" were Joseph Brown, William Brown, Joseph Brooks, William Chamblis, James Irwin, Adam Kimbrough, William McDonald, William H. Pyke, George Sharp and Allis Wood.

James Irwin, one of these settlers who arrived in 1819-1820, built a dam and watermill on the creek where it crosses from Alabama into Florida. The dam and ruins of the mill still survive and represent the oldest American structural remains in Jackson County.

From that time until today, the stream has been known as Irwin's Mill Creek and it is one of the 100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida.

#94 The Wild Man of Ocheesee Pond (100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida)

Who or what was the Wild Man?

The mysterious Ocheesee Pond Wild Man is #94 on our list of 100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida. Click here to see previous items on the list.

If you aren't familiar with the story, the "Wild Man" was a mysterious creature captured at Ocheesee Pond south of Sneads and Grand Ridge in 1884. Some believe the incident may be one of the best documented cases ever of the capture of a Bigfoot or Sasquatch (often called the Skunk Ape in Florida).

The story of a strange hair-covered creature being captured in the swamps of Ocheesee Pond has long been part of the folklore of southeastern Jackson County, but while researching a different topic a few years ago I was surprised to find that the incident was documented at the time it took place.

Ocheesee Pond in Jackson County, Florida

The Wild Man had been causing trouble around Ocheesee Pond by making off with chickens, garden vegetables and other items from the farms that lined the borders of the vast swamp. Reconstruction had ended only eight years before and times were still hard for families in the area, so the men gathered together and decided to go after the creature. They cornered and captured him in the swamp.

Stories of the Wild Man's capture appeared in newspapers including The New York Times:

Steamboat Amos Hays at Chattahoochee in 1884.

News brought by the steamer Amos Hays from Lower River is to the effect that the wild man captured in Ocheecee Swamp, near Chattahoochee, and carried to Tallahassee, did not belong to a Florida asylum, and that all inquiry proved unavailing to identify him. He had been swimming in Ocheecee Lake, from island to island, and when taken was entirely destitute of clothing, emaciated, and covered with a phenomenal growth of hair. - The New York Times, August 1884.

The Amos Hays was a paddlewheel steamboat that carried passengers and commerce up and down the Apalachicola, Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers. It was at the Chattahoochee wharf when the Wild Man was brought up by the men who had captured him.

Administration Building at Florida State Hospital

Today's Florida State Hospital in Chattahoochee was then the State Asylum and it was thought by his captors that the raving creature was an escaped patient. He was not. In fact, he had not escaped from any mental institution in the country!

All that could ever be determined about him was that he was covered with hair, could not speak in any known language and had survived by "living on berries, &c."

The Wild Man was taken to Tallahassee where efforts to identify him continued through telegrams sent to state capitals throughout the nation. No information on his background could be found.  Baffled, state officials sent him back to the State Asylum in Chattahoochee.

Swamps of Ocheesee Pond

There, for now at least, he disappears from the record. The big question remains as to whether he was a man or something else. Perhaps somewhere deep in the records of the Florida State Hospital will be found the answer to that mystery. Was he just an unfortunate man suffering from a severe mental illness who had lived so long in the woods in a state of nakedness that he grew his "phenomenal growth of hair"? Was he an escaped ape, something that most of the people in Florida would have never seen at that time? Or was he a Bigfoot?

And then of course, there is the question of what finally happened to him?  If he was a man, did he recover enough to eventually go to his home? Or does the Wild Man rest in a grave in one of the State Hospital cemeteries in Chattahoochee? And if so, does that grave contain evidence that would answer the mystery of Bigfoot once and for all?

It is a true mystery and a fascinating part of Jackson County history and folklore.  To read more about the Ocheesee Pond Wild Man, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/ocheeseewildman.

#95 Lost Treasure of the Money Pond (100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida)

The Money Pond in Jackson County, Florida

The lost treasure of the Money Pond is #95 on our list of 100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida. Click here to see previous items on the list.

In the northeast corner of Jackson County, legend holds that a pirate treasure waits to be found deep beneath the mud and muck of a swampy body of water. Locals call the place the "Money Pond" and many believe there is enough gold and silver at its bottom to make the person who finds it an instant millionaire.

Spanish treasure on display
Museum of Florida History in Tallahassee

That is likely even more true today thanks to the astronomical price of gold, which at the close of the markets today was selling for $1,339.50 per ounce.  Silver closed at $20.89 per once. Legend holds that the pond contains 7 horse loads of gold and silver, each said to weigh over 100 pounds.

If true, that means there is somewhere around 11,200 ounces of gold and silver at the bottom of the Money Pond. If half of it is in gold, then the value for the weight of the metal alone would be nearly $8 million!

More Spanish Treasure at the Museum of Florida History

And that's just the beginning of the story. The actual value of the treasure could be much, much higher because each of the coins would be worth far more to collectors than the value of its weight alone. A much smaller hoard of three cans containing gold coins from the 19th century was recently found in California and is already thought to be worth more than $10 million.

So is the story true?  Is an unbelievable treasure waiting to be found at the bottom of a swampy Florida pond?

The answer to those questions may be... yes.

William Augustus Bowles
Self Portrait of the Pirate "Billy Bowlegs"

The story has its roots in the real life of the famed pirate and adventurer, William Augustus Bowles. He is celebrated in Fort Walton Beach today as the Pirate Billy Bowlegs, which often causes him to be confused with the later Seminole Indian chiefs of the same name.

Born in Maryland in around 1763, Bowles joined the British military service in 1776 when he was thirteen years old. That was the year, of course, that the United States declared its independence from Great Britain. Bowles was from a family of Tories, however, and his loyalty was to King George III.

According to an early History of the Bowles Family, he fought at the Battle of Monmouth, New Jersey, before traveling with his regiment from New York to Jamaica and from there to Pensacola. Spain had lost Florida to Great Britain at the end of the French & Indian War and it is a little known fact that East and West Florida remained loyal British colonies during the American Revolution.

According to family historian Thomas M. Farquhar, Bowles was driven from the British service following a dispute with one of his commanding officers. The exact details remain murky and there are several different versions of what happened.

Lower Creek village in Jackson County, Florida

Only 15 years old at the time, he decided to walk home to Maryland and set off on his own through the vast wilderness of the Florida Panhandle. He quickly became completely lost, but was discovered by a party of Lower Creek Indians from the Perryman towns. These villages, located in today's Jackson County, Florida and neighboring Seminole County, Georgia, were headed by Thomas and William Perryman. The son and grandson of English trader Theophilus Perryman and his Creek wife, the two Perryman chiefs were wealthy mestizos (a term meaning they were of mixed Creek and European ancestry).

Since the Creeks were on good terms with the English, the warriors carried Bowles to their towns and he quickly ingratiated himself with the Perryman family. He later married Thomas Perryman's oldest daughter and led the Perryman warriors during the Battle of Pensacola in 1780.

Flag flown by William Augustus Bowles

In 1791, at the age of 22, he traveled to London where he negotiated docking rights at British ports in the West Indies for ships flying the flag of what he called the "Creek and Cherokee Nation." These rights in hand, he traveled to New Providence in the Bahamas where he purchased a small sloop and began trading voyages back and forth to the Lower Creek towns on the Chattahoochee River.

On a more ominous note, however, he armed his vessel with cannon and soon entered the life of a pirate, capturing merchant ships on the Gulf of Mexico. He was very good at being a pirate and his one ship soon turned into a flotilla of pirate vessels.

To give these ships at least a semblance of legitimacy, he declared the independence of what he called the "State of Muskogee" and declared war on Spain. Florida had returned to Spanish control at the end of the American Revolution, but the British trading firm of Panton, Leslie and Company had remained behind. Turning his flotilla of pirate ships into the "Muskogee Navy," Bowles became a major thorn in their side.

He and his pirate crews, which included white, black and Creek Indian men, raided merchant vessels traveling in the Gulf. On one occasion they defeated Spanish coast guard vessels in a fierce battle on Apalachicola Bay. Among the vessels of his fleet were the warships Mackisuky and Tostonoke.

Ekanachatte in 1778
From the Purcell-Stuart Map

In one of his letters, Bowles mentioned plans to bring a ship loaded with cargo up the Apalachicola River to either the trading post of James Burges (Burgess) at what is now Bainbridge, Georgia, or a place he called "The Bully's" on the Chattahoochee River.

The Bully, so named for his prowess as a trader, was the chief of the Lower Creek town of Ekanachatte ("Red Ground") which lay on the west bank of the river at what is now Neal's Landing Park in Jackson County. He was a supporter and business associate of Bowles and was fabulously wealthy for his time.

Bowles became such a threat to Spanish and merchant shipping that a reward of $6,000 (in 1790s currency) and 1,500 kegs of rum were offered for his capture. He eventually was captured and died while on a hunger strike at the fort of El Morro in Cuba.

Chattahoochee River at Neal's Landing (Ekanachatte)

According to legend, however, his treasure remained behind at Ekanachatte (Neal's Landing). It stayed safe there until 1818 when, during the First Seminole War, the Creek troops of Brigadier General William McIntosh drove south into Florida as part of Andrew Jackson's invasion. Fearful that the treasure would be captured, the chief and warriors of the town sank it into the Money Pond.

McIntosh defeated the Ekanachatte warriors at the Battle of the Upper Chipola near Bellamy Bridge in March 1818 and the treasure was forever lost. See Battle of the Upper Chipola.

The Money Pond

The story, however, does not end there. During the early 1900s, two major expeditions were launched by treasure hunters to find the lost gold and silver of William Augustus Bowles. The largest of these arrived in northeastern Jackson County in 1927, dug a ditch and drained the Money Pond.  Once the mud had dried somewhat, they started digging... and found Spanish silver coins in the muck at the bottom of the pond!

Before they could recover the main treasure, however, it began to rain. 1927 is remembered today as the year of the Great Flood. From Louisiana east and the Ohio River south, flood waters rose to unheard of levels. In Jackson County, the Chattahoochee surged from its banks and flowed as far inland as Malone. The treasure dig came to an end as raging flood waters flowed through the swamps and forced the men to flee for their lives.  They never came back.

The treasure, it is said, is still there today.

To read more of the story of William Augustus Bowles and the Money Pond, please consider my book, The History of Jackson County, Florida: The Early Years.  It is available at Chipola River Book & Tea in downtown Marianna or online from Amazon.com by clicking here: (Kindle)The History Of Jackson County, Florida: The Early Years.

The Kindle version is available for instant download by clicking here: The History of Jackson County, Florida: The Early Years.

Ekanachatte, near the legendary Money Pond, is one of the stops on the new Jackson County Spanish Heritage Trail. The 150 mile driving tour passes 11 key Spanish colonial sites in Jackson County. The new guide booklet is available at the historic Russ House and Visitor Center in Marianna. Learn more online at http://visitjacksoncountyfla.com/heritage/spanish-heritage-trail/.

#96 The Lady in Blue, Ghost of the Ely-Criglar Mansion (100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida)

Ely-Criglar Mansion in Marianna, Florida
Haunted by the Ghost of the Lady in Blue?

The famed "Lady in Blue" is #96 on our list of 100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida. Please click here to read earlier additions to the list.

The Lady in Blue has haunted the beautiful Ely-Criglar Mansion on Lafayette Street in Marianna for more than 100 years. Her name comes from the fact that she is seen wearing an old-fashioned high-necked white blouse and long blue skirt.

No one knows exactly who she is - or was! The leading theory is that she is the ghost of a servant who once worked in the mansion.

Ely-Criglar Mansion is part of the Marianna Battlefield

According to Marianna legend, a beautiful Creole woman was brought to Marianna from New Orleans by Francis R. Ely to manage the household. He was the original owner and builder of the house.

Her name has been lost to time but, as is often the case with female ghosts, she is said to have been the "most beautiful woman" anyone had ever seen. She also is said to have had style and sophistication.

The ghost usually appears at the top
of the main staircase.

The Ely-Criglar Mansion was showered with bullets during the Battle of Marianna and is thought to be the most battle-scarred private home in Florida. The exterior walls of the mansion are dotted with marks where bullets struck the bricks during the fighting.

Some believe that the terror inflicted on the inhabitants of the house during the battle in some way causes the apparition of the Lady in Blue to linger. She and other members of the household were trapped there during the fighting and undoubtedly took shelter anywhere they could find it when bullets began to thud against the walls.

What is known is that every family that has lived in the home for the last 100 years has reported encounters with the ghost. She usually appears on the second floor near the top of the staircase and in her most recent sighting was described as the misty head and shoulders of a woman in an old-fashioned attire.

Beau the "Ghost Hunter"

Animals are often much more sensitive to her presence than humans. Beau, a standard poodle who is part of the family of the current owners of the home, often begins to tremble when the Lady in Blue is near. It is quite remarkable as Beau is a playful and fun loving dog.

So far as is known, the Lady in Blue has never been photographed. Her tale is one of Jackson County's great mysteries and ghost stories and she is #96 on our list of 100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida.

The Ely-Criglar Mansion is a private residence, but will be a part of this year's Battle of Marianna 150th tours on September 26-27. More information on how to participate will be coming soon. The house is not, however, open on a daily basis because it is a private residence.

#97 Daniel Boone's Long Walk (100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida)

Daniel Boone
Painted in old age by Chester Harding

#97 on our list of 100 Great Things about Jackson County is Daniel Boone's Long Walk. Click here to read previous posts in this series.

It is a little known fact that in 1765 (250 years ago next year), the famed American explorer and pioneer Daniel Boone passed through Jackson County on his long walk across Florida. He later told the story of the journey to his son, Nathan Boone, who recorded it along with many of his father's other memories.

After 250 years of Spanish rule, Florida was surrendered to Great Britain at the end of the French & Indian War in 1763. Spain had sided with France in that conflict and lost Florida as a result.

As the British took over the colony, a steady flow of settlers began to move down from Georgia, the Carolinas and even Virginia. Pensacola and St. Augustine were the primary destinations of these settlers, but others spread out through the back country where they were welcomed by the Lower Creek and Seminole Indians. The British were on good terms with the American Indians who lived in Florida.

Daniel Boone and his dog
Drawing by Alonzo Chappel

Two years after Great Britain gained control of Florida, Daniel Boone joined a party of men headed south on a journey of exploration. He then lived in North Carolina, was 31 years old and had survived Braddock's Defeat, the bloody ambush and defeat of British troops portrayed in the book and movie, Last of the Mohicans. Boone, in fact, was the primary model for the hero of the story, Natty Bumpo (renamed Nathaniel Poe for the movie).

Contrary to legend, Daniel Boone did not wear a coonskin cap. He was from a Quaker family and wore a flat brimmed hat. He had blonde hair and blue eyes.

Boone and his fellow travelers came south through Georgia to St. Augustine. From there, with Boone leading the way, the men set out on a more than 400 mile journey to Pensacola through the vast Florida wilderness. They were following a trail called the Pensacola-St. Augustine Road.

The "road" was really little more than a footpath that wound its way west from St. Augustine to the Suwannee River and then on to Lake Miccosukee near present-day Tallahassee. From there, the trail split into two paths, both of which angled north into what is now Decatur County, Georgia, before reuniting just outside the city of Bainbridge.

Daniel Boone leading a party of settlers
Painting by George Caleb Bingham

A settler and trader named James Burges (or Burgess) had settled where Bainbridge stands today and the explorers crossed the Flint River at his settlement. They then followed the trail on past the present site of Donalsonville, Georgia, and crossed the Chattahoochee River into Jackson County and back into Florida at Ekanachatte ("Red Ground"), a Lower Creek village at what is now called Neal's Landing.

Assuming that Boone and the other men remained on the main trail, from Neal's Landing they passed west along the route of today's State Highway 2. Their journey would have taken them across the sites of today's towns of Malone, Campbellton and Graceville. They crossed Holmes Creek out of Jackson and into Holmes County near Graceville.

1778 Map of the road followed by Boone

None of these towns or counties existed then, of course, and the only people that Boone encountered in what later became Jackson County were the Creek Indians who lived at Ekanachatte and at a small town called Pucknawhitla ("Peach Tree") which stood on the present site of Campbellton.

Section of road followed by Boone through Jackson County

The journey was long and difficult. At one point Boone and the others lost track of the path and became confused in the wilderness. He later told his son Nathan that he never was lost in his life, but was confused once for a few days.

Daniel Boone had not been impressed with the lands he saw between St. Augustine and the Chattahoochee River, but once he crossed into what is now Jackson County he found richer lands and pristine forests. Deer and other animals were plentiful and the pioneer was impressed.

Daniel Boone from Life
Painting by John James Audubon

After the group reached Pensacola, Boone made arrangements to acquire land in West Florida (the British divided the modern state into two colonies, East Florida and West Florida). He planned to relocate to the area and become one of its first English settlers.

The explorer's wife, Rebecca, had other ideas. She firmly objected to the move because it would take her so far from her family in North Carolina. Boone complied with his wife's wishes and the idea of moving to Florida was abandoned.

Other members of the pioneer's family, however, would follow in his footsteps. Among the earliest American settlers of Jackson County was Gilley Crawford Boone Neel, a member of Boone's family. She first settled with her husband and children near Neal's Landing and later lived in the Paront community north of Grand Ridge. She and many other relatives of Daniel Boone are buried at Cowpen Pond Cemetery near Dellwood.

Great Oaks in Greenwood, Florida

Other relatives of the famed pioneer and his wife settled in Greenwood. Rebecca Bryan Boone was a member of North Carolina's noted Bryan family. That family was instrumental in the founding of Greenwood and Great Oaks, a beautiful antebellum home, was originally the Bryan Mansion. Members of the Boone and Bryan families are buried in numerous cemeteries around Greenwood.

The historic Pensacola-St. Augustine Road, which Boone followed across Florida, is interpreted on the new Jackson County Spanish Heritage Trail. A kiosk at City Park on Highway 71 in downtown Malone tells the story of the historic road.  Click here for more information.

Daniel Boone's long walk is an almost forgotten footnote of Florida history, but it is one of the 100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida.

#98 Lily Spring (100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida)

Lily Spring

#98 on our list of "100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida" is charming little Lily Spring at Hinson Conservation & Recreation Area south of Marianna. Please click here to see new additions to the list as they come online.

Flowing into the Chipola River just above the unique natural feature and caves known as "The Ovens," Lily Spring is so named because it is a beautiful small spring surrounded by a colony of lilies. It can be seen either from the river or by walking the nature trail north from the canoe launch and parking area at Hinson.

The Chipola is fed by scores of such springs, some big and some small, but few have the unspoiled natural beauty of Lily Spring.

To visit Hinson Conservation & Recreation Area, travel south from the courthouse in Marianna on State Road 73 (Jefferson Street). The entrance is via Gator Hole Lane, which will be on your left one mile south of town. Look for the sign!

Here are some photos to show you why it is one of the "100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida."

A lily in bloom.

Colony of lilies surround the charming little spring

The spring flows into the Chipola River.

Crystal clear water from a tiny blue spring.

The Chipola River at Lily Spring

Lily Spring

#99 Riverside Cemetery (100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida)

Riverside Cemetery in Marianna, Florida

This is the second post in a series on "100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida."  Click here to see all of the posts as they come online.

#99 on our list of great things about Jackson County, Florida, is historic Riverside Cemetery. You may not think of a cemetery as a "great place," but this one is special.

Part of the original plan of the City of Marianna, Riverside Cemetery was laid out by Robert and Anna Beveridge when they surveyed the future community in 1827. The two developers moved down to Florida from Baltimore, Maryland, where Mr. Beveridge had been a successful merchant. Wealthy and with strong political connections, they selected the modern site of Marianna and were its original owners and promoters.

Grave of Arthur Lewis
Killed in the Battle of Marianna

All planned communities needed space for a cemetery, so the Beveridges designated a hilltop just to the southeast of their planned town for that purpose. With the fevers and illnesses that then routinely swept over Florida and the Gulf Coast, the burial ground quickly came into use.

Sadly, one of the first people buried there was Mrs. Beveridge herself. Only 24 years old but already the mother of three children, she came down with the fever and died on March 24, 1830. She was buried in Riverside Cemetery, likely in one of the brick crypts still seen there today, but the exact location of her grave has been lost to time.

The old section of the cemetery includes some of the most ancient oak trees in Marianna and is nestled on a hilltop surrounded by nearly 190 years of graves. The former slave section is just downhill from the historic crypts and markers. The wooden markers that once designated the burial places of African Americans who lived and died either as slaves or in Marianna's small antebellum community of free blacks have long since rotted away, but the indentations in the ground that mark their graves can still be seen.

The burial trenches where Confederate soldiers who died at the Marianna Post Hospital in 1863-1865 are marked by small headstones. Nearby rest several of the local citizens who died in the Battle of Marianna.

Monument to Lt. Isaac Adams, 2nd Maine Cavalry

Separated from both the old slave plot and the area of oldest graves is a single monument to Lt. Isaac Adams of the 2nd Maine Cavalry. A Union soldier, he was mortally wounded in the Battle of Marianna. He no longer rests at Riverside, but his monument remains.  Adams and the other Union dead were exhumed during the late 1800s and their remains taken to Barrancas National Cemetery near Pensacola.

His grave, however, played a key role in the Reconstruction era confrontations that rocked Jackson County. Several young girls - relatives of men and boys killed in the Battle of Marianna - removed the flowers from Lt. Adams' grave and scattered them in the dirt. They were hauled before a military court, but showed up with backing from almost the entire community. The Carpetbagger officials who ruled Marianna after the War Between the States (or Civil War) backed down in the face of this show of support and released the girls. The incident is remembered today as the "Battle of the Flowers" and was the beginning of the local uprising that eventually drove out the occupying force that controlled Jackson County from 1865-1876.

Riverside Cemetery today is a peaceful and beautiful place. In the spring, when the azaleas and dogwoods bloom, it takes on a surreal charm. A walk through its acres and acres of stones and graves is a walk not just through the history of Marianna and Jackson County, but through the history of Florida, the South and the Nation.

The main entrances to the oldest part of the cemetery are on Franklin Street, two blocks south of Jackson Street, in Marianna.

#100 Blue Hole Spring (100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida)

Blue Hole Spring
Jackson County, Florida

We begin our countdown of "100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida" with #100, Blue Hole Spring at Florida Caverns State Park.

An important tributary of the Chipola River, Blue Hole Spring has been a favorite spot for swimming and picnicking for hundreds of years. Prehistoric American Indians camped and fished in the spring and its waters have refreshed visitors including missionaries, soldiers, explorers and even a future American President.

According to data from the Northwest Florida Water Management District, the spring is 38.5 feet deep at the point where a vent in the limestone allows its water to flow upwards to the surface. A feature of Florida's unique karst topography, Blue Hole pours out an average of 30.35 gallons of crystal clear water per second. That equals more than 1,820 gallons per minute or 109,207 gallons per hour.

Blue Hole Spring

The water rises from deep underground at a constant temperature of 67.8 degrees and is refreshingly cold during the summer yet can feel warm in the winter. Swimming is allowed from the floating dock at the spring when water conditions are clear.

Florida's famed "Old Spanish Trail" passed by the Blue Hole and early explorers often confused it for the rise of the Chipola River from its nearby Natural Bridge. It was first described in the journals of Fray Rodrigo de la Barreda and Governor Don Laureano de Torres y Ayala in 1693. They mentioned passing by it on their way to complete the first overland crossing of the Florida Panhandle by Europeans.

Interpretive Kiosk at Blue Hole Spring

The U.S. Army of Major General and future President Andrew Jackson passed the spring in 1818. The First Seminole War was underway and legend holds that Creek and Seminole Indians hid in the caves and rock shelters of today's Florida Caverns State Park, watching as Jackson's 1,092 man army marched past. The general's topographer, Captain Hugh Young, confused Blue Hole for the rise of the Chipola River which is a short distance away.

The first American settlers of Jackson County fell in love with the Blue Hole and the nearby caves and it became a popular picnic area.

To see the Blue Hole, just drop by Florida Caverns State Park at 3345 Caverns Road; Marianna, Florida. The park is open 365 days per year and the cost of admission is $5 for vehicles, $4 for vehicles with only the driver and $2 for pedestrians and bicyclists. Other features of the park include cave tours, nature trails, picnicking, camping and more.

Please click here to learn more about Florida Caverns State Park.

You can also learn more at the Florida State Parks website.