Armistead Family History # 15

                                                                   The Territory of Florida


In my last post on this blog I wrote about the 1830s and how the United States was growing in population and also was adding states and territories.  Advancements were being made with discoveries and inventions in many areas, such as agriculture, transportation, mass communication, etc.  As these changes were going on, so were changes in the life of my Armistead family.

It seems that my great-great-grandfather, William Jordan Armistead, had not satisfied his wanderlust for finding that perfect piece of land and so in the late 1920s he left North Carolina and headed south all the way to Leon County, Florida Territory.  As I mentioned last time, he must have been drawn to Magnolia, Florida by the exciting pronouncements in the newspapers about the bountiful crops that were being produced, and that Magnolia was destined to be a busy port city, etc. He might also have been convinced by word of mouth from relatives about the wonderful opportunities there. For whatever reason, he relocated his family to the coast of Florida in about 1829.  Apparently the reality at Magnolia was different from what he expected because he was gone from there by 1832. As it turns out most of the people in the town must have felt the same way.  Most of the residents left by the end of the decade. A hurricane hit the area in 1843 destroying what remained of the town and Magnolia ceased to exist. (1)

Google Earth Pro

Where did William Jordan head to next?  They must have been living in Georgia next because the family bible of Mary Eliza E. (Baker) Armistead, notes the next child, Mary Smith Armistead, was born in Decatur County, GA in 1832.  They were in this area for about four or five years. The next child, Sarah Jordan, was born there in February of 1834, and Anthony was born in Decatur County in August of 1835.

As you can see (hopefully) from the map above, it was not that far from Magnolia on the coast to Decatur County in Georgia.  In this overlay you can see the configuration of the counties at about that time and then you can see the google earth map underneath. Magnolia was located close to St. Marks on the lower right side of Leon County and Quincy was located in the center at the top of Gadsden County.  The northern border of Gadsden County, Florida and the southern border of Decatur County, Georgia are on the same line.  It would have been a short distance, even back then, of 8 to 10 miles from the little town of Quincy, Florida to the Georgia-Florida Line.  Hummm, Georgia Florida Line sounds like a good name for a country duo.  Oh, right, there is a county group named "Florida Georgia Line".  I'm only about 7 or 8 years too late and this group is apparently quite good.  OK, back to my story.

Google Earth of North Gadsden County, FL and South Decatur County, GA.

My theory is, William Jordan took the family north from Magnolia to find a better plantation. Looking at today's Google Earth map (above), there are quite a few places that are under cultivation just across the line in Georgia.  W.J. may have relocated his family to that area for a few years and then decided to move into the town of Quincy.  He could have maintained the same plantation and still lived in town.  After all, it is doubtful, as a plantation owner, that he was getting up every day and going out to the field to work.  He would have had an overseer on site and he might have gone out to check on things periodically.  Many of the plantation owners of the time lived in town instead of on the plantation.

Downtown Quincy, Florida on U.S. Route 90. (2017)

Photograph by Royalbroil - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, (2017) 
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57169011
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quincy,_Florida#/media/File:Quincy_FL_downtown_US90.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quincy,_Florida

Gadsden County Courthouse, Quincy, Florida.  (2017) 

Photograph by Michael Rivera - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, (2017) https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=59391642
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gadsden_County_Courthouse_(South_face).jpg

According to the Family Bible, the next child, Lawrence Turner, was born the first of June, 1837 in Quincy, FL.  Sarah, Anthony, and Lawrence were all baptized on Sunday, the 18th of March, 1838, by Bishop Kemper, in Quincy, Florida.  When I read that statement in the family bible about Bishop Kemper baptizing these children, I thought it unusual that Mary Eliza had included that bit of information. As I read more about the county history and then about the church history, I realized a church had not been established in Gadsden County yet.  Bishop Jackson Kemper was a leader of the Episcopal Church. Because there was a shortage of preachers, he had to travel over a very large area, either where churches did not have a pastor or where a church had not been established but there was a congregation that needed someone to hold services. (2) I would think that having a Bishop come to town, and in this case it was the first Bishop that had visited Quincy, would be a big deal and having the honor to have your children baptized by him would have been a very special occasion.  I believe that is why she made special note in the bible.

Bishop Jackson Kemper, (Between 1855 and 1865)

US-LibraryOfCongress-BookLogo.svg This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID cwpbh.01882.
This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing for more information.
Author Brady-Handy Photograph Collection (Library of Congress)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_Kemper

St. Paul's Episcopal Church would eventually be established in 1839 in Quincy.  I assume my ancestors were members and early organizers of the church. Please see below information from the historical marker outside St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Quincy:

"The earliest Episcopal Services were performed in Quincy in 1834 and Jackson Kemper was the first bishop to visit in 1838. St. Paul's Parish was organized and the first Vestry was elected in the same year. In 1839, the parish joined the Diocese of Florida and was incorporated by act of the Florida Territorial Legislature on February 28, 1839. The first church was erected on this site in 1839 and was consecrated on February 21, 1841, by James H. Otey, Bishop of Tennessee. The present structure is the second church building. It was erected in 1892, enlarged in 1914, remodeled in 1928, and enlarged again with a cloister and parish hall in 1951. The St. Paul's Episcopal Church is the oldest church in continuous use in the City of Quincy."  (3)

William Jordan and Mary Eliza's next child, Elizabeth Jean, was born in Quincy in March of 1839 and John Stewart was born there in December of 1840.  In addition to the fact these birth dates and location of births were noted in the family bible, the 1840 Census of Gadsden County lists William Jordan Armistead and family.  In the left margin of the page you can see the notation that all these folks were living in the “Town of Quincy, Gadsden County, Florida Territory” in 1840.

1840 United States Census, Gadsden County

https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/8057/4411332_00222/1636044?backurl=https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/45520959/person/6375081416/facts/citation /24200520193/edit/record

William Jordan and Mary Eliza Armistead had seven children from 1830 to 1840. They now had ten children.  A new decade, the 1840s, was now upon them. It may have been a new decade but it would prove business as usual to Mary Eliza, when it came to having babies. She had John Stewart and Robert Davidson, twins, in 1842, Emily Baker in 1844 and Robert Stewart in 1848. Boy, am I glad to finally get to the number 14 because Robert Stewart is my great-grandfather!!  Being the last of five children born in my family and seeing that my great-grandfather was the last of fourteen, it leaves me somewhat in awe of how this old world works. So many opportunities for me not to exist. Mary Eliza was getting to the age (46) where it starts getting difficult to have children. What if she had not been able to have that one more baby?  I would not have been here.  I don't have any great philosophical message for you here.  It just makes me really think and reflect and it also reminds me why I love genealogy. There are always more interesting and fascinating stories to uncover just around the corner or just on the next page.

Speaking of turning the page, let's look at decade of the 1840s. I expect the Armisteads viewed life ahead in a posibive way.  Seems to me they would have felt like they had a good life up until now. This decade of the 1840s, however, would turn out to be a difficult one for the Armistead family as deaths occurred, another move was in store, and there were rumblings in the country as the congress and the people in general were grappling with the issue of slavery.

Census records, once again, can show us the rapid growth of the United States.  Population numbers stood at 12,866,020 in 1830 but by 1840 the number was 17,069,453.  Florida's population was a modest 54,477 in 1840. (4) But remember Florida was still a territory in 1840, not a state. That changed in March of 1845 when Florida was admitted as the 27th state.  Then Texas was admitted a short time later, Dec of 1845. Texas became the 28th state in the U.S.  In the next year, 1846, Iowa was added and then Wisconsin was added in 1848. This brought the total number of states in the United States to 30. (5)

On May 7, 1840, what is known as The Great Natchez Trace Tornado hit Natchez, MS and became the second most deadly tornado in U.S. history.  This monster tornado did not stop unleashing it's terrible fury until it had killed 317 people and injured 209. (6)

The year of 1841 was significant in several ways.  First it was a year when a new president was inaugurated, which is always significant, but this inauguration turned out to be a very unusual one because the new administration only lasted 31 days.  The new president set a couple of presidential records.  Unfortunately they are records no president would wish to hold.

When William Henry Harrison was elected as the 9th president, his swearing in ceremony was held on March 4, 1841. After the swearing in, President Harrison proceeded to speak for nearly two hours, the longest inaugural speech in history (Record number one). Harrison had been a military hero, having fought in the War of 1812 and having led U.S. forces against Native Americans at the Battle of Tippecanoe. Harrison was now 68 years old in 1841 and was well aware of his opponents in the campaign saying he was too old to serve as president.  So Harrison made a statement to his opponents by making this nearly two hour speech outside in a cold rain, and oh by the way, he did not wear a hat or overcoat during the speech.  If that was not enough he had also ridden his horse to the inauguration instead of riding in a closed carriage that had been provided.  He would later catch pneumonia and die, just 31 days after he was inaugurated.  So, record's number 2 and 3 were, he was the first president to die in office, and he is the president with the shortest tenure in office.  At the time it was widely considered that Harrison died from being in the cold for too long and catching pneumonia, but analysis in the last few years showed that he didn't become sick until  three weeks later and it was determined he most likely died from Typhoid contracted from contaminated water in the White House. (7)

Portrait of William Henry Harrison (1841)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_Harrison
By Bass Otis - Christie's, LotFinder: entry 5352648, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11357154

Upon the death of William Henry Harrison, the Vice-President, John Tyler, was sworn in as the tenth president.  For the first time congress had to figure out how the constitution provided for succession upon the death of a sitting president. (8)

Restored and cropped daguerreotype of John Tyler, tenth president of the United States. 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25305645

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Tyler

In 1841 and 1842 the country's yearning to move west increased and wagon trains were organized to transport travelers to Oregon over the Oregon Trail.  From one hundred to a thousand pioneers at a time signed up for the trip west.  Over the coming years hundreds of thousands of people would use the Oregon Trail to get to the West Coast. (9)

The Oregon Trail

http://www.historyglobe.com/ot/otmap1.htm

In 1844, James K. Polk, was elected to be the eleventh president.  During his term, President Polk was instrumental in the expansion of the United States. This was accomplished by the annexation of Texas as a state, by the acquisition of the lands from Texas to California, after Mexico's defeat in the Mexican War in 1848, and also by the acquisition of the Oregon Territory in 1846. His opponents claimed he manufactured the country's entrance into a war with Mexico so he could carry out his vision of Manifest Destiny. (10) 

United States president James Knox Polk, three-quarter length portrait, three-quarters to the right, seated. Daguerrotype (1849)

Mathew B., 1823 (ca.)-1896, photographer.derivative work: Superwikifan (talk) - James_Polk.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12815602
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_K._Polk

The Mexican War started, after fighting broke out between the armies of the United States and Mexico, on May 8, 1846.  A dispute over land along the border of Texas, located just north of the Rio Grande at Palo Alto, Texas, was the spark that started the war. The United States declared war against Mexico on May 13, 1846 and Mexico declared war on May 23. Several battles were fought and finally in September of 1847, the United States attacked Mexico City.  By winning the Battle of Mexico City the U.S. effectively ended the war and Mexico and the US signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, on Feb. 2, 1848. (11)

On Nov. 7, 1848, Major General Zachary Taylor, a hero during the War with Mexico, won the election for president and was inaugurated in 1849 as the twelfth president of the United States. (12)

Half-Plate Daguerreotype of Zachary Taylor (c1843-45)

Zachary_Taylor_half_plate_daguerreotype_c1843-45.png, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15194058
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Zachary_Taylor_restored_and_cropped.png
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zachary_Taylor

On January 24, 1848, James W Marshall discovered gold at Sutter's Mill in Colona, California.  News of the find reached New York in August and the New York Herald broke the news of a gold rush to the East Coast. Eighty thousand prospectors made their way to California in 1849. (13)

Sailing card for the clipper ship California, depicting scenes from the California gold rush.

G.F. Nesbitt & Co., printer  http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/tf1r29p10v/?layout=metadata
http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/tf1r29p10v/?layout=metadata, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1317934

A woman with three men panning for gold during the California Gold Rush

By Unknown - http://www.neatorama.com/2013/11/05/Gold-Rush-Girls/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52272060

As far as I know, none of my direct Armistead ancestors hoofed it to California to make their fortune in the Gold mines.  My ancestors headed to Florida Territory to try and make their fortune farming. William Jordan Armistead and Mary Eliza Armistead were living in Gadsden County, Florida in 1841, as was indicated in the family bible.  In March of 1845 Florida Territory became a state of the United States.  In May of that year the state of Florida had its first statewide election. In the list of voters from Gadsden County, FL, was William Jordan Armistead.  He was registered in the Quincy Precinct of Gadsden County, Florida.  (He is in there but the writing is very light so you may have a hard time seeing it.)

Gadsden County Voters in First Florida Election, 1845

http://files.usgwarchives.net/fl/gadsden/history/1845votr.txt 
File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Betty Norem,
BNOREM@aol.com

USGENWEB NOTICE:  In keeping with our policy of providing free 
information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial 
entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These 
electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format for profit or other 
presentation.  This file may not be removed from this server or altered
in any way for placement on another server without the consent of the 
State and USGenWeb Project coordinators and the contributor.

Though they had lived in Gadsden County for many years now, things were still not good enough for this place to hold on to William Jordan.  Sometime between 1845 and 1850, W.J. moved again. What would make him move?  Did he suffer crop failure or in someway get discouraged with his Gadsden County land, or did he have an opportunity to move to a new place in Jackson County that offered even more opportunity?  His father-in-law had been farming a plantation in Jackson County for many years.  Did he in some way influence him to move to Jackson County?  This unknown reason for moving may not have been a bad thing that happened to the family, but there were certainly other happenings that were bad.  In 1841 Elizabeth Jean died and in 1843 John Stewart died. In 1848 and 1849 two more children passed away, Robert Davidson and Simmons Baker Armistead. A total of four children died during the decade of the 1840s.

Once again, for reasons I do not know, the Armistead family moves.  This time to Division 4, Jackson, County Florida.  William Jordan and Mary Eliza Armistead would remain in Jackson County for the rest of their lives.  But while I can say that they have finally settled down and will not move again, there is still a lot to be told about their lives and the lives of their children.

https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/img4/ht_icons/Browse/FL/FL_Marianna_347347_1952_24000.jpg

The map above is a contour map of a section of Jackson County.  Marianna is prominent in the lower left corner.  At the very top and at the center is the little community of Greenwood where Simmons Jones Baker had his plantation.

View of Marianna. ca 1918. 

Black & white photonegative, 4 x 5 in. State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory. <https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/143945>, accessed 26 December 2016.

I know the Armisteads were living in Jackson County in 1850 from researching the 1850 Census.  A page from the census record is shown below with all the family members still alive and living at home in 1850. The writing is very light so I added a copy of the record Ancestry.com provides of the census page so you can see the names better.

1850 U.S. Census, Jackson County, Florida.

Source Citation

Year: 1850; Census Place: Division 4, Jackson, Florida; Roll: M432_58; Page: 321B; Image: 629 

Source Information

Ancestry.com. 1850 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.

Original data: Seventh Census of the United States, 1850; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M432, 1009 rolls); Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29; National Archives, Washington, D.C.

http://www.Ancestry.com

I think I have fallen into a pattern (or as my grandson Connor used to say "patteren") of ending my posts at the end of a decade.  It does seem to make for a nice stopping point.  The 1850s were tumultuous years that led up to the Civil War.  Children of the Armisteads grew up and got married, moved off to their own homes, joined the military, etc.  And some would pass away.  I'll pick up the decade of the 1850s in my next installment.


References:
(1) http://americasbesthistory.com/abhtimeline1840.html
(2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_Kemper

(3) http://digitalcommons.unf.edu/historical_architecture_main/1342/

(4) http://lwd.dol.state.nj.us/labor/lpa/census/1990/poptrd1.htm
(5) The United States in Order of Statehood, http://www.senclewises.com/statehood.html
(6) http://americasbesthistory.com/abhtimeline1840.html
(7) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_Harrison
(8) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_Harrison
(9) http://americasbesthistory.com/abhtimeline1840.html
(10) Merry, Robert W., A Country of Vast Designs, James K. Polk, the Mexican War, and the Conquest of the American Continent, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, New York, NY, 2009, pg.129,323.
(11) Ibid., pg 434.
(12) http://americasbesthistory.com/abhtimeline1840.html
(13) http://americasbesthistory.com/abhtimeline1840.html