Notes on Fernandina and Nassau County

From Our Place in Time – A Chronology of Putnam County, by Nancy Cooley Alvers and Janice Smith Mahaffey 1736-1742 – James Oglethorpe stationed Highlanders at Plaza San Carlos in present-day Fernandina (Old Town). August 9, 1807 – Don Domingo Fernandez awarded grant which included present-day Fernandina Beach. August 6, 1815 – Elizabeth Esabele Wiggins, free mulatto, resident of Fernandina, and her son, Carlos Clark, free negro, each received a grant of 300 acres on Lake George. 1816 – Fort San Carlos near Fernandina built by Spanish of wood and earthworks and armed with 8 to 10 guns. February 10, 1822 – John E. LeConte and ten men left Fernandina on a project to survey Florida’s interior. December 29, 1824 – Nassau, Florida’s tenth county, was named for the Nassau River and Nassau Sound which help to separate Nassau and Duval counties. The name of the county comes from a German state linked to William the Silent and William III of England who died in 1702, was brought from England during the English occupation. January 1, 1825 – The City of Fernandina was incorporated. February 9, 1842 – Fort Clinch was established on Amelia Island, north of Fernandina. 1855 – Florida’s first senator, David Levy Yulee, was granted a charter to build a railroad from Fernandina to Cedar Key where steamships waited for transport up and down the Atlantic or across the Gulf. One link in New York-New Orleans route, the Florida Railroad would run through a small settlement, Deer…