[FHStoday] TODAY IN FLORIDA HISTORY FOR DECEMBER 29

[Nick Wynne]

TODAY IN FLORIDA HISTORY
DECEMBER 29
1824            Alachua County was established today.  County 
Seat:  Gainesville.

1824            Leon County was established today and is named for Juan 
Ponce de Leon.  County Seat:  Tallahassee.

1824            Monroe County, named for U. S. President James Monroe, was 
established today.

1824            Nassau County, most probably named for Nassau in the 
Bahamas, was established today.  Some speculation is that the county might 
have been named for the "Duchy of Nassau" in Germany.

1824            Walton County, named for General George Walton, was 
established today.  Walton served as the Secretary of West Florida during 
the governorship of Andrew Jackson (1821-22) and as the Secretary of 
East-West Florida from 1822 until 1826.  Walton was the son of George 
Walton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

1824            Mosquito County, which has since disappeared, was 
established today.

1829            Washington County, named for George Washington, was 
established today.

1854            Volusia County, most probably named for an early English 
settler named Volus, was established today.

1862            The British sloop Flying Fish was captured off the Tortugas 
by the U.S.S. Magnolia.

1863            Boat crews from the U.S.S. Stars and Stripes destroyed a 
blockade runner, Caroline Gertrude, aground on a bar at the mouth of the 
Ocklockonee River.  Union sailors, attempting to salvage the cargo of 
cotton, were subjected to a heavy fire from Confederate cavalry units 
ashore and returned to their ship after setting the Caroline Gertrude ablaze.

1908            Norvin S. Veal, late publisher of the Jacksonville Journal, 
was born today in Owen County, Kentucky.

1917            A one-half inch blanket of snow covered many counties in 
Florida's Panhandle and in North Florida.  Some snow was reported as far 
south as Crescent City.

1970            Rhea Pincus Grossman was appointed a judge of the Eleventh 
Circuit (Dade County) today by Governor Claude R. Kirk, Jr.  Ms. Grossman 
was the first woman to become a Circuit Court judge.  She was 29 years old 
at the time of appointment.