Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1917-04-04
FLORIDA.

locomotive QeSGrOyS ulsLduCe duu
the metal wires over which the
words of mouth are current across
distant hills and dales. Florida is
also bound to South Carolina by
the ties of consanguinity. There
is hardly anyone in Edgefeld county
who is not related to people in Flo
rida. Some years ago l met Gov.
Gilchrist, then Governor of Florida,
who has many kinfolks in cur
county, aud it transpires that the
present Governor, Sidney Cats, is
a direct descendant on his mothers
side of the Smyly family. His
mother was a Miss Adellne Smyly
and closely related to many of our
people, though there is not one OF
the Liuzly name in Edgefeld county.
1t is as strange how some names
pass away as it is how some come
into existence. Take the name Of
Weaver, once a great and wealthy
family in Edgefeld- not one
by that name but at Miami [ met a
son of the late Milledge Weaver,
who lived near Johnston. This
gentleman, for he is a gentleman,
is in middle life, in fine health and
engaged in the fruit and vegetable
business. His name is Sumner II.
Weaver. The clerk of the court is
named Sheppard and is as affable
and obliging as our friend Ben Cog
burn. Mr.. Weaver told me that his
father spent his last days in Florida
and lived to be a very old man.
One of the Oldest towns in
America is Saint Augustine, which
had been settled years ago, before
The time of the red man by bar
barous people who raised immense
heaps of shell mounds. In 1865
when the first white men arrived at
this spot where St. Augustine now
stands, they found a town Of several
thousand Indians in rude fashion,
many families in one house, and
they wore little clothing, had good
food and were a kind-hearted, in
telligent people. Juan Ponce de
Leon heard from the natives ira
dition of a spring, the waters Of
which would restore ones youth,
ant he landed near St. Augustine
and named his discovery Florida.
For many years the Spanish, the
English and the French people
fought each other by land and sea,
under contest between the Catho-
lie and Protestant churches for as
tendency, led by Jean Ribalt, Pedro
Menendez, Sir Frances Drake, Gov.
Oglethorpe of Georgia and others
till 1921 when the United states
under treaty purchased Floridafor
five million dollars, and then the
Indians brought on the Seminole
War. When the Chief Osceola at
q meeting between the whites and
Indians in April 1885, after violen,
language on both sides, drawing his
knife through the treaty exclaimed:
THE only treaty 1 will execute is
thisw And war became inevitable.
Oceola was treacherously captured
and sent to Fort Moultrie in Charles
ton Harbor, where he died and
monument placed as a memorial to
this noble Indian Chier.
Up to about 1880 St. Augustine
was only a small town of historic
interest, and Mr.. Henry NJ. Flagler
decided to erect hotel which was
to be among the finest in the world.
This building, the Ponce de Leon,
is now palatial structure with
every convenience, and near that in
what was once a marsh; at great
cost now also stands the Alcazar,
another Moorish palace Hotel.
Fort Marion was built years ago by
the Spanish and stands today as a
wonder to all visitors. This Fort
is bull of coquina, shell rock of
natural formation found only on
the East coast Of Florida. This
Fort, though most of the work was
done by slaves, cost upwards of 80
million dollars. 1t has four bast
ions on which are sentry towers,
the walls are IL feet thick at the
base, 9 feet at the top and 25 feet
high. 1t has easement, court room,
council chamber. powder magazine,
chapel, secret dungeons, and around
the fort is a moat 40 feet wide.
The plaza or park is located in
the center of the city of St. Angus
tine and the streets radiate North,
South and West. The Cathedral
stands just across the street at the
North side of the Plaza. This is