Editing St. Johns County, Florida (section)

==History==
St. Johns County's history begins in 1821, when [[Robert Butler (U.S. commander)|Colonel Robert Butler]] received Spanish [[East Florida]] from Captain-General Colonel [[José María Coppinger|José M. Coppinger]]. Butler represented Major General [[Andrew Jackson]], federal military commissioner for the Florida provinces (las Floridas) with the powers of governor, exercising the powers of the Captain General and the Intendants of the Island of Cuba and the governors of the said provinces, respectively, who ordained that all the country east of the [[Suwanee River|river Suwannee]]<ref name="sjso.org">{{Cite web |url=http://www.sjso.org/?page_id=60 |title=History « St. Johns County Sheriff's Office |access-date=February 6, 2015 |archive-date=February 6, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150206171050/http://www.sjso.org/?page_id=60 |url-status=dead }}</ref> should be designated the County of St. Johns.

St. Johns was established, along with [[Escambia County, Florida|Escambia County]] (in the former [[West Florida]] province), on July 21, 1821, 11 days after Butler received [[Spanish Florida|Florida]] for the United States, and five days after the city of [[St. Augustine, Florida|St. Augustine]] was incorporated.

The name Saint John's was derived from the [[Spanish missions in Florida|Spanish mission]] (c. 1580) ''[[San Juan del Puerto, Florida|San Juan del Puerto]]'' ("Saint John of the Harbor"). The [[U.S. Department of the Interior]] dropped the apostrophe in 1932 because an apostrophe implied ownership.

It was a huge county, encompassing most of [[peninsular]] Florida, more than 39,000 square miles; it was 475 miles long by 165 miles wide. Much of the land was uninhabited. Saint Augustine (1565) was the oldest permanent European settlement, and there were [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] in the county as well.<ref name="sjso.org"/>