Editing Starke, Florida (section)

===Founding and 19th century===
[[File:Bradford Telegraph Building.jpg|left|alt=Headquarters of The Bradford County Telegraph, Florida's oldest weekly news publication.|thumb|Headquarters of The Bradford County Telegraph, Florida's oldest weekly news publication.]]
Prior to 1857, the area that is today Starke was sparsely settled. The announcement of the Fernandina to Cedar Key railroad, which would connect the Atlantic Ocean with the Gulf of Mexico, brought the first known settlement to the community.<ref name="The Story of Starke">{{cite web| url=http://www.usfcam.usf.edu/CAM/exhibitions/1998_12_McCollum/supplemental_didactics/18.Story.pdf | title= The Story of Starke | publisher=The Bradford County Telegraph | access-date=May 5, 2022}}</ref>

In November 1857, the first post office in the area was established by George W. Cole. In 1859, Cole obtained {{cvt|40|acre}} of land around the post office, which were described in his documents as the "Original Town of Starke."<ref name="The Story of Starke"/>

In 1858, the railroad reached Starke, bringing new residents to the community. The city was incorporated on April 4, 1870. In 1875, Bradford County residents narrowly voted to move the county seat from [[Lake Butler, Union County, Florida|Lake Butler]] to Starke. Three additional votes would be taken in later years on the location of the county seat, before the Florida Legislature resolved the issue in 1921, with the creation of [[Union County, Florida|Union County]].<ref name="The Story of Starke" />

Starke's weekly newspaper, ''The Bradford County Telegraph'', began publication in 1879 as ''The Florida Weekly Telegraph'' (it continues to be the oldest weekly newspaper in Florida today). The city experienced tremendous growth in the 1880s and 1890s from Florida's citrus industry. Northerners moved to the area in droves to take a stake in the industry, but the state's [[Great Freeze]] that, came in the winter of 1894-1895 devastated the area's orange groves, moving the citrus industry further south.<ref name="The Story of Starke" />