SAINT AUGUSTINE

Florida was ceded to the United States by Spain in the 1819 Adams–Onís Treaty, ratification of the treaty took place in 1821, and it officially became a U.S. possession as the Florida Territory in 1822. Andrew Jackson, a future president, was appointed as the military governor, succeeded by William Pope Duval as territorial governor in April 1822. Florida gained statehood in 1845.

After 1821, the United States renamed the Castillo de San Marcos (British, Fort St. Marks) as Fort Marion for Francis Marion, the “Swamp Fox” of the American Revolution.

During the Second Seminole War of 1835–1842, the fort served as a prison for Seminole captives, including the famed leader Osceola; the black Seminole, John Cavallo (John Horse), as well as Coacoochee (Wildcat), who made a daring escape from the fort with 19 other Seminoles.

In 1861, the American Civil War began; Florida seceded from the Union and joined the Confederacy. On January 7, 1861, prior to Florida’s formal secession, a local militia unit, the St. Augustine Blues, took possession of St. Augustine’s military facilities, including Fort Marion and the St. Francis Barracks, from the lone Union ordnance sergeant on duty. On March 11, 1862, crew from the USS Wabash reoccupied the city for the United States government without opposition. It remained under Union control for the remainder of the war. In 1865, Florida rejoined the United States.

After the war, freedmen in St. Augustine established the community of Lincolnville in 1866, named after President Abraham Lincoln. Lincolnville, which had preserved the largest concentration of Victorian Era homes in St. Augustine, became a key setting for the Civil Rights Movement in St. Augustine a century later.

After the Civil War, Fort Marion was used twice, in the 1870s and then again in the 1880s, to house first Plains Indians, and then Apaches, who were captured by the US Army in the West. The daughter of Geronimo was born at Fort Marion, and was named Marion. She later changed her name. The fort was also used as a military prison during the Spanish–American War of 1898. It was removed from the Army’s active duty rolls in 1900 after 205 years of service under five different flags. It is now run by the National Park Service, and is preserved as the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, a National Historic Landmark.

Henry Flagler, a partner with John D. Rockefeller in Standard Oil, arrived in St. Augustine in the 1880s. He was the driving force behind turning the city into a winter resort for the wealthy northern elite.[16] Flagler bought a number of local railroads and incorporated them into the Florida East Coast Railway; it built its headquarters in St. Augustine.

Flagler commissioned the New York architectural firm of Carrère and Hastings to design a number of extravagant buildings in St. Augustine, among them the Ponce de Leon Hotel and the Alcazar Hotel. He built the latter partly on land purchased from his friend and associate Andrew Anderson and partly on the bed of Maria Sanchez Creek, which Flagler had filled with the archaeological remains of the original Fort Mose. Flagler built or contributed to several churches, including Grace Methodist, Ancient City Baptist, and, most ornate, the Venetian-style Memorial Presbyterian Church.

Flagler commissioned Albert Spalding to design a baseball park in St. Augustine. In the 1880s, the waiters at his hotels, under the leadership of Frank P. Thompson, formed one of America’s pioneer professional Negro League baseball teams, the Ponce de Leon Giants. It later was renamed as the Cuban Giants. Frank Grant, one of the team members, in the late 20th century was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

In the 1880s, no public hospital was operated between Daytona Beach and Jacksonville. On May 22, 1888, Flagler invited the most influential women of St. Augustine to a meeting; he offered them a hospital if the community would commit to operate and maintain the facility. The Alicia Hospital opened March 1, 1890, as a not-for-profit institution; it was renamed Flagler Hospital in his honor in 1905.

The St. Augustine Alligator Farm, incorporated in 1908, in the 21st century is one of the oldest commercial tourist attractions in Florida, as is the Fountain of Youth, which dates from the same time period. The city is one terminus of the Old Spanish Trail, a promotional effort of the 1920s linking St. Augustine to San Diego, California, with 3,000 miles (4,800 km) of roadways.

The Florida Land Boom of the 1920s left its mark on St. Augustine with the residential development (though not completion) of Davis Shores, a landfill project on the marshy north end of Anastasia Island. It was promoted as “America’s Foremost Watering Place”. It was reached from downtown St. Augustine by the Bridge of Lions, billed as “The Most Beautiful Bridge in Dixie”.

During World War II, St. Augustine hotels were used as sites for training Coast Guardsmen, including the celebrated artist Jacob Lawrence and actor Buddy Ebsen. It was a popular place for R&R for soldiers from nearby Camp Blanding, including Andy Rooney and Sloan Wilson. Wilson later wrote the novel The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, which became a classic of the 1950s.

Source: Wikipedia

Southern Life Insurance & Trust Company, Saint Augustine (written dates of 1836 and 1837)

The Territorial Legislature approved formation of the corporation on Feb. 14,1835, to sell insurance and trade bills of exchange, on Feb. 11, 1838, the chater was amended to permit ordinary banking. Authorized signatures on notes are Lot Clark, President and George Field or Athur M. Reed as Cashier.