A Bit of History
Edward Wanton and Horatio Dexter
1823
1823 map showing Micanopy and Wanton’s just south of the Alachua Savana
Click to see full map
Dexter and Wanton’s success with negotiating with the Seminoles led them to offer their services as Indian agents to the territory of Florida government which did not please, the now president, Andrew Jackson who issued an order for their arrest describing them as “unprincipled individuals” attempting to “Fleece” the Seminoles. Ironically, Indian relations deteriorated such that the Florida territorial government engaged Dexter’s services to engage with the Seminoles which led to the Treaty of Moultrie Creek in 1823. Meanwhile, Wanton focused on the settlement of the Arrendondo Grant and received a grant of 1,667 acres and a yearly salary of $500 and by March of 1821 two houses had been built with Wanton as the sole white inhabitant. Because it was mostly a black community, the Seminoles tolerated it. The following year several additional structures were added including slave quarters, a kitchen[1], an Indian trading store, and a large log-house enabling his family to join him and the settlement increased to around fifteen persons.
In February 1823 the Seminoles so respected Wanton that they supplied him with abundant game which was rare as the Seminoles discouraged white settlers. Early in 1823 Dexter, who had a falling out with Wanton, and approximately a dozen Indians, some of them chiefs, came to Wanton’s to burn the settlement but Wanton convinced them to leave peacefully. The Seminoles concluded that since they “had given him permission to stay they would not ask him to go.”
By the end of 1823 the settlement had grown substantially allowing for further settlers to arrive but settlers were still hard to find that would move to such a primitive place deep within Indian territory. To find settlers Arrendondo turned to Moses Elias Levy.
[1] At the time kitchens were typically separate structures due the risk of the cooking over open fire burning down the building.