| Date: |
Monday, January 1, 2001
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| Question/Topic: |
Lost county - Fayette - Florida
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| Answer/Pointer: |
Florida's lost county - Fayette.
"The lost county of Fayette confounds those who say counties are born in Florida but never die.
Fayette was born in 1832 and died in 1834, . . . Fayette is the only county to pass complete out of existence after once having lived. . . .
New River, Benton, and Mosquito have disappeared from the roster of Florida counties, but only through change of name. Unlike Fayette,
they live today through their direct descendents. New River has become Baker and Bradford; Benton, returned to its original designation
of Hernando, while Mosquito is now Orange after almost having been named Leigh Read. Bloxham has existed on the statute books only,
electors failing to ratify an enabling act. St. Lucie and Broward each died and came back to life. . . .Presumably named for the Marquis
de Lafayette (who died in the same year as the county), Fayette filled the big V of the converging Chipola and Apalachicola rivers with
Alabama's boundary as the cross bar. . . .From circumstantial evidence in the form of a charter for the town of Ocheesee, as the county
seat of Fayette, and a franchise for a ferry across the Apalachicola River at Ocheesee, there might be argued that Fayette was created
to stimulate the sale of land at that town. . . . The citizens of Jackson County were opposed to the slicing away of the land which would
form Fayette. . . .Changes were in the act [establishing the county] before its repassage and, reluctantly, Gov. Wescott signed the bill
into law on Feb. 9, 1932, stating he still objected. The 1833 Legislature changed the boundaries of Fayette in such a way as to bring forth
[a] petition when the lawmakers met again the following year: "The undersigned citizens of Fayette county do respectfully petition your
honorable body to annex to our county its original boundaries or to reunite it to that of Jackson. . . ." the county of Fayette was abolished
on Jan. 20, 1834, being re-incorporated in Jackson. Source: Florida Handbook, 1947-1948, pp. 92-93 R 917.59 Flo. Photocopy in
Expanding File L.
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| Librarian: |
LCLCPL
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| Comments: |
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