Editing Palatka, Florida (section)

==History==
[[File:Bird's-eye View of Palatka, FL.jpg|thumb|Palatka c. 1880]]
[[File:Larkin House, Palatka, FL.jpg|thumb|Larkin House c. 1880]]
[[File:Front Street, Palatka, FL.jpg|thumb|Second Street c. 1880]]

The area was once the domain of the [[Timucuan]] peoples, two tribes of which existed in the Palatka region under chiefs [[Saturiwa]] and [[Agua Dulce people|Utina]]. They fished [[bass (fish)|bass]] and [[mullet (fish)|mullet]], or [[hunting|hunted]] [[deer]], [[turkeys]], [[bear]] and [[opossum]]. Others farmed [[beans]], [[Maize|corn]], [[melons]], [[Squash (fruit)|squash]], and [[tobacco]]. However, [[infectious disease]] that came with European contact and war devastated the tribes, and they were extinct as organized peoples by the mid-18th century. Some of their survivors merged with other tribes; other Timucua evacuated with the Spanish to [[Cuba]] in 1763, when Spain ceded Florida to Great Britain in an exchange of interests after the latter's defeat of France in the [[Seven Years' War]].

During the late eighteenth century, [[Muscogee|Creek]] (Muscogee) tribes made their way to Florida. In a process of [[ethnogenesis]], they joined with other Native Americans and the [[Seminole]] tribe emerged. They called the location ''Pilo-taikita'', meaning "crossing over" or "cows' crossing". Here the [[St. Johns River]] narrows and begins a shallower, winding course upstream to [[Lake George (Florida)|Lake George]] and [[Lake Monroe (Florida)|Lake Monroe]].

In 1767, [[Denys Rolle (1725–1797)|Denys Rolle]] (1725–1797), an English gentleman and philanthropist, established Rollestown on the east bank of the St. Johns River, at the head of deepwater navigation. His {{convert|78,000|acre|km2|adj=on}} [[plantations in the American South|plantation]] was a commercial experiment. He recruited settlers off the streets of London to serve as indentured servant/workers: they included paupers, vagrants, pickpockets and "penitent prostitutes". He paid for their passage and if they survived the term of indenture, they could receive land. Some two hundred [[indentured servants]] arrived to clear wilderness for agriculture and livestock. Unaccustomed to such physical labor and a subtropical climate, however, most left.

Next Rolle purchased enslaved Africans taken captive in West Africa. He used them as workers to tend livestock, such as chickens, hogs, goats and sheep, or cultivate and process cotton, indigo, citrus and turpentine for export to Europe.

He built a mansion and laid out a village, but trouble beleaguered his "ideal society". In 1770, a disgruntled overseer sold more than 1,000 of his employer's cattle and disappeared with the money. Rolle hired new overseers and bought more slaves, but the plantation failed to prosper.

When Spain resumed control of Florida in 1783 for a period, Rolle abandoned the colony and chartered a ship to carry his household belongings, livestock and slaves to a {{convert|2,000|acre|km2|adj=on}} estate on [[Exuma|Great Exuma]] in the [[Bahamas]]. This point of land, in East Palatka, is still called Rollestown.

With the changes by different European nations in Florida, there were changes in claims in Pilo-taikita, now contracted to ''Pilatka''. In 1774, naturalist [[William Bartram]] noted an [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indian]] village on the west bank, but it was later abandoned.

The current community of Palatka was traced by pioneers to a European-American settlement established here in 1821.<ref>''Columbia-Lippincott Gazetteer'', p. 1413.</ref> After the United States acquired Florida in 1821, Nehemiah Brush established a [[ferry]] across the river. He bought a {{convert|1,200|acre|km2|adj=on}} tract in 1826 and another of equal size the next year. The ferry landing and related site became a distribution point. A [[New York (state)|New York]] company shipped goods from here to supply immigrants at the Grant of Arredondo, which lay to the west.

The arrival of land-hungry European-American settlers created confrontations with the resident Seminole. When the government attempted to relocate the tribe to the west of the Mississippi as part of [[Indian Removal]] starting in 1833, the [[Seminole War|Second Seminole War]] began. The Seminole attacked and burned Pilatka in 1835.

Recognizing the site's strategic importance for control of the St. Johns River, the main artery into [[Central Florida]], the US Army in 1838 established Fort Shannon, named for Captain Samuel Shannon. It included a [[garrison]], supply depot and hospital. By 1842 most of the Seminole had moved to Indian Territory, and Fort Shannon was abandoned by the army in 1843.

Settlers made use of the military piers and buildings, including eight blockhouses, to develop the town. By 1847, it was growing rapidly. In 1849, Putnam County was created, with Pilatka the county seat. With the help of Judge Isaac H. Bronson, it was incorporated as a city on January 8, 1853.

During the 1850s, Florida in general and Pilatka in particular gained a reputation as a seasonal haven for invalids and others escaping severe northern winters. Steamboats carried them up the St. John's River in increasing numbers. One visitor wrote that amusements included "sailing, fishing, rowing, walking, riding in buggies and on horseback, whist, euchre, backgammon and hunting".{{citation needed|date=July 2024}}

The tourist trend was interrupted by the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], when [[gunboat]]s cruised the waters. Pilatka was destitute and largely deserted. On October 7, 1862, the [[USS Cimarron (1862)|USS ''Cimarron'']] fired several [[shell (projectile)|shells]] over the town after seeing some [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] [[cavalry]]. Mary Boyd pleaded with [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] Commander [[Maxwell Van Zandt Woodhull|Maxwell Woodhull]] to spare Pilatka, assuring him that the horse soldiers were not residents. He complied.

Among the notable residents of Pilatka during the war were Confederate spy [[Lola Sánchez (Confederate spy)|Lola Sánchez]] and her sisters. Sánchez became upset when their father was falsely accused of being a Confederate spy and imprisoned by Union Army soldiers. Union officers took over their house in Palatka. On one occasion Sánchez overheard various officers’ planning a raid and alerted the Confederates forces.

Confederate forces, led by Capt. [[John Jackson Dickison]], surprised and captured the Union troops on the day of the supposed raid in what is known as the Battle of Horse Landing.<ref name="LE">"The Latino Experience in U.S. History"; Globe Pearson; pages 155-157; {{ISBN|0-8359-0641-8}}.</ref><ref name="SS">[http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art40197.asp "Hispanic Confederate Heritage – The Sanchez sisters"] by Rebecca M. Cuevas De Caissie, bellaonline.com</ref>

Following the war, the tourists returned. New accommodations were constructed including the Putnam House, built by [[Hubbard L. Hart]], and the Larkin House, which could hold 250 guests. Steamers ran up the [[Ocklawaha River]] to [[Eustis, Florida|Eustis]], [[Leesburg, Florida|Leesburg]] and [[Silver Springs, Florida|Silver Springs]], or along the St. Johns River to [[Enterprise, Florida|Enterprise]] and [[Sanford, Florida|Sanford]]. Industries included logging, raising cattle and hogs, and orange groves. On May 24, 1875, the post office changed the spelling to Palatka.

By the 1880s, several competing [[railroad]]s crossed the community, which became an important [[railroad junction|junction]]. On the west bank of the St. Johns these included the [[Florida Southern Railway]], the [[Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West Railroad]], and the [[Georgia Southern and Florida Railroad]]. East of the river, the original routing of the [[Florida East Coast Railway]]'s main line between St. Augustine and [[Bunnell, Florida|Bunnell]] passed through East Palatka and a railroad bridge in Palatka provided for a connection to the railroads on the western bank.

On November 7, 1884, Palatka suffered a devastating fire. When tourists arrived that season, most accommodations had been lost. They continued on trains south; this was the beginning of a gradual shift of tourism elsewhere. The city lost trade, shipping and transportation preeminence to [[Jacksonville, Florida|Jacksonville]], on the coast. But with its downtown rebuilt in brick to be fireproof, Palatka emerged a finer place.

In 1893, A. E. and H. S. Wilson of [[Saginaw, Michigan]] bought the Noah J. Tilghman & Son sawmill, which processed cypress lumber. Renamed the Wilson Cypress Company, it expanded operations and became a major employer. At its peak, it was the second-largest cypress mill in the world. It closed in 1944, as the timber industry moved out of the area.

The [[Great Freeze]] of 1894 and 1895 destroyed Palatka's citrus groves for five years. Formerly they had been both a tourist attraction and important sector of the economy. The ill-fated [[Cross Florida Barge Canal]] was once intended to pass the city. Today, tourism remains important.