The city of Jacksonville, Florida, began to grow in the late 18th century as Cow Ford, settled by British colonists. Its major development occurred in the late nineteenth century, when it became a winter vacation destination for tourists from the North and Midwest. Its development was halted or slowed by the Great Fire of 1901, the Florida Land Bust of the 1920s, and the economic woes of the 1960s and 70s. Since the late 20th century, the city has experienced steady growth, with a new federal building constructed in downtown in 2003.

Since 1940, Jacksonville has also been a major port for the United States Navy. The city is a thriving metropolis with over a million citizens. Due to its consolidated city-county government structure, it has the largest municipal population among Florida cities, as well as the largest land area of any city in the contiguous United States.

Early days

Ancient history Archaeological evidence indicates 6,000 years of human habitation in the area. Pottery has been found dating to 2500 BC, nearly the oldest in the United States and second to artifacts of the Savannah River area. In the 16th century, the beginning of the historical record period, the area was inhabited by the Mocama, a coastal subgroup of the Timucua indigenous Native Americans. At the time of contact with Europeans, most Mocama villages in present-day Jacksonville were part of the powerful chiefdom known as the Saturiwa, centered on Fort George Island near the mouth of the St. Johns River. They had a complex society, well-adapted to the environmental conditions of the area.

Colonial and territorial history

In 1513, Spanish explorers landed in Florida and claimed their discovery for Spain (see Spanish Florida). The first Europeans to visit the area were Spanish missionaries and explorers from this period. In February 1562, French naval officer Jean Ribault and 150 settlers arrived seeking land for a safe haven for the French Huguenots, Protestants suffering religious persecution in France. Ribault explored the mouth of the St. Johns River before moving north and establishing the colony of Charlesfort on what is now Parris Island, South Carolina. Ribault returned to France for supplies, but the French Wars of Religion had broken out during his absence. His return to Florida was delayed as a result. Without leadership or provisions, the colonists abandoned Charlesfort. In 1564 Ribault's former lieutenant, René Goulaine de Laudonnière, launched a new expedition to found a colony on the St. Johns River. On June 22, 1564, the settlers established Fort Caroline atop the St. Johns Bluff.

Laudonnière made an alliance with the local tribe of Timucua Indians, the Saturiwa. He also forged friendly relations with their competitors, the Utina tribe, who lived upriver to the south (around what is now Palatka and the Lake George area). Ribault intended to resupply Fort Caroline in early 1565, but was again delayed. As a result, the colony faced famine, three mutinies, and eventually warfare with the Utina. Ribault finally reached the fort with a relief expedition in the summer, and assumed command of the settlement. In the meantime, the Spanish admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés had established the colony of St. Augustine 35 miles to the south, with the express mission to displace the French.

When he arrived, Ribault launched a naval expedition of 200 sailors and 400 soldiers to dislodge the Spanish, but a storm at sea incapacitated them for several days and caused numerous deaths. On September 20, 1565, Menéndez marched his men overland to Fort Caroline, defended by 200 or 250 people, and killed everyone except for 50 women and children and 26 men who escaped. The Spanish picked up the survivors of Ribault's fleet, and summarily executed all but 20.

The Spanish took over Fort Caroline, renaming it as San Matteo. In 1568 the French and Spanish confronted each other again here, when Dominique de Gourgues burned it to the ground. The Spanish rebuilt the fort, but abandoned it in 1569. The Spanish next built Fort San Nicolas further upriver to protect the rear flank of St. Augustine. "San Nicolas" served as their name for the Jacksonville area, a placename which survives in the neighborhood of St. Nicholas. The fort was located on the east side of the St. Johns, where Bishop Kenny High School now stands. The fort was abandoned in the late 17th century.

France and Spain were defeated by the British in the French and Indian War. During the war the British had defeated the Spanish in Cuba and occupied the island, whereas Florida had hardly seen any fighting. As part of the negotiations between the two nations in the aftermath of the war, Spain would cede Florida to Great Britain in exchange for the return of Cuba. The British agreed and Florida was ceded to the United Kingdom in 1763. The British soon constructed the King's Road connecting St. Augustine to Georgia. The road crossed the St. Johns River at a narrow point, which the Seminole called Wacca Pilatka and the British named the "Cow Ford", both names ostensibly reflecting the fact that cattle were brought across the river there. The British divided Florida into the two colonies of British East Florida and British West Florida.A History of Florida By Caroline Mays Brevard, Henry Eastman Bennett page 77

The British government gave land grants to officers and soldiers who had fought in the French and Indian War in order to encourage settlement. In order to induce settlers to move to the two new colonies reports of Florida's natural wealth were published in England. A large number of British colonists who were "energetic and of good character" moved to Florida, mostly coming from South Carolina, Georgia and England though there was also a group of settlers who came from the colony of Bermuda. This would be the first permanent English-speaking population in what is now Duval County, Baker County, St. Johns County and Nassau County. The British built good public roads and introduced the cultivation of sugar cane, indigo and fruits as well the export of lumber. As a result of these initiatives northeastern Florida prospered economically in a way it never did under Spanish rule. Furthermore, the British governors were directed to call general assemblies as soon as possible in order to make laws for the Floridas and in the meantime they were, with the advice of councils, to establish courts. This would be the first introduction of much of the English-derived legal system which Florida still has today including trial-by-jury, habeas corpus and county-based government.A History of Florida By Caroline Mays Brevard, Henry Eastman BennettThe Land Policy in British East Florida by Charles L. Mowat 1940

The British gave control of the territory back to Spain in 1783. Americans of English descent and Americans of Scots-Irish descent began moving into northern Florida from the backwoods of Georgia and South Carolina. Though technically not allowed by the Spanish authorities, the Spanish were never able to effectively police the border region and the backwoods settlers from the United States would continue to migrate into Florida unchecked. These migrants, mixing with the already present English-speaking settlers who had lived in Florida since the British period, would be the progenitors of the population known as Florida Crackers.Ste Claire, Dana (2006). Cracker: Cracker Culture in Florida History. University Press of Florida. The Spanish also accepted fugitive slaves from the newly-created United States if they accepted Catholic baptism.

Between 1812 and 1814 during the War of 1812 between the US and Britain, the US Navy assisted American settlers in Florida in "The Patriot War", a covert attempt to seize control of Florida from the Spanish. They began with invasions of Fernandina and Amelia Island. Spain sold the Florida Territory to the United States in 1821 and, by 1822, Jacksonville's current name had come into use, to honor General Andrew Jackson. It first appears on a petition sent on June 15, 1822 to U.S. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, asking that Jacksonville be named a port of entry. The city is named for Andrew Jackson, military governor of the Florida Territory and eventual President of the United States. U.S. settlers led by Isaiah D. Hart wrote a charter for a town government, which was approved by the Florida Legislative Council on February 9, 1832. Remembered as the city's most important founding father, Hart is memorialized with the Isaiah D. Hart Bridge over the St. Johns.

Civil War

Even before the outbreak of war, a militia unit was raised in Jacksonville in April 1859. The unit, called the Jacksonville Light Infantry, would become Company A of the 3rd Florida Infantry Regiment. The company carried a battle flag bearing the slogan "Let Us Alone" and was commanded by Dr. Holmes Steele, a former mayor of the city.

During the American Civil War, Jacksonville was a key supply point for hogs and cattle leaving Florida and aiding the Confederate cause. Throughout most of the war, the US Navy maintained a blockade around Florida's ports, including Jacksonville. In October 1862 Union forces captured a Confederate battery in the Battle of St. Johns Bluff and occupied Jacksonville. Throughout the war Jacksonville changed hands several times, though never with a battle. On February 20, 1864, Union soldiers from Jacksonville marched inland and confronted the Confederate Army at the Battle of Olustee.

The battle was a devastating loss for the Union and a decisive victory for the Confederacy. Soldiers on both sides were veterans of the great battles in the eastern and western theaters of war, but many of them remarked in letters and diaries that they had never experienced such terrible fighting. The Confederate dead were buried at Oaklawn Cemetery in nearby Lake City. The Union losses caused Northern authorities to question the necessity of further Union involvement in the militarily insignificant region of northern Florida. On the morning of 22 February, as the Union forces were still retreating to Jacksonville, the 54th Massachusetts was ordered to counter-march back to Ten-Mile Station. The locomotive of a train carrying wounded Union soldiers had broken down and the wounded were in danger of capture. When the 54th Massachusetts arrived, the men attached ropes to the engine and cars and manually pulled the train approximately three miles to Camp Finnegan, where horses were secured to help pull the train. After that, the train was pulled by both men and horses to Jacksonville for a total distance of ten miles. It took forty-two hours to pull the train that distance.

The US Transport Maple Leaf was sunk at Jacksonville, April 1, 1864. The U.S. Transport General Hunter was sunk in the St. John's River, April 16, 1864, close to where the Maple Leaf was sunk.

In the fall of 1865, a black enlisted man in the 3rd USCT was hung by his thumbs for stealing from a field kitchen. The punishment led to a riot and gunfire was exchanged between black enlisted men and their white officers. The riot was put down and several soldiers were put on trial for mutiny, with 6 of them being executed.

By the end of the war in 1865, a Union commander commented that Jacksonville had become "pathetically dilapidated, a mere skeleton of its former self, a victim of war."

Post Civil War

Winter resort era