1842 - Early Homesteaders
In 1842, after the Second Seminole War, the area of what would later become South Lake County was now open territory, since most of the Seminoles living in the area had been forced out during the war.
Families that began migrating to the area had no roads, so existing Native American trails were followed.
The first Post Office in the area was established in Okahumpka in 1845.
Prior to 1851, settlers had already arrived to the west of Groveland in the area that would be called Linden.
The Third Seminole War (1855 to 1858) was still being fought when some of our ancestors begin to arrive.
The new residents obtained property through land grants, signed by Presidents Pierce or Buchanan, or by "homesteading" and other means.
Many of our ancestors came to this area from South Carolina and Georgia.
Since there were no established roads, the pioneers traveled by horseback or wagon over the previiously established Native trails.
[Early Florida Pioneers Traveling and Camping in Covered Wagons]
At the time, Florida had three land offices, one of which was located in Newnansville (north of present day Gainesville).
The pioneers migrating to this area could acquire land through:
Acts of Congress,
U. S. Land Patents,
payments for military service (if they could prove they had fought in any wars up until that time),
or private purchase made directly through the government or through an individual land owner.
1851-1852 - Slone's Ridge
In 1851-1852, a large caravan of wagons arrived in this area from Irwin County, Georgia.
Among those traveling in the wagon caravan would be the first known settlers to arrive in the area that would become known as Slone's Ridge.
The settlement was named after, future veteran of the War of Northern Agression (Civil War), Captain William W. Slone, who left his family here to go fight for the Confederacy. William served as a Captain in Florida's Cow Cavalry, along with his 1st cousin and fellow settler Lieutenant Daniel Sloan. (Read more about them below). The Cow Calvary was formed in order to round up cattle and drive them to areas where Confederate soldiers were stationed.
The names of these early 1851 Slone Ridge settlers were:
William W. Slone and his wife Rebecca Jane (Parker-Williams). William W. Slone was born near Oakmelalye River.
Rebecca was a widow also from Irwin County, Georgia. They were married in 1843 before coming to Florida. Together they had 15 children. Rebecca had one daughter from her previous marriage, Nancy Carolyn Williams (1840-1845). Rebecca was Christened Methodist in 1858.
William Slone homesteaded 200 acres. He had to fight off panthers, bers, wild cats, and the occasional Seminole raiding party. William went on to father 18 children. (An old-timer once reported that Slone Ridge was originally called Tuscanooga Hammock. However, this has not been documented.)
On November 20th 1875, William received a deed, signed by then President Ulysses S. Grant, for 155 acres that he had homesteaded. Captain Slone continued to add to his land until he had totaled 640 acres.
(Mrs. Mildred Merritt Lee has a copy of the Homestead Certificate #816 approved November 20th, 1875 and Homestead Application #4053 that was approved 20 May 1862 at the Land Office at Gainesville FL.)
One account states that Mr. Slone had to fight off some local Native Americans and was forced to abandon his homestead twice during the raids. He also had to fight off panthers and bears that were plentiful in the area at the time.
Rebecca died in 1883 from Tuberculosis. William created a cemetery for her near his home. It is still known as Slone's Ridge Cemetery.
He later married Sarah Fussell, the widow of James C. Fussell, another early settler form Irwin County. Together they had two more children. Captain Slone died in 1900 and was buried at Slone's Ridge Cemetery.
Descendants of Captain William Slone:
Merdock Slone served as a state representative from Lake County for two terms 1895 to 1898. William H. Slone, Sr., a great-grandson of Captain Slone, later lived in Leesburg.
Ivy Slone, a resident and former postmaster of Mascotte, is the daughter of Randolph Slone, Capt. Slone's nephew. Randolph Slone, born in 1878, was an musician at cane grindings and other social events in Mascotte.
Robert Jackson Slone - Brother of William W. Slone. One account said he was single upon arrival.
Alexander L. Slone - Brother of William W. Slone. One account said he was single upon arrival.
Ealon Slone - Sister of William W. Slone. Married George Matthew Merritt. (It is not clear if they were part of the 1851 wagon train or if they came later.)
Children of George Merritt and Ealon Slone who remained in the Slone Ridge area were:
Evander Merritt (Father to William, Ollie, Kelly, and Daisy)
Elizabeth Merritt (Married Leonard Robbins, 1869, and moved to nearby Tuscanooga). She was a midwife and her medicine bag was previously on display at the museum (See below).
Frederick Lucius Merritt
Robert James Merritt (Married Oregon Sloan, daughter of Daniel Sloan, c.1871)
Virginia Merritt (Married Linton Sloan, son of Daniel Sloan, c. 1870)
A personal story passed down from the family of Elizabeth (Merritt) Robbins:
In 1878, after nine years of marriage, Elizabeth's husband died leaving her with four children (ages 2 to 6), plus two step-children from his first marriage (his first wife died). Back then, there was no such thing as social security, Medicaid, or government handouts, so most people in need received assistance from churches and neighbors. However, for pioneer women, like Elizabeth, churches and neighbors, were few and far between, so they had to step up and perform double duty. With the use of her fishing pole and shotgun, Elizabeth helped to provide food for her family in addition to the tending of her garden. She also raised cows, which provided milk.
While fishing one day for food, a fish hook became caught in her hand. What does a pioneer woman do when there's no doctor or any means to get help? She removed the pocket knife from her apron and, without anesthetic, cut the hook out of her own hand.
A family history left by B. J. Merritt (GHS Class of '34) of Bay Lake tells of his early family members arriving to the area west of what would become Mascotte in covered wagons in the mid-1800s and their encounters with the local Seminoles. Some were friendly, but some were not.
Why SLOAN and SLONE spelling of the name?
John Sloan had two sons: John (b. 1784) and William (b. 1787).
William went on to become a Georgia State Senator in 1837.
William changed the spelling of his last name to Slone, for an unknown reason.
William's son, William W., migrated here in 1851 and became a Confederate Captain. The area was later named after him.
Lt. Daniel Sloan was the son of John Sloan and Rachel (Alderman), and 1st cousin to Capt. William W. Slone.
Daniel Sloan was born in 1811 in Duplin County, NC.
He married Nancy Lanier, also from NC, on August 06, 1835 in Thomas County, Georgia. They had eight children before moving to Hillsborough County (1850-1852) where they had six more children.
In 1838, during the 2nd Seminole War, he served as a private in Captain Levi J. Knight's company of the Georgia Militia.
They came to the area of Groveland around 1866, when the house of Daniel Sloan is believed to be the first to have been built in what would become Taylorville. It was built on what would later become known as Edge's Island, north of today's Public Safety Complex.
They had one more son in 1873. Daniel was a circuit riding Baptist preacher, farmer, and cattleman. He was also a 1st Leutinent in Florida's Cow Cavalry in the Confederate Army, which was a group of cattlemen who rounded up cattle and drove them to areas where they could be used to feed the soldiers.
One of Daniel and Nancy's granddaughters, Civility Slaon, would later marry Homer Dukes, a son of George Washington Dukes. Daniel [1st LT, CO B, 1 BN - B. 1811 D. 1888] and Nancy [D. 1895] are buried at Dukes Cemetery.
Gipson P. Sloan, a descendent of Daniel Sloan, moved to Mascotte around 1885 and lived there until 1925. One of his sons, Manuel H. Sloan, continued to live in Slone's Ridge and was elected as a Lake County Commissioner in 1926 and served for many years.
Gipson's other son, G. P. Sloan, was a minister and would later become a Groveland councilman. Read more about it here: Sloan Vs. Flynn
Mandy Freeman, a 5th great-granddaughter of Daniel Sloan and 4th great-grandaughter of George Dukes would become a Mascotte councilwoman.
The Methodist Church in Mascotte started out as "Slone's Chapel". Services were held in a school house.
Later in 1905, the church was built and it became the Mascotte Methodist Church.
Descendants of the Slone and Sloan families still reside on the same lands that have been passed down for 170 years.
Life of The Early Settlers
Hard work was required to tame the land, which had to be cleared.
Trees were cut down and the logs hewn, for making the cabins, before homes could be built or fields laid out for farming.
Labor was done by hand and settlers had to camp in tents or wagons until the homes were completed.
Fence rails were split out of pine, cypress, and cedar.
Corn was made into hominy, cornmeal, and grits.
Various vegetables, such as beans or peas, were dried for the winter months.
Some wild berries were eaten as food.
Sugar and syrup were made from the sugar cane that would be grown.
Cows, deer, wild turkey, hogs, rabbits, squirrels, fish, and chickens provided their meat.
The beef was pickled or dried and pork was cured and smoked for preserving.
Butter was churned from the cows' milk.
Chickens provided meat and eggs.
Feathers from the chickens were used for mattresses and pillows.
Cotton was a necessary crop grown here in the mid-late 1800s.
Clothing was made of cotton cloth that was hand-loomed from cotton thread made on their own spinning wheels.
Bedspreads and sheets were also made out of the homespun cotton fabric.
They made their own dyes from pokeberries, hickory bark, and indigo plant.
The early settlers were not only farmers, as many of them also raised cattle.
Without any stores in the area, many of these early settlers eventually had to go to Leesburg (first settled in 1857) for supplies. They would trade their crops, deer hides, and sugar cane syrup in exchange for products such as ammunition, coffee, flour, and salt. A trip to Leesburg was a three day adventure. They would ride on horse or ox pulled wagons through the trails that meandered through the swamps and forests. Along the way, they would camp in tents or in their covered wagons at what became known as Bugg Spring in Okahumpka. The second day they would get to Leesburg to do their shopping and camp again at Bugg Spring on the way back.
You can read more about the history of Bugg Spring and Okahumpka here: 1830s-1870s - The Swamp Fox of Okahumpka and Bugg Spring
A Tribute to Our Pioneer Women
These local pioneer women had to be tough to survive! First, let us mention the large families. Most of the families had more than 10 children. For example: William Slone had 18 children; Daniel Sloan had 14 children;
and Matthew Pridgeon Merritt had 10 children.
These women raised families in a time of:
&nbs;no running water or indoor plumbing,
&nbs;no electricity or air conditioning,
&nbs;no modern cook stoves or refrigeration,
&nbs;no ready-prepared food (they had to churn their own butter, grind sugar cane for syrup, etc.),
&nbs;no comfortable means of transportation
&nbs;no modern medicines or hygiene products.
They had to wash clothes in a kettle over an open fire, with soap that they had made themselves. The clothes were sewn with thread from the cotton which these women grew and spun.
A personal story passed down from the family of Elizabeth (Merritt) Robbins:
In 1878, after nine years of marriage, Elizabeth's husband died leaving her with four children (ages 2 to 6), plus two step-children from his first marriage (his first wife died).
Back then, there was no such thing as social security, Medicaid, or government handouts, so most people in need received assistance from churches and neighbors.
However, for pioneer women, like Elizabeth, churches and neighbors, were few and far between, so they had to step up and perform double duty.
With the use of her fishing pole and shotgun, Elizabeth helped to provide food for her family in addition to the tending of her garden.
She also raised cows, which provided milk.
While fishing one day for food, a fish hook became caught in her hand. What does a pioneer woman do when there's no doctor or any means to get help? She removed the pocket knife from her apron and, without anesthetic, cut the hook out of her own hand.
[Contributors: Mary Helen Myers, Jason Brown]