Tallahassee, Florida’s Capital City, has a unique history. Nestled among the hills, red clay, and oaks of Florida’s panhandle, Tallahassee may not seem like the typical Florida city. Yet the history of Florida and Tallahassee are closely connected.
Before the arrival of the Spanish, French, or English colonists to the North Florida area, the inhabitants were the Apalachee Indians. “Tallahassee” is an Apalachee Indian word meaning “old town” or “abandoned fields”. The Apalachee Indians lived throughout the panhandle from 500 through the 1600s. In 1539, Hernando de Soto spent the first Christmas in the New World in the woods near the present State Capitol. As more Spanish colonists entered the panhandle, disease and fighting reduced their population. The Apalachee Indians left and the area became an abandoned village, thus it was called “Tallahassee”; in fact, the first Christmas in the new world was celebrated right here by Hernando Cortez. South of Tallahassee at the confluence of the St. Marks and Wakulla Rivers is the historic Fort San Marcos de Apalache where over the past four centuries numerous New World travelers have staked their claim. Construction was begun on the first stone fort in 1739, and today it is a popular state park and museum.
Tallahassee’s modern roots were established in April 1824 when John McIver and party of six camped near the present day capital. A short time thereafter, Judge John Robinson and Sherrodd McCall began clearing land for what would become the site for the first legislative council building. In 1824 the area was officially named “Tallahassee” from the Apalachee word meaning “old town”.
The Apalachee Indians lived throughout the panhandle from 500 through the 1600s. In 1539, Hernando de Soto spent the first Christmas in the New World in the woods near the present State Capitol. As more Spanish colonists entered the panhandle, disease and fighting reduced their population. The Apalachee Indians left and the area became an abandoned village, thus it was called “Tallahassee”.
When Florida became a territory of the United States in 1822, both St. Augustine and Pensacola, the major cities in Florida at the time, competed to be the Capital. Unable to come to an agreement, it was decided to locate the Capital at a point between the two cities. Tallahassee’s tall hills attracted the search party, and in 1824 the City of Tallahassee was created, with a log cabin capital was quickly built.
Even as the state Capital, Tallahassee quickly acquired the reputation of an outlaw frontier town. Men on the street often carried guns and knives and duels were a popular recreation. After passing through Tallahassee, Ralph Waldo Emerson called Tallahassee “a grotesque place…rapidly settled by public officers, land speculators, and desperados.” To end this lawlessness, a small group of police officers were commissioned, and Tallahassee’s Police Department has served the City ever since, celebrating over 150 years of service.
The rich land quickly turned Leon County into a thriving agricultural area. Tallahassee had several large plantations and crops included cotton, corn and sweet potatoes. In 1860, 9,089 slaves lived in Tallahassee.
During the Civil War, Tallahassee was the only Confederate capital east of the Mississippi that did not fall to Union troops. At a small battle was waged at Natural Bridge, south of Tallahassee near the City of St. Marks, a put-together army of old men and students from the West Florida Seminary (now Florida State University) fought off an attack by Union troops.
After the Civil War, many of Tallahassee’s large plantations were turned into hunting lodges for wealthy winter residents from the North. Times were tough, with more laborers than jobs, and farmers caught in the never ending cycle of share cropping. Yet Tallahassee slowly continued to grow. In 1950, Tallahassee’s population reached 27,237, and farmers were no longer the majority of the rural population.
Almost since being named as the Capital, Tallahasseeans have fought back various attempts to move the Capital to another City. After the turn of the century, business men have promoted hotels and lodging houses to insure that legislators had places to stay. In an effort to beautify the town, hundreds of dogwoods and oaks were planted along streets and in front yards and have become an symbol of Tallahassee. In the 60s, the town even organized “Springtime Tallahassee”, an annual parade and celebration, in an effort to keep legislators from moving the Capital. With the dedication of the new Capital Complex in 1978, the threats of moving the Capitol were put to rest for the time.
Today’s Tallahassee is a community where tradition and family are important. Government offices share the largest sector of the labor force, followed by services and retail trade. Two universities, Florida State University and Florida A & M, and Tallahassee Community College attract highly educated professionals and researchers. In recent years, Tallahassee has become home to super computers and the National High Magnetic Laboratory. With a population of over 150,000, Tallahassee is no longer the abandoned fields it once was.
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