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Tallahassee - Florida - History |
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"Tallahassee" is an Apalachee Indian word meaning "old town" or "abandoned fields". The Apalachee Indians lived throughout the panhandle from 500 through the 1600s. In 1539, Hernando de Soto spent the first Christmas in the New World in the woods near the present State Capitol. As more Spanish colonists entered the panhandle, disease and fighting reduced their population. The Apalachee Indians left and the area became an abandoned village, thus it was called "Tallahassee". When Florida became a territory of the United States in 1822, both St. Augustine and Pensacola, the major cities in Florida at the time, competed to be the Capital. Unable to come to an agreement, it was decided to locate the Capital at a point between the two cities. Tallahassee’s tall hills attracted the search party, and in 1824 the City of Tallahassee was created, with a log cabin capital was quickly built.
The rich land quickly turned Leon County into a thriving agricultural area. Tallahassee had several large plantations and crops included cotton, corn and sweet potatoes. In 1860, 9,089 slaves lived in Tallahassee. During the Civil War, Tallahassee was the only Confederate City east of the Mississippi that did not fall to Union troops. At a small battle was waged at Natural Bridge, south of Tallahassee near the City of St. Marks, a put-together army of old men and students from the West Florida Seminary (now Florida State University) fought off an attack by Union troops.
Almost since being named as the Capital, Tallahasseeans have fought back various attempts to move the Capital to another City. After the turn of the century, business men have promoted hotels and lodging houses to insure that legislators had places to stay. In an effort to beautify the town, hundreds of dogwoods and oaks were planted along streets and in front yards and have become an symbol of Tallahassee. In the 60s, the town even organized "Springtime Tallahassee", an annual parade and celebration, in an effort to keep legislators from moving the Capital. With the dedication of the new Capital Complex in 1978, the threats of moving the Capitol were put to rest for the time. |
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Tallahassee,
Florida’s Capital
City, has a unique history. Nestled among the hills, red clay, and oaks of
Florida’s panhandle, Tallahassee may not seem like the typical
Florida city. Yet the history of Florida and Tallahassee are closely
connected.
Even
as the state Capital, Tallahassee quickly acquired the reputation of an
outlaw frontier town. Men on the street often carried guns and knives and
duels were a popular recreation. After passing through Tallahassee, Ralph
Waldo Emerson called Tallahassee "a grotesque place...rapidly settled
by public officers, land speculators, and desperados." To end this
lawlessness, a small group of police officers were commissioned, and
Tallahassee’s Police Department has served the City ever since,
celebrating over 150 years of service.
After
the Civil War, many of Tallahassee’s large plantations were turned
into hunting lodges for wealthy winter residents from the North. Times
were tough, with more labourers than jobs, and farmers caught in the never
ending cycle of share cropping. Yet Tallahassee slowly continued to grow.
In 1950, Tallahassee’s population reached 27,237, and farmers were
no longer the majority of the rural population.
