New Smyrna Beach

Location: 

Rich in relics of the past.  On river fronts, high shell mounds piled and left behind by a former race, containing dim memory and the evidence of them, the Indians. Ais, peace loving Timucuans, Calusa, Seminoles and Creek. European Conquistadors, Pirates, ship wrecks and Franciscan Friars... Scottish Doctor turns plantation owner; the Turnbull times, of indentured servants, Minorcans and slaves. Plunders, fires, feasts and famines.

New Smyrna Beach has a wealth of history and is one of the most interesting stories to be told in Volusia County.

The first known settlement on the site of New Smyrna Beach was the Indian village of Caparaca.  After Ponce De Leon's landing in 1513, the Spanish began annual treasure fleets that continued for almost 250 years, in attempts to bolster the Spanish economy.  The course traveled was Cartagena, Columbia, to Vera Cruz, Mexico to Havana, Cuba along the Florida Coast to Turtle Mound, northeast to Bermuda; due east to the Azores then following the home course to Cadiz, Spain.

After 1648 there was a decline in Spanish treasure fleets, coinciding with a decrease in New World silver production and the increase of pirate attacks. By 1670-90, there were only 17 Spanish ships left of 110.  Nearly 98% sank in shallow waters, due to treacherous reefs, and shallow as well as sudden tropical storms.  Early salvage workers were efficient and recovered 90% of the treasures lost in less than 50 feet.

The 1715 hurricane sank 11 of 12 Spanish galleons along the Florida east coast.  To date 7 of these eleven wrecks have been discovered by using high-tech proton magnetometers. Other treasure fleets of 17 galleon were in like manner doomed in yet another hurricane in 1733.  Peppered around the east coast Florida's beaches are these sunken treasures, after high tide if lucky one may still find a token from this part of history.  

Spanish Missionaries in the 1690s established the Mission of Atocuimi in New Smyrna Beach, it seems that the missionaries had no other purpose but to elevate the minds and spirits of the Indians among whom they dwelled.  They did not expropriate the lands or push them back along an ever-advancing frontier, as happened with the arrival of the Anglo-Americans to the north.  Spanish missionaries taught thousands of Indians, European farming, cattle raising, carpentry, weaving and in many cases reading and writing. Theirs was an effort to ameliorate the spiritual development of Florida's natives.

Following portions of Indian trails, the Spanish laid the King's Highway in 1632 - the first land route to Florida's east coast. In 1768, the British enlarged the earlier work of the Spanish, cutting out a road 30-feet wide through dense foliage.  The highway began at St. Mary's River, to St. Augustine, and south to New Smyrna Beach. Please refer to Charles W. Bockelman's The King's Road to Florida, 1975.

The missions' system end was tragic.  In 1696, the Jororo Indians rebelled against an order of Fray Luis Sanchez who forbade them observance of certain tribal customs.  In 1702, English governor James Moore of South Carolina led a raiding party that left the coastal missions in ruins.  The missions would never again achieve their former extent of influence. After Florida ceded to the English in 1763, they would disappear altogether and with them many of the original Indian societies, taking into oblivion the oral traditions that were the only form in which their histories had been preserved.

The British established about 100 plantations between the St. John's River and New Smyrna Beach, representing one of the most ambitious efforts to develop agriculture on a commercial scale in the area during the 18^th Century.  In 1767, Dr. Andrew Turnbull, a Scottish physician, brought 1,500 colonists here.  About 1,200 were from Minorca, an island off the east coast of Spain in the Mediterranean.  The others were Italian and Greek.  See also the The British Period.

The Archaeology of the New Smyrna Colony

When Spain ceded Florida to the United States for $5,000,000 in 1819, the United States promised to recognize the right of all Spanish subjects - but forgot that Spain had officially accorded these rights to the Indians as well.  An edict in 1830 ordered all Indians to be deported from their homelands to west of the Mississippi River.  Not surprising the Indians rebelled.

In December 1835, a large group of Indians under Chief Phillip, together with a small party of Uchees and 100-120 Black Indians systematically destroyed New Smyrna.  They set fire to nearly all buildings, sugar mills and neighboring plantations, sparing only the corn houses for their own use.

The Seminole Wars began in 1835 and are said to have ended in 1842.  The New Smyrna area as late as 1856 was still under attack.  John Sheldon, Deputy Collector of Customs in New Smyrna purchased the Stamp's house which was built on the foundations of Old Fort Park, previous to this he lived on the Murray Grant with he rented to Mr. Shive from Philadelphia.  On December 23, 1856 the Indians burned the house and brutally murdered Mr. Shive, his wife and children,  the Indians made this raid thinking that John Sheldon still lived there.  Troops from Mellonville (Sanford) tracked 19 Indians for 70 miles but never caught them.  This was the last raid in New Smyrna.  hat same year a bounty was offered of $500 for every Indian male, $250 to $500 for each female and $100 for children.

Volusia County's first school was located on the site of today's New Smyrna Beach Utilities Commission at 120 Sams Avenue. The school cost $42, plus donated labor and materials in 1872. 

F.W. Sams owner of the Ocean House hotel, brought Miss Delia Stowe from Massachusetts to New Smyrna as governess for his children. Delia Stowe became Volusia County's first teacher.  

Nine Sperm Whales Beached on New Smyrna Beach, 1908

Nine whales, 35-43 feet long, washed ashore near the lighthouse in New Smyrna Beach. Frank Sams, Albert Moeller, Elmer Oliver and Jerome Naley formed a company with John Pettigrew and Captain S. Bennett (a one time New England whaler) of Daytona Beach for the purpose of extracting whale oil. Using giant kettles from the historic Sugar Mill and any other iron cauldron available, they set about boiling the whale blubber but something went wrong. The final result was minimal and valueless. What they did accomplish was creating a whale of a mess and a city wide stench. Smaller pieces of whale were hauled out to the inlet, but dynamite was used on the remaining carcasses before disposal. June 13, 1908.

 

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