The following history of Flagler County is condensed from information compiled by Judy Kent and published on the Flagler County Web site at www.flaglercounty.org . It is reprinted with permission. Additional information about the county's history may be found on their Web site or by visiting the Flagler County Library.
EARLY HUMAN HABITATION
10,000 AD - 1513
While Florida's earliest inhabitants tended to settle in the state's interior, changing conditions enabled Timucuan Indians to settle here well before the arrival of Europeans. It is estimated that as many as 14,000 lived in the area between the St. John's River and Cape Canaveral.
EUROPEAN EXPORATION AND COLONIZATION
As the hostilities between Spanish forces based in St. Augustine and French ones based near present day Jacksonville escalated, Flagler Beach became the scene for the dramatic part of the history. The inconclusive naval battle that was waged off shore took a strange turn as a violent storm overtook the French ships, pushing them south and wrecking them on the beach somewhere near Mosquito Lagoon (Ponce de Leon Inlet). The surviving soldiers and crew made their way north along the beach through today's Flagler County to the Matanzas River where they attempted to surrender to Menendez. A brutal massacre ensued.
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FIRST SPANISH PERIOD
The chain of Spanish missions extending south and west of St. Augustine included two in Flagler County. The St. Joseph Mission was located near the intersection of present day Palm Coast Parkway and Old King's Road. Another was situated at the site that today is occupied by Bulow Plantation Ruins State Park.
Contact with the Europeans and their livestock took a terrible toll on the Indian population. Diseases to which they had no immunity soon decimated their numbers, until at the end of this period the Timucuan nation ceased to exist. Hostilities between the Spanish, French, English and Indians destroyed many of the artifacts of the Indian civilization.
It was in 1766, following the Treaty of Paris, that the British extended King's Road from Georgia to Jacksonville, St. Augustine, through present day Flagler County and on to the Turnbull Colony at New Smyrna. Bridges were constructed over Pellicer Creek and the Tomoka River. It remains a primary North-South road through the area today.
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SECOND SPANISH PERIOD
Generous Spanish land grants provided an impetus for immigration during this period. Josia Dupont received an oral grant from the Spanish king, but Indian conflict made it impossible for him to establish a successful plantation at this early date. His son, Abraham Dupont, would return in 1825 with his family. Their descendants are among the earliest families to reside in Flagler County.
James Russell also obtained a large land grant, but sold his interest to Charles Bulow shortly thereafter. Bulowville, as his plantation was called, boasted a sugar mill, and produced sugar cane, rice, cotton and indigo. Two hundred slaves cleared the land and worked it. You can visit the Bulow Plantation Ruins State Park for additional history of this area.
Captain James Ormond I received another land grant in 1807 for a large parcel at the site of today's Bulow Creek State Park. If you visit the park today you will find the magnificent Fairchild Oak that shaded early settlers. An interpretive display explains that Ormond's efforts to establish the plantation were cut short when he was shot and killed by a runaway slave. The family returned to their native Scotland, but in 1820 young James II returned and took over the operation of the plantation. James II died only nine years later, and the plantation was abandoned, later to be destroyed during the Second Seminole war.
In the winter of 1831, naturalist John Audubon visited several plantations in East Florida. He and his party walked from St. Augustine to the Hernandes plantation at Mala Compra and spent ten days sketching and collecting specimens. After a quarrel with Hernandez, the party left there on Christmas Day and proceeded to the Bulow Plantation, where they were received most graciously by young John Bulow.
The productive expedition lasted four weeks and included a trip into the interior to an area near present day Deland. The return trip to St. Augustine required a wagon and six mules to transport the collected specimens.
Joseph Hernandez and John Bulow both initially supported Indian rights and attempted to maintain friendly relations with them. Subsequent Indian raids and the burning of Mala Compra Plantation changed Hernandez's outlook, and he began an active role in the local militia.
His property at St. Joseph was used to store provisions and ammunition, while Mala Compra served as military headquarters for the unit. On one occasion the militia marched south to the Bulow Plantation in pursuit of Indian raiders, only to be greeted by a warning shot from, Bulow's cannon. The militia prevailed, detaining and binding Bulow while they "...enjoyed the comforts of his home." Hernandez ultimately attained the rank of Brigadier General and had a major role in the Seminole Wars.
Conflict between European settlers and Seminole Indians is a consistent theme throughout this era. One result was that Old King's road fell into disrepair, and the bridges across Pellicer Creek and the Tomoka River were destroyed. Travel was difficult and dangerous. Local historian John Clegg describes the mail route through Flagler County in 1844 as follows: "...take a boat down the Matanzas River past the Dupont residence and then overland to St. Joseph plantation and thence to the headwaters of Halifax River and by boat on to New Smyrna."
General Joseph M. Hernandez was the region's must influential political leader during the period between Florida's statehood and succession. He served as the representative to the constitutional convention at St. Joseph and as the first appointed delegate to congress.
In 1844 Louisa Hernandez, the daughter of General Hernandez, married George Washington, a distant relative of the president. After Louisa's untimely death, Washington bought the Bella Vista property. He used it primarily for hunting and fishing, and built a country home there for his son George Washington Jr. You can visit the Washington Oaks State Park today to learn more about the lives of these early residents.
CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION
Flagler County supported the Confederate cause through military service and the supply of timber, beef, citrus cotton and salt. Salt was in short supply and great demand as meat preservative. The salt works at the Mala Compra Plantation was an important source, but Union patrols made the area insecure and the operation was moved eastward to the coast. There the great iron vats from the St. Joseph sugar plantation were used to boil sea water in the production of salt.
1875 - 1926
In 1886, wealthy industrialist Henry Cutting and his wife, Angela, built an elaborate hunting lodge on the Matanzas. There he hunted and fished during winter months with his frequent guests from prominent families in New England and Chicago. Like other northern visitors of the era, they arrived by steamboat. After Henry's death, his widow married an exiled Russian prince, Boris Sherbatow. They continued to winter on the estate. Flagler County is currently restoring the property, now known as Princess Place. It is located in the northern region of the county, on the unpaved section of Old Kings Road.
The coming of the railroad that connected Jacksonville and Ormond shaped the next chapter of Flagler's history. The route traveled through Windemere where settlers were already raising cattle. Rail transportation spawned tremendous growth in timber and turpentine production in this area, now known as Espanola.
Tram railroads built by Utley J. White extended into remote areas of the county and served the expanding operations. Timber was exported and used locally for building railroads and making the barrels that would take potatoes to market.
Potato farming grew in importance as rail transportation provided access to markets to the north. Life was harsh for those who labored in the Florida frontier. Those who built the railroads, logged the timber and worked the turpentine were most at risk. In later years author Zora Neale Hurston became the voice for these often forgotten and ignored.
Henry Flagler purchased the narrow gauge railway that had served the area in 1885 and converted it to standard gauge, greatly increasing access for the cattle, timber, turpentine, potato and citrus producers of the interior. The county was named in his honor. The Historical Society of Flagler County has an interesting collection of photographs from this period at their museum in Bunnell.
An inland water route between Jacksonville and New Smyrna was begun in 1881 by the construction of a canal connecting the Matanzas and Halifax Rivers. This waterway would eventually extend to south Florida. We know it today as the Intracostal Waterway.
In 1915, Dixie Highway was constructed as a narrow brick road from Jacksonville through St. Augustine, Hastings, Espanola, Bunnell and ending at Flagler Beach. Now tourists from the north would have a land route to Flagler's beach. When the newer highway was built 1926, the more direct route bypassed Espanola, and contributed to the decline of that community. Today Dixie Highway (US 1) is a major north-south route, but Old Dixie Highway still serves the community.
Flagler became a county in 1917 as a patchwork brought together from the southern portion of St. John's County and the northern portion of Volusia. The communities of Bunnell, Espanola, St. Johns Park, Haw Creek, Dupont, Korona and Ocean City (Flagler Beach) were the economic and population centers of the time. Bunnell became the county seat.
With the advantage of better transportation and infrastructure, Flagler County's development accelerated. Ornamental fern production replaced citrus as the latter moved south after the severe freezes at the turn of the century. Changing market conditions caused a gradual shift from potato to cabbage farming.
WORLD WAR II AND THE POST-WAR "BOOM"
The post war "boom" was a little late in arriving in Flagler County. It came in the form of a highway known as I-95 and a corporation known as ITT. Once again, new transportation routes and corridors of development went hand in hand. Plans made public in 1969 envisioned the development of a community of 700,000 souls in a place named Palm Coast. The property covered about 68,000 acres, and was to have amenities including hotels, restaurants, and waterfront and wooded home sites, golf courses, tennis clubs and more. While the population density has not reached the original projections, Palm Coast is today a thriving community.
The staff of the Flagler County Public Library and members of the Friends of the Library began an oral history project in 2001 as an effort to preserve samples of these memories and relevant images for the future. This collection of oral life histories seeks to sample the common themes and unique stories of selected local residents. The compact disk digital format was selected as the best available method for recording the materials.
There was no intent to create a history of the county or any of its cities, towns and settlements, though individual stories often reflect those of the area. The compact disks are now part of the Library collection and are available for public use; inquire at the Circulation Desk.
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