Matheson House

The Matheson homestead dates from 1857, when Alexander Matheson brought his family from Camden, South Carolina to establish a home on the Sweetwater Branch at the eastern edge of the new town of Gainesville. The present one and a half ...

Madison Starke Perry

1814- 1865

Planter, Legislator, Governor, Soldier

(Front Text)

Madison Starke Perry, born in Lancaster County, S.C., moved to Alachua County, Florida and became a prosperous planter. His plantation was located about six miles east of Gainesville in the area of ...

Josiah T. Walls

Born in 1842 to slave parents in Winchester, Va., little is known of Josiah T. Walls' early life. After a short term of Confederate service, he enlisted in the Third Regiment, U.S. Colored Troops in 1863. Transferred to Picolata on ...

Historic Haile Homestead At Kanapaha

One of the oldest houses in Alachua County, the Historic Haile Homestead was the home of Thomas Evans Haile, his wife Esther Serena Chesnut Haile, and 14 of their children. The Hailes came here from Camden, South Carolina in 1854 ...

High Springs, Florida

The northwest region of Alachua County was probably first settled on a permanent basis by English speaking people during the late 1830s. One of the earliest settlements in the vicinity was Crockett Springs, located about three miles east of present ...

Hawthorne, Florida

In 1774, noted botanist William Bartram travelled across what is now the southeastern corner of Alachua County following an old Indian and trading trail. In Florida's territorial period, English-speaking settlers used the same route as a frontier road. By 1840, ...

Fort Clarke

Near this site was located Fort Clarke, originally a U.S. Army post during the Seminole War, and afterwards a settlement. The name is preserved in nearby Fort Clarke Church. At this site crossed the early settlement and military road connecting ...

First Gainesville Skirmish - Battle of Gainesville

The first Civil War gunfire in Gainesville's streets came on February 15, 1864, when a raiding party of 50 men from the 40th Massachusetts Cavalry entered the City to attempt the capture of two trains. The raid was unproductive, for ...

East Florida Seminary

Founded as the Gainesville Academy before the Civil War and later renamed, the East Florida Seminary served Gainesville's need for higher education until the University of Florida was created by the Florida Legislature in 1905. The Seminary school building, erected ...

Earleton, Florida

Side 1.

Earleton is named for General Elias B. Earle (1821-1893) who received government land grants in Florida for his service in the U.S./Mexican War (1846-48). Born into a prominent South Carolina family, Gen. Earle fought in the Palmetto Regiment, ...