Today we began using our final section of maps! It is now extemely obvious that we are at the end of the trip. We travelled from DeFuniak Springs, FL to Marianna, FL along State Route 90. The ride was pretty much straight and but surprizingly not flat - it was rolly. Did about 1250 feet of climbing!
We travelled through several interesting towns on the way including Argyle, and Ponce De Leon before we rode through Westville, FL.
Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder
American author Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder (February 7, 1867 – February 10, 1957) [who wrote the Little House series of books based on her childhood in a pioneer family] along with husband Almanzo and her daughter Rose lived in Westville, FL for a short time in 1891. Laura's cousin Peter lived here as well. Peter married and stayed in the region, but the Wilders quickly determined the move had been a mistake for them, and left the area after about a year, eventually settling in Mansfield, MO.
Then it was on to Caryville, Bonifay, Chipley, Cottondale and finally Marianna, FL.
Marianna, FL was founded in 1828 and named the county seat in 1829, supplanting the earlier settlement of Webbville, which soon dissolved and no longer exists.
John Milton - 5th Governor of Florida
Marianna, FL is the final resting place of the Confederate governor of Florida, Governor John Milton, and the scene of a minor Civil War battle between a small home guard of about 150 boys, old men, and wounded soldiers, and a contingent of approximately 900 Federal troops.
Governor Milton, who owned the Milton Plantation and hundreds of slaves, was the Governor of Florida during the Civil War years. Governor Milton was vehemently against the Confederate States of America reuniting with the United States of America. He vowed that he would rather die than see the Confederates reunite with America.
In late spring 1865, as Federal Troops were preparing to take control of Tallahassee, Governor Milton received word the Civil War had ended and that Florida would now be part of the United States again. Upon this news, the Governor died of a gunshot wound. Historians tell it that Milton committed suicide because he could not stand the thought of slavery ending and becoming a part of America again.
Marianna, FL was also the site of the 1934 lynching of Claude Neal, an African American man accused of rape and murder. The national publicity generated by the lynching and resulting riot played a significant role in American history by helping to inspire national anti-lynching laws.
We are staying at the Microtel Inn and Suites.
Tomorrow we are off to Tallahassee, FL.
No comments:
Post a Comment