John Milton Hawks John Milton Hawks ( 1826 - 1910 ) was an abolitionist , surgeon and organizer for the assistance of freed blacks and black soldiers during the U . S . Civil War as well as a businessman and Florida settler in Volusia County . During Reconstruction he was secretary of the board of registration for Volusia County . He was also clerk of the Florida House of Representatives from 1868 to 1870 . A plaque in his honor is located at the Edgewater City Hall at 104 North Riverside Drive in Edgewater , Florida . Hawks wrote " The East Coast of Florida : A Descriptive Narrative " , published in 1887 by L . J . Sweett In addition to being a physician , Hawks was an author , historian , teacher , newspaper publisher , army officer , orange grower , first superintendent of Volusia County Schools and founder of Hawks Park , later renamed Edgewater Park . Esther ' s diary was found in an attic in 1975 and published as " A Woman Doctor ' s Civil War : Esther Hill Hawks ' Diary " . It was edited by Gerald Schwartz and covers a period before the Hawks settled in Florida . Hawks was born on November 26 , 1826 in Bradford , New Hampshire to Colburn and Clarissa Brown Hawks . He passed the teacher ' s exam at age 15 , studied medicine two years later while teaching in Georgia and received his medical degree in 1847 . Hawks was a doctor and staunch abolitionist in Manchester , New Hampshire until volunteering as a physician to treat freed black soldiers during the Civil War . In December 1861 he volunteered as a physician in South Carolina to treat escaped slaves in Sea Islands , South Carolina . He established a school for the freed blacks and " recruited most of the 33rd Colored Troops for the Union Army then served as their physician " and " was one of the first to urge emancipation of the slaves and to use them as soldiers . " He was appointed Assistant Surgeon with the rank of Major in the Union Army ' s 33rd Colored Troops . Hawks was then appointed Surgeon of the 21st Colored Troops and practiced in Jacksonville , Florida in 1872 after his service in the U . S . Civil War . He treated former slaves and freedmen , who he had also advocated for before the war . Hawks advocated for creation of the first Freeman ' s Saving Bank s . In 1865 he helped found the Florida Land and Lumber Company with other officers . The business provided homes and jobs for freed slaves . He named the business ' s settlement for freed blacks Port Orange , and some of the families remained in the area now known as Freemanville . Most of the homesteads were located north of Spruce Creek and northwest of the inlet , near Dunlawton . Its first post office was built in 1867 in what is now the town of Ponce Inlet and was moved a few miles north in 1868 . Esther taught with the Freedmen ' s Aid Society and may have established the first integrated school in Florida . Sandy soil proved a challenge and corruption is believed to have caused supplies to be stolen before being delivered to the settlement which soon failed . A report found the colonists who remained in poor condition and surviving by eating coutee or coontie ( the starchy roots of a native plant ) , palmetto cabbage and fish they caught . Esther continued teaching after the colony ' s decline , but in January 1869 a new schoolhouse was torched and in 1870 she returned to New England to practice medicine . Eighty - three blacks remained in the eastern part of Volusia County . Hawks planted an orange grove south of Port Orange on the Indian River and established Hawks Park in 1871 , it was renamed Edgewater by the Florida State Legislature in 1924 . Henry Tolliver , a successful black homesteader , and Hannah Tolliver owned land in the northwest corner of Port Orange . Some of the former colonists lived on their land in a community later dubbed Freemanville . Tolliver made molasses and grew corn , cotton , peas , beans and sweet potatoes . His wife made and sold clothing . Hawks died April 2 , 1910 and was buried in Hawks Park Cemetery in Volusia County . It was later renamed Edgewater New Smyrna Cemetery and is located in what is now Edgewater , Florida at plot location Old North , Section 3 . A monument to the couple is also located in Pine Grove Cemetery in Manchester , New Hampshire . In 1924 Hawks Park was renamed Edgewater .