Serving as the county seat of Gadsen County, Quincy is named for John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States. It is only appropriate that a Florida town should be named in honor of Adams who, while serving as Secretary of State in 1819, forged the treaty with Spain that made Florida a territory of the United States. As president in 1828, Adams awarded Quincy a township deed.

Agriculture was the major industry in the new town, with shade tobacco emerging as the predominant crop. Companies such as American Sumatra Tobacco harvested this valuable crop whose leaves blend the unique qualities of elasticity and strength, making them perfect for wrapping cigars. Cigar aficionados will attest that the wrapper is the final touch on a fine cigar, determining its taste.

In the late nineteenth century, Quincy became a production center for Fuller's Earth. Less regal a commodity than shade tobacco, Fuller's Earth is a claylike substance with impressive absorption properties that makes it perfect for kitty litter. It is also used as a bleaching and refining agent in the petroleum industry.

Several Quincy residents trace the origins of their family wealth not to shade tobacco or Fuller's Earth but to Coca Cola, the nineteenth century concoction that became the most ubiquitous product of the twentieth century. A unique relationship exists between the town and the brand. Banker M.W. Monroe, one of the Coca Cola's original investors, encouraged his patrons to invest in the company before it became a household name. The success of the brand was a boon to locals who heeded Monroe's advice.

Some things have changed in modern-day Quincy. Tobacco has given way to truck farming and plant nurseries, but Fuller's Earth is stilled mined in Gadsen county. And it's rumored that Quincy residents still own many millions in Coca-Cola stock.

Today, the town boasts several structures that are on the National Register of Historic Places. Visitors should be sure to take in the E.C. Love House, the Stockton-Curry House, and the Old Philadelphia Presbyterian Church. These are but a few of the many historic structures in the Quincy Historic District.

This podcast made possible through a grant from the Florida Humanities Council. Script written by Paul Zielinski. Narrated by Sandra Averhart.