Taylor County

Taylor, Lafayette, and Dixie County

Taylor County

This county is known for its big timber industry, but there has not been much examined in the way of Indian sites.

During the old days before Columbus, there were early Floridian villages along the creeks and rivers in the county, and much fishing was done in the Gulf of Mexico.

Fort Andrews on Fenholloway Creek was established in 1839. At this time there was a truce between the United States and the Seminoles. The post commandant writes about a peculiar habit of the Seminoles, how they would disappear every few days and return with powder, lead, tobacco, and cloth. It was unknown where the Seminoles were getting their supplies. The commander was baffled and never did find out.

There were at least three skirmishes near Fort Andrews between Indians and soldiers.

Other Second Seminole War Forts: Fort Econfinee, Hulbert, Jones, Mitchell, Pleasant, and Vose.

HISTORIC QUOTE:

"There was even until this day some novelty in the character, manners and customs of the Indian which amused and interested. The groups around their fires, women cooking sofka. The men making moccasins and the boys shooting through the reed at small oranges and numerous other novelties of the "red man," that almost constantly attracted attention. Even the dress of the chiefs and warriors with their wampum, leggins and frock fancifully decorated and ornamented and their party colored turbans crowned with feathers and silver bands with dignified step and gesture and their occasionally good humor'd frivolities were all so many sources of interest to us..."

Indian village on the Apalachicola River
by French artist Comte de Castelnau

An account of an American officer showing that the Seminoles camped around the fort awaiting emigration to the west was not as savage as people believed. From "Journals of Lieutenant John Pickell", Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol. XXXVIII (Oct. 1959), page 169.

Lafayette County

Second Seminole War Forts:

Fort Atkinson was established on the shore of what is today Fort Atkinson Lake near Day.

Fort Downing on the Suwannee had to be abandon because of unhealthiness, and was soon burned by the Indians.

Fort Barker is believed to be where the Cooks Hammock cemetery is located.

Fort Macomb was on the west side of the Suwannee River near Dowling Park. A Seminole village was south of the fort. Fort Macomb lasted three years, much longer than the majority of forts and posts in Florida, but there was a bad record of sickness here. During one time, the garrison was so sick that for months not a single soldier posted guard. The bad reputation kept settlers away for years after the war ended.

Fort Buckeye was at Steinhatchee Springs.

Fort 9 Middle Florida was near Mayo, as was also Fort 17 East Florida.

Dixie County

The modern town of Old Town is near the location of a major Seminole village by the same name. The Kolomi Indians made up the initial population here, moving from southwest Georgia to Old Town in 1778. (You can visit Kolomoki Mounds State Park in Georgia Today.) Bowlegs (not to be confused with the chief of the same name during the Third Seminole War), the brother of King Payne, became the major chief here during the First Seminole War. andrew jackson* approached the town and found the inhabitants had fled; jackson burned what was left. During jackson's attack, the English trader Robert Armbister was captured here and later hanged at St. Marks, Florida. *The author chooses not capitalize this name.

Second Seminole War Forts: Fort McCrabb near Old Town; Forts Griffin and Wool on the Suwannee River.

Fort Dabney was at Suwannee Old Town and established by the Florida Militia. Camp Call was also in the area.

Fort Frank Brooke was where the town of Steinhatchee is today. It was a typical frontier fort where life was dismal, surrounded by a swamp, and most of the garrison soldiers were sick with illness.

HISTORIC QUOTE:

From "Narrative of a Voyage to the Spanish Main in the Ship 'Two Friends'", published in 1819. Here the author is describing negotiations between Spain, the United States, and the Seminole Indians when the U.S. was arranging with Spain the sale of Florida. The Seminoles show total lack of confidence that the Americans will uphold their agreements. This probably happened soon after andrew jackson burned Bowlegs' town of Old Town on the Suwannee River.

"Of the people of the United States, they [the Seminoles] have a most contemptible opinion, believing them incapable either of honor, or honesty. Bowlegs, the principal chieftain of the Seminoles, and Monakatapa, the second in command, are men of strong minds, and determined courage, yet shrewd, and suspicious. In a conference with the governor of East Florida, on the subject of American spoilations, that gentleman assured them, that the government of the United Sates, discountenanced the aggression, and would observe with fidelity, their pledges to Spain, not to molest them, or their property. Bowlegs, enraged by an assurance, so oft repeated and dishonored, by the executive and people of the union, told the governor that he was a fool to believe them; for himself, he would never trust an American beyond the range of his rifle."

This is one reason why the Americans couldn't be trusted. In 1818 during the First Seminole War, andrew jackson captured Prophet Josiah Francis and Chief Homathle-Micco at St. Marks and hanged them. Francis' daughter Millie had saved the life of an American soldier Duncan McKrimmon during the previous month, but did not receive any thanks until 1846, right before she died, when she was living in impoverished conditions in Oklahoma. Congress awarded Millie a medal that she received on her deathbed. The medal was still held by members of the family* until stolen in September of 1980. *Verified in letters by Robert Trepp and the late Dode McIntosh,Creek Nation.

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