[FHStoday] TODAY IN FLORIDA HISTORY FOR NOVEMBER 17

[Nick Wynne]

TODAY IN FLORIDA HISTORY 
NOVEMBER 17   
     
1698 The first units of a Spanish expedition led by Juan Jordan de Reina
arrived in Pensacola Bay with the task of erecting fortifications.  The
Spanish
effort was aimed at thwarting French colonization efforts in West Florida.

1829 The Bank of Marianna was chartered today.

1856 John Henry Eaton, the second Territorial governor of Florida (1834), died
today at his home in Washington, D.C.  Eaton was born on June 18, 1790, in
Halifax County, North Carolina.  He practiced law in Nashville and was a
member
of the United States Senate for eight years.  Andrew Jackson appoint him
Secretary of War, which immediately thrust him into the center of a
controversy
in the Capital.  His wife, Peggy O’Neale, was a former bar maid in a
Washington
tavern, a situation which led the wives of prominent politicians to boycott
functions she attended.  
The O’Neale Affair seriously damaged the relationship of Jackson and his Vice
President, John C. Calhoun, who refused to force his aristocratic wife to
attend such functions.  
After serving as governor, Eaton served as American Minister to Spain.  

1862 The Florida Legislature convened in Tallahassee today.  Observers
reported
that the new Legislature is more “moderate” than the one which preceded it.