"La Floridiana" continues its tireless mission to provide to you, our valued reader, just what those Florida town and county names mean...
EAU GALLIE (Town of): Located in Brevard County, authorities agree that the "Eau" is French for water. They differ on "Gallie", which some say is French for "bitter" and others say is Indian for "rocky". William H. Gleason established the town soon after the Civil War. He had been commissioned by the Federal government to determine if the location was suitable for the colonization of African Americans. The name is pronounced "Oh Galley", NOT "Oh Golly".
EL PORTAL (Town of): Located in Miami-Dade County, in Spanish the name simply means “the gate". The town was established in the 1920's.
ENGLEWOOD (Town of): Located in Sarasota County, the origin of the name was due to three brothers, Herbert, Howard and Ira Nichols who developed the area in the late 1890's. They named the community after their hometown of Englewood, Illinois, and had an exhibition of the new development at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.
ESCAMBIA (County of): Florida's first county, Escambia was established on July 21, 1821. The town was named after the Escambia River. Many authorities believe that the name was derived from the Spanish word "cambiar" which means, "to barter", due to trade between the Spanish and the Indians. Others believe the term is Choctaw or Chickasaw for "killer"
FLAGLER (County of): The 53rd county in Florida was established on April 17, 1917 and named in honor of Henry M. Flagler who did so much for .the development of the east coast of Florida through his building of the Florida East Coast Railroad.
FLORIDA CITY (Town of): Located in Miami-Dade County, this is the southernmost town in the mainland United States (Flamingo would have taken this honor, but it is now basically an outpost of the Everglades National Park). It was developed in 1905 by Miami realtors and incorporated in 1915. A group of settlers from Detroit, Michigan agreed to name the place after their home city, but the Post Office department said this would be confusing. The residents in a vote later named it Florida City.
FORT LAUDERDALE (Town of): Located in Broward County, the City was named in honor of Major William Lauderdale who in 1837 was commander of the Tennessee Volunteers. He took five hundred men from the mountains of Tennessee and marched them down to Florida. On March 30, 1838 two of his companies established Fort Lauderdale, one of the main bases of the Second Seminole War, on the shores of the New River. In 1895 a town was established at this site and named after the adjacent Fort.
FORT MYERS (Town of): Located in Lee County, the City was named after General Abraham Charles Myers, a distinguished officer in the United States Army. It is the County seat of Lee County, and was the home of the winter estates of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford.
FORT WALTON BEACH (Town of): Located in Okaloosa County, the town was named after the fort established here during the Seminole Wars. The fort was named in honor of Colonel George Walton, who was Secretary of West Florida during the Governorship of Andrew Jackson, 1821-1822, and East-West Florida territory 1822-1826. Walton was the son of George Walton, signer of the Declaration of Independence and Governor of Georgia.
FRANKLIN (County of): The 17th County was established on February 8, 1832 and named in honor of Benjamin Franklin.
GAINESVILLE (Town of): Located in Alachua County, it was named after General Edmund Pendleton Gaines, the captor of Aaron Burr. It was originally named Potano Province when DeSoto marched through in 1539. It was renamed Alachua (see PCR # 225) when the Creek Indians took possession upon the English acquisition of Florida in 1763. By 1830 a white settlement known as Hog Town grew up around a nearby trading post. William I. Turner, an Indian War veteran and prosperous cattle rancher proposed the name Gainesville in honor of General Gaines feeling such a name was more dignified than Hog Town once the Yulee Railroad from Fernandina Beach to Cedar Key decided to make the settlement a whistle stop.
GIBSONTON (Town of): Located in Hillsborough County, the town was named for its founder James B. Gibson, and for years served as a winter residence for many personnel associated with the Barnum and Bailey Circus.
GILCHRIST (County of): Florida's final and 67th county, it was established on December 4, 1925 and named in honor of Albert H. Gilchrist, who was Governor of Florida from 1909 to 1913.
GLADES (County of): Florida's 58th county was established April 23, 1921 and named for the Everglades, which it forms a part.
GOLDEN BEACH (Town of): Located in Miami-Dade County, the name was adopted in the 1920's by the developers who created this beachside community north of Miami Beach
GOULDS (Town of): Also located in Miami-Dade County, this was once called Gould's Siding, a sidetrack of Henry Flagler's Florida east Coast Railway, during the development of South Miami-Dade County.
GREEN COVE SPRINGS (Town of): The County seat of Clay County, the town was established in 1830 by Live Oak cutters and named for the evergreen trees found near this particular part of the St. Johns River. Also located here are several sulphur springs, which many believe were the springs that Ponce DeLeon and others were seeking.
GULF (County of): Florida's 66th county was named after the Gulf of Mexico, which borders the county to the south.
GULFPORT (Town of): Located in Pinellas County, this was one of the earliest settlements in the Florida peninsula, having been established in 1863 as the town of Bonifacia, in honor of the middle name of William B. Miranda, one of the early settlers. After the War Between the States, the name was changed to Veterans, in order to attract pensioned soldiers. Hamilton Disston, son of the famous Philadelphia saw maker, changed its name to Disston City, but there was already a Disston north of Tampa, and postal authorities would not allow it until 1890 when the Disston office was abandoned. But Disston City passed out of existence and the town was finally renamed to Gulfport in recognition of its close proximity to the Gulf of Mexico.
"La Floridiana" is ©2004 by William Moriaty. Webpage design and all graphics herein (except where otherwise noted) are creations of Nolan B. Canova. All contents of Nolan's Pop Culture Review are ©2004 by Nolan B. Canova.
