The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1911-04-28
ocALA IN THE oLDEN TIME
Girardville. Pa. April 20. 1911.
To the Editor ocala Banner:

from Mrs: Gary to your paper of re-
cent date induces me to write again
She Is correct about the hotel on the
corner of the lot to the southwest OF
the public square, which was built by
Captain Adm Waterman. grandfather
of Judge w. s.. Bullock. but I don't
remember the name Of Leigh as be-
ing the proprietor in the winter OF
1856. We settled In Ocala. in De-
cember, 1855. and then that hotel was
kept by Jim Bullock "a one-arm man
and an uncle of Judge Bullock) and
Mrs. Secress. a. widow. with several
very bad boys. Bullock and Mrs. Sc
cree kept this hotel during 1856. Mr..
Alexander, grandfather of Mr.. w. C.
Jeffords, took it in January. 1857, and
ran it one or two years, and he was
succeeded by a Mr.. Cathcart, who kept
1t one or two years. One thing that
fixes the names of the proprietors of
this hotel in my mind so definitely in
1856 was the fact that Capt. Water
man fell out with his tenants and
tried to get the possession of his prop
erty through the law. There were
several trials in the courts, and every
time the decision was in favor of the
tenants. One time. after the case had
gone against the captain, he was so
~
house to his home, in passing by the
hotel he picked up several rocks and
threw them through the windows Of
the hotel . Jim Bullock heard the
crash of the broken glass and ran out
and took after Captain Waterman. He
grabbed for the hair on the captains
head and off came a wig, and to this
day l can see Captain Watermans
bald head going down the street with
Jim Bullock after him.
Ocala was q much better town then
than when you came there in 1866, for
there were several fires there during
the civil war that destroyed nearly all
the stores and some of the residences.
The court house, the churches, and
all the stores and residences were
frame buildings. 1 do not remember
anyone in the town living in a log
house. Capt. e. D. Howse's residence
was built in 1855, and was as large and
fine a building as the Mrs. Piles res
idence. These were the two best pri-
vate residences in the town. and would
Eavc been a credit to any town in
the state at that time.
When l commenced to write l did
not intend to write all the above stuff,
but got wound up and could not stop.
I intended to write you about the
name, "Ocala," for l doubt if there are
a half dozen people now living who
know where the name came from, and
why it was selected by the commits
sioners appointed to name and locate
the county seat of the new county of
Marion. and l think this data should
be preserved. 1t is generally conceded
that DeSoto landed on the continent
Hillsborough bay, and in his memoirs
of this expedition he speaks of landing
and marching about one hundred.
miles northward, when he encountere /
a very fierce and war-like tribe Of
Indians. called the Ocalians; and as
Ocala is about one hundred miles
north of where DeSOto landed and a
great many Indians once lived in that
vicinity, the commissioners concluded
that that was where DeSoto encOun-
tered the Ocalians, and from that the
name, "Ocala.' DeSoto must have
killed all the Ocalians. for the name
only appears in his memoirs. Tht
identical eighty acres upon which
Ocala was first located was selected
because it was rather central, espe-
cially east and west, but the chic
thing to move the commissioners t.
make the location was on account OF
water They could not get water il
many places in the new county, or a
least they thought they could not, anC
there were two small springs and sew
eral small ponds on and near this
eighty" Even now you can't get wa
ter on the western part of the cour
house square, embracing about three
fourths of that block. and the same
is true of parts of the adjoining
blocks to the north south and west o
the court house.
Marion county was taken from
Alachua county. and at first embraced
a part of Levy county. all of Sumte
and the western part of Lake Fathe
settled on a lake in the southern par
of the county. which was afterward
named Lake Harris. after him. Hi
old place is now called Yalaha. and h
had to so to Oeala to attend court a
a juror while the log court house wa
IN This NuaS b,,ilf