Places in Jefferson County

Apalachee

A name originally applied to the territory between the Aucilla and Ochlockonee rivers and to its aboriginal inhabitants. Most likely from the Choctaw apelichi, "the place in which to rule, preside, or govern."

Ashville

Once known as Rhodes Store, the town gained its present name in 1894.

Aucilla

An ancient community of many names: Aucilla, Ocello, Ocilla, Ocillo, Williamsburgh, and Station Four. The first post office appears to have been established under the name Ocello in 1834. Eight Walker brothers were among the early inhabitants, and their progeny still live there. In the mid 1800s Aucilla was an overnight stop on the Salt Road, the trail followed by wagons carrying salt from Florida's gulf coast to Georgia and beyond. Later, when the railroad went through, the stop was known as Station Four, since it was the fourth station east from Tallahassee. Aucilla is a Timucuan Indian word of unknown meaning.

Bunker Hill

This name of renown in American Revolutionary history identified two Florida places at opposite ends of the peninsula. Bunker Hill, in Jefferson County, lasted long enough to have a post office from October 18, 1829, to August 24, 1842, then passed out of existence.

Call County

Not quite a county. The territorial Council passed an act on November 23, 1828 providing for the creation of a county to be known as Call, but Gov. William P. DuVal vetoed the act, so Call County never was established. Call apparently was to have been situated where parts of Leon, Gadsden, and Jefferson counties now exists.

Cody

Believed named for a family, Cody had its own post office from 1912 to 1937.

El Destino

A mile-long avenue of spreading live oaks was a memorable feature of this virtually self-sufficient antebellum plantation. The vast tract, of thousands of acres, was acquired from the federal government in 1828 by John Nuttall, a Virginia planter, and his sons, James and William. William Nuttall added to the family's fortune and labor resources in 1832 by marrying Mary Wallace Savage, a Savannah heiress. Cotton was the chief product, but corn, oats, sugar cane, potatoes, and rice were also were raised. The plantation largely escaped the rigors of the Civil War and Reconstruction, during which the former slaves remained to work the fields as sharecroppers. The big house was destroyed by fire in 1925. The destiny of El Destino was to outlive its founders and their descendants. The Nuttall name survives in Nuttall Rise, where water emerges from the earth and flows into the Aucilla River.

Fanlew

A railway distribution center, serving the sawmills and turpentine stills once in this area, with supplies moving in and timber and naval stores moving out. Fanlew likely was named for an Atlantic Coast Line superintendent.

Hell's Half Acre

Look at a topographic map of southeast Jefferson County and you'll find a swamp with the legend "Hell's Half Acre." This swamp is unusual even among the many swamps of Florida's Big Bend for its rugged terrain. Rather than a half acre, the swamp covers approximately 1,000 acres.

Iamonia

A lake in Jefferson County located south of US 26 in the region of Avalon Plantation. Read (1934) traces the name from a Seminole tribal name yamassee, meaning "mild, peaceful."

Jefferson County

The thirteenth county, established January 20, 1827. Named for Thomas Jefferson, president of the United States, who had died on July 4 of the year preceding the county's founding.

Lamont

A federally-sponsored History of Jefferson County (1935) traces the story of Lamont from the period when the stagecoach between St. Augustine and Tallahassee made a daily stop to change horses. Mail was left at Sam Beazley's store. Later, when trains had replaced the stagecoaches, the mail went to McCain's store and the settlement was known locally both as McCains Store and Lick Skillet. A candidate for the legislature suggested neither name conveyed an image of the beauty of the tree-shaded village and urged adoption instead of Lamont, for Daniel Scott Lamont, secretary of war during the second administration of President Cleveland. Lamont recently had visited Florida and, as he was favorably remembered, the name was adopted.

Lipona

This name is doubly fascinating because its first postmaster was Achille Murat, prince of Napoli, and Lipona is an anagram, or transposition of letters, for Napoli. Lipona was the name of Murat's plantation. The Handbook of the Postal History Committee of the Florida Federation of Stamp Clubs says the Lipona post office was established May 8, 1828, with Col. Murat, as he preferred to be known, in charge. Charles Louis Napoleon Archille Murat was the oldest son of the emperor's sister Caroline and her husband, the king of Naples. Exiled from Italy and France with the fall of Napoleon, Prince Murat was influenced by the marquis de Lafayette to seek a new home in Florida. The post office here was discontinued December 16, 1847.

Lloyd

Walter Franklin Lloyd came from Flatbush, N.Y., shortly after the Civil War, bringing his means of livelihood, a carpenter's tool chest. He first settled at Tallahassee, then moved to what was known variously as Bailey's Mill or Number Two, the second station from Tallahassee on the Jacksonville, Pensacola, and Mobile Railroad. Lloyd opened a mercantile business and married Sallie Dry Leonard, who brought to the marriage an inheritance of farmland.

Miccosukee

Leon and Jefferson counties - A community in Leon County and a large lake in Jefferson County. Simpson (1956) concludes the name means nikasuki, "hog-eaters."

Monticello

This county seat of Jefferson County is named for the historic Virginia home of Thomas Jefferson. The post office here received the name in 1827. Near here stood the Spanish mission of La Concepcion de Ayabuli.

Robinson's

John G. Robinson and his wife Fanny were the first settlers in the vicinity of Monticello. A post office was established on May 10, 1827, at Robinson's. On December 26, 1827, the name was changed to Monticello.

Thomas City

Though it remains on the map, the postal register shows the name changed to Wacissa in 1899.

Turkey Scratch

In the early days, before inhabitants became self-conscious about the names of their communities, there was a settlement in Jefferson County known as Turkey Scratch. A resident of Turkey Scratch suggested to the people of Lick Skillet that another name would be more suitable for their settlement. Lick Skillet was changed to Lamont and Turkey Scratch to Panola.

Waukeenah

Col. John G. Gamble in 1827, named a plantation in honor of a Spanish lady from Pensacola who was a guest. Her name was Joachina, the English pronunciation of which approximates Waukeenah. Col Gamble's land grant was known as Welaunee, near the Marion Cross Roads where, according to McRory and Barrows (1935), the Tallahassee Road crossed a local north-south road. Among the other plantations in the area were William Nuttall's El Destino, Prince Achille Murat's Lipona, Kidder Meade Moore's Pinetucky, and Judge Randall's Belmont.

 

Welaunee Creek

Also the name given to Col. G. Gamble's land grant in this vicinity in the 1820s. The name is from the Creek we, "water," and lane, "yellow," or yellow water.

Williamsburg

The first name of Aucilla. Settlers came as early as 1832. Scruggs (1966) says Williamsburg was so called because so many male settlers bore that name, including William Norcu, who ran the saloon and general store; Dr. William Emery, the physician and pharmacist; and William Kersey, the blacksmith. The post office spelled the name Williamsburgh. When the railroad was built, its stop for this area was known as Station Number Four, because it was the fourth station east of Tallahassee.