A Bit of History
Newnansville Struggles
1835
Newnansville had been thriving, with fertile land for crops and access to supplies delivered on the Bellamy Road, settlers moved to the area from Georgia and the Carolinas but by December 1835 the situation with the Indians changed everything. The mail carrier in Alachua County reported that every dwelling had been “abandoned by the inhabitants” on the roads leading from Black Creek to Newnansville, to Micanopy, also from Newnansville to Alligator, and from Picolata and Palatka to Micanopy. [map] Settlers in the area abandoned their farms and moved to Newnansville or nearby Fort Gilliland for refuge. Women and men both worked to fortify the town's defenses, and families doubled up in crowded spaces. An article in the Jacksonville Courier described the situation in the 1824 Christmas Eve edition:
There are at Newnansville, the Court House at which place is turned into a fort, and the Jail into a block-house; upwards of two hundred people assembled at old Mr. Crum’s where is “Fort Crum” upwards of three hundred, and more are coming in.
Newnansville experienced its first major encounter with the Indians in mid-September 1836 when Charles Dell reported that he had observed Indians lurking in the woods in the vicinity of the fort reporting that they have made their headquarters at Colonel Francis Sanchezs’ plantation at San Felasco Hammock only four miles from Newnansville, and collecting cattle, penned them there for a night, and then drove them off towards Hogtown prairie. In this day I regularly go hiking on the trails at what is now San Felasco Hammock State Park which is only a few miles from my current home in Gainesville.
To address the threat, Colonel John Warren of the Florida Militia gathered some three hundred men, 150 from the militia, 100 mounted volunteers, 25 gentlemen citizens, and 25 regulars and marched off towards San Felasco Hammock encountering Indians along the way driving them back into the dense hammock. The engagement lasted an hour and half in which there was heavy firing, but casualties were few, one killed and five wounded. The Indians didn’t fare so well, but the number killed could not be determined as the bodies were carried off by the surviving warriors. The engagement became known as Battle of San Felasco Hammock.