Historical Markers
in
Madison County Florida

Site content updated on February 15, 2005
Information derived from Florida Historical Markers Program
 

Title:

CAPTAIN RICHARD G. BRADFORD
Location: SW corner of Range & Base Streets, in front of Courthouse.
County: Madison
City: Madison
Description: Captain Richard G. Bradford of Madison was killed October 9, 1861, during the Battle of Santa Rosa Island. This battle was fought in an attempt to capture Fort Pickens which protected Pensacola Harbor. Bradford was the first Confederate officer from Florida to die in the War Between the States. In his honor the Legislature voted to change the name of New River County to Bradford County. Gov. John Milton signed the law December 6, 1861.
 

Title:

PIONEER HICKSTOWN BAPTIST CHURCH - FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF MADISON
Location:along *U.S. 90.
County: Madison
City: Madison
Description: Begun here for God's glory in 1835, the church was named Madison Baptist Church in 1854 and received its present name in 1922. Founders were Abraham Moseley and R.J. Mays. Early pastors were B. Fiddler, W.B. Cooper, H.Z. Ardis, and first deacon Elisha Smith. The Florida Baptist Convention formed the State Board of Missions here December, 1880. Members were S.B.Thomas, Sr., J.M. Beggs, B.F. Wardlaw, C.W. Stephens, J.F.B. Mays, W.W. Hall, C.V. Waugh, T.E. Langley and W.N. Chaudoin.
 

Title:

THE FOUR FREEDOMS MONUMENT
Location: City Park, U.S. 90. (Base & Range Street).
County: Madison
City: Madison
Description: The Four Freedoms were stated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in his Annual Message to Congress, January 6, 1941. Freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear everywhere in the world, became the ideals of American policy. The memorial, symbolizing these aspirations of mankind, was designed by Walter Russell, given by Women's National Institute, and dedicated to the memory of World War II hero, Captain Colin P. Kelly, Jr., June 14, 1944.
 

Title:

ST. JOHNS SEMINARY OF LEARNING
Location: 202 North Duval Street.
County: Madison
City: Madison
Description: Madison Lodge Number 11, F.& A.M. founded the St. Johns Seminary of Learning on the southwest corner of this block in 1850. This institution became the basis for Madison High School in 1886. W.B. Cates established the Florida Normal Institute here as part of Madison High School in 1907. The building adjacent to this marker was the dormitory of the Florida Normal Institute. The Institute trained many teachers for all of Florida before closing in 1927.
 

Title:

THE FLORIDA MANUFACTURING COMPANY - world's largest sea island cotton processing plant
Location:900 South Range Street.
County: Madison
City: Madison
Description: Captain John L. Inglis began in this area The Florida Manufacturing Company in 1874. This plant ginned as many as ten thousand bales of Sea Island Long Staple Cotton in one year. The thread was widely used for general purposes and making English broadcloth. The plant was acquired by J.& P. Coats in 1890. The compression of seed was added later to ginning and baling of cotton. Activities ended with the coming of the Mexican Boll Weevil in 1916. This warehouse is the only remaining building of the manufacturing complex.
 

Title:

THE TOWN OF GREENVILLE (frontier sandy ford)
Location:  one block south of U.S. 90 in front of Baptist Church
County: Madison
City: Greenville
Description: Begun as Sandy Ford, 1850, Samuel Williams was the first postmaster in 1854. Called Station 5 on the Pensacola-Georgia R.R., the name Greenville, for Greenville, S.C., came in the 1860's. Elijah Hays helped its expansion after 1876. Incorporated in 1907, W.D. Griffin was the first mayor. An orange producing center prior to 1895, its chief supports now are timber, cattle, and flue-cured tobacco.
 

Title:

SITE OF SAN PEDRO - Spanish mission and first county seat of Madison County
Location:on S.R. 360, near junction with S.R. 14.
County: Madison
City: South of Madison
Description: In the mid 1600's San Pedro de Potohiriba, a Spanish mission, was established in this area on the Old Spanish Trail. The first courthouse of Madison County was erected at San Pedro, the county seat from 1828 to 1838. San Pedro, located about ten miles south of the present town of Madison, was on a post road from Tallahassee to Jacksonville. In 1833 the first post office was established with Archibald McNeil serving as postmaster.
 

Title:

MADISON OAK RIDGE CEMETERY
Location:601 N.W. Washington Street.
County: Madison
City: Madison
Description: An early community cemetery, Oak Ridge presents a profile of North Florida history. Located on approximately eleven acres, the cemetery was established on land donated by two pioneer citizens. Buried here are : William Archer Hammerly, Master Builder; Angus Paterson, former mayor of Madison and delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1885; Cary Augustus Hardee, Governor of Florida; Colin P. Kelly, Jr., World War II hero; and 31 Confederate Soldiers killed at the Battle of Olustee.
 

Title:

CITY OF MADISON - frontier Newtown or Madison courthouse
Location:South Rutledge at South Horry on City Hall grounds
County: Madison
City: Madison
Description: Madison was founded on land secured from Madison C. Livingston, May 2, 1838, and established as the county seat after its removal from San Pedro. An early political center, it was along the escape route of Confederate Secretary of War John C. Breckenridge in 1865. The town played a prominent role in the development of tobacco, livestock raising, and conservation in North Florida. Home of the North Florida Community College, the area's economy is based on agriculture and industry.
 

Title:

DREW MANSION SITE / THE TOWN OF ELLAVILLE
Location:Vicinity of Suwannee River State Park on U.S. 90,
County: Madison
City: near Ellaville
Description: Located approximately one-half mile to the northwest is the site of the Drew Mansion, home of George F. Drew, Governor of Florida during the difficult period of readjustment following Civil War Reconstruction, 1877-1881. Built in the late 1860's, the two story mansion with it's beautiful color-matched oak parquet floors was surrounded by formal gardens and was one of the first homes in the area to have modern facilities. This once elegant landmark of Florida's past was destroyed by fire in 1970. THE TOWN OF ELLAVILLE Closely related to the career of Governor George F. Drew was the sawmill and manufacturing complex of Ellaville, established by Drew in the mid-1860's. The present Route 90 led through this town of several hundred people. The ruins of the sawmill are on the west bank of the Withlacoochee River near its confluence with the Suwannee. Ellaville flourished as long as Yellow Pine lasted. It declined after 1900 and ceased to exist when the Post Office closed in 1942.
 

Title:

JOHN HICKS AND HICKSTOWN
Location:on U.S. 90 West of Madison
County: Madison
City: Madison
Description: The Miccosukee Indian chief, John Hicks, (English name for Tuckose Emathla) was a prominent Indian leader in the period between the First and Second Seminole Wars (1818-1835). It is believed that after General Andrew Jackson destroyed the Miccosukee towns to the west of here in the 1818 campaign against the Seminoles, John Hicks relocated his village near this site. This village, Hicks Town, was evacuated by the Indians by 1826 as Seminoles were removed to a central Florida reservation. John Hicks died in the winter of 1833-34 after a decade as a major spokesman for his people in treaty councils in which important decisions about the future of the Seminoles were made. White settlers occupied the site in the late 1820's, and in 1830, Hickstown Post Office was established. By the late 1830's, the village had disappeared as a center of population due to the Second Seminole War and the creation of an official Madison County seat at San Pedro.
 

Title:

JOHN C. McGEHEE
Location: C.R. 158 southwest of Madison.
County: Madison
City: Madison
Description: Migrating from South Carolina, John Charles McGehee settled in this area of Madison County in the early 1830's. Shortly after his arrival, McGehee began acquiring property. By the outbreak of the Civil War his holdings consisted of nearly three thousand acres. In addition to his agricultural interests, McGehee was a shareholder in the Union Bank of Tallahassee. In 1838 McGehee was appointed to the St. Joseph Convention which drafted Florida's first Constitution. McGehee was nominated to serve as Judge of the Court of Madison County in 1841. As a wealthy slave owner, McGehee became involved in the Southern Rights Association, an organization which opposed federal interference with the rights of the States. A fervent secessionist, McGehee was elected permanent chairman of the Secession Convention which voted 62 to 7 to take Florida out of the Union. After the Civil War, McGehee was involved in railroad construction until his death in 1881. Judge McGehee was buried in the Oakland Cemetery located near the site of this marker.
 

Title:

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH 1898 SANCTUARY
Location:Orange & Pickney Streets.
County: Madison
City: Madison
Description: This structure represents an adaptation of the Queen Anne style of architecture to local ecclesiastical needs and traditional building materials. Both the stimulus for constructing a new sanctuary and the idea for its basic design are attributed to the Reverend Stephen Crockett, an Englishman who served as pastor at the time. Crockett's design is unusual for the time and place; however, its most unusual facet remains hidden until the visitor enters: the interior plan is octagonal. The sanctuary was moved to this location in 1956. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
 

Title:

Dial-Smith-Goza House
Location:In front of Wardlow-Smith-Goza Conference Center
County: Madison
City: Madison
Description:  Built in 1860 for Benjamin F. Wardlaw by William A. Hammerly of Baltimore, this Classical revival architectural style house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Historic American Building Survey.  North Florida Community College purchased the property in 1988.  It has been renamed the Wardlaw-Smith-Goza Conference Center.  Historically, the house was used as a hospital after the Battle of Olustee, near Lake City, in 1864.  It was also the site of a local WPA Office used for dispensing commodities during the Great Depression.