1845 - Florida Becomes a State
The Territory of Florida was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 30, 1822, until March 3, 1845, when it was admitted into the Union as the state of Florida and officially became our 27th state. By 1860, after just 15 years, the white population would swell to almost 78,000.
On June 24, 1845, three days after the first meeting of the new General Assembly, Floridians learned of the death of Andrew Jackson, who was the Army General, who forced Spain to give up the claim to Florida and become the first Territorial Governor before winning election to the White House.
Farming and lumbering dominated the lives of those who lived in Florida before the American Civil War. Civil War Florida had few large towns: Jacksonville on the Atlantic coast and Tallahassee near the Gulf Coast. Others were the early Spanish towns of Pensacola, St. Augustine and Key West
Florida had almost nothing in industry and riverboats served as the only mass transportation. The regions of the state that could not be reached by water remained remote and unpopulated.
There were no state chartered banks, most Floridians depended on bartering., not banks.
1819 - Moses Levy and David Yulee
In 1782, when Spain had re-occupied Florida, they began awarding large tracts of land to those who granted favors.
In 1819, Moses Levy received one of these land grants from the Spanish.
He established a plantation along the St. Johns River, which was to be a settlement for oppressed European Jews.
Moses was the father of David Levy, who later changed his name to "Yulee."
David Yulee was Florida's first senator after aquiring statehood.
[Contributors: Mary Helen Myers, Jason Brown]