Keystone Genealogical Library

09/03/2025

For the next few weeks, I would like to share the “History of the Watermelon Industry in Jefferson County, Florida.”

In Jefferson County, watermelons once meant economic stability. Many assume our annual Watermelon Festival honors the county’s role as a leader in watermelon production—but in truth, our real claim to fame was watermelon seed production.

Here’s how it worked. To produce seeds, farmers first had to grow the melons, which meant every season brought two harvests—the melons themselves and then the seeds.

From planting to harvest, the work was demanding. Farmers needed to know how to plant, cultivate, and, most importantly, determine when melons were ripe.

Locals used to joke that you could tell melons were ready when the market price dropped—or when high school boys started raiding the fields. I always thought the weather gave it away: once the 100-degree days arrived, you knew watermelon season had begun. In fact, if someone asks when the next festival is, you could simply say, “Pick the hottest day of the year.”

But the real experts were the clippers. They looked for the creamy yellow underside where the melon touched the ground, checked whether the tendrils had turned brown and dry, and listened for that telltale hollow thump. An immature melon rang sharp and metallic.

More next week, when we discuss how the watermelon fields became Jefferson County High School’s football weight and conditioning program. We’ll talk about the industry of loading melons.

08/20/2025

The church's session record made a note on September 28, 1870.

“Henry Clay White and his wife Rebecca were, at their own request, dismissed to join the African Baptist Church in this place.”

The records reflect no other Freedmen leaving the church after this date.

Rev. B.L. Baker began his ministry the same year, and people reported that he always carried a small hourglass to the pulpit and placed it beside his sermon notes. This ensured a sermon of normal length. During his long tenure, the church bought and added a piano.

08/20/2025

Spent the morning looking for specific photos, when we ran across this! At least two of these people are graduates of Jefferson County High School and one still lives in Monticello.

08/13/2025

This morning we researched the history of Jefferson County watermelons and watermelon seeds for the Chamber and ran across some photos from the 1980s program booklets. We thought you might enjoy some of them.

07/30/2025

Busy afternoon in the library. More research is being done on the Bishop house by the Marcus family, who recently bought it. By the way, it appears it was built by a Shuman, so I guess we should also call it the Shuman House.

Also, John Nelson came in to research his 2nd great- grandmother, who had been a slave on Needham Bryan’s Forest Farm. Her name was Margaret Cummings. John Nelson is working on an autobiography.

Sylvester Peck came in for a map copy of Monticello in 1885. Since he is published historian, I wonder what he is working on?

https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/323116

07/23/2025

We were gifted several copies of the “Monticello News” dated between 1957 and 1963. Also, someone came in today and asked where copies were of the “Monticello News,” dated around 1909. He asked what it was named then. I wasn’t sure, but I thought it was called the “Monticello News.” Still, there was enough doubt, until I looked up its history. Below is what I found.

History of the Monticello News

One of the oldest continuous newspapers in Florida, the “Monticello News” did not start out with its name. The Newspaper Collection of PK Yonge Library at the University of Florida has 140 issues of the newspaper which began as the “Family Friend.” The oldest surviving and its first issue was dated February 22, 1859 (see below). Its proprietor was S.C. Cobb. F.R. Fildes was the editor.

From 1867 to 1869, it became the “Jefferson County Gazette,” owned by Colonel William C. Girardeau, who had been the schoolmaster at Jefferson Academy before the Civil War.

In 1869, the newspaper was sold to John Garwood , and it changed its name again to the “Monticello Advertiser.”

It would remain with this name until 1871, when the paper was sold again, to A.B. Grunwell, who had been sent down to Monticello after the civil war to head the Freedmen’s Bureau. He must have liked the town enough to stay after reconstruction, and he changed its name yet again in 1873 to the “Monticello Constitution.”

Colonel F.R. Fildes, the first editor, bought the paper by 1885 and kept the name the “Monticello Constitution.” It remained with this name until 1909. We know Fildes owned the paper by 1885, because on an 1885 map of Monticello, it shows “The Constitution Office, F.R. Fildes, editor and proprietor.” The building of the same name sat at the corner of East Washington and North Cherry. If you’ve lived here a while, you probably remember this building as the place where Candy Jones had his candy store.

In 1903, W.W. Carroll bought the paper, and he changed it to its current name, the “Monticello News” in 1909.

07/09/2025

The family who bought the Bishop House is still working on its history, and they found something we didn’t know. Bishop didn’t build the house. It appears J.B. Shuman did. Shuman bought the lot and owned it when the house was built. He sold it to Bishop after the house was built.

Using Sanborn Maps, we know the house was built between 1907 and 1922, while Shuman owned the property. Below is the Bishop house, but I guess we will have to rename it the Shuman/Bishop House. If we rename it Shuman only, no one will know what we’re talking about, since the Bishop family bought it in the later 1920s and owned it for over 75 years.

It appears JB Shuman is James Britt(ane) Shuman, who died in 1937. He was born in Tattnall County, GA and lived down near Nash when he passed.

07/02/2025

We spent the morning helping two new Jefferson County families learn more about their homes. One was built before 1922 and the other before 1885. We narrowed down the old Bishop house to between 1907 and 1922. Below is the Bishop house.

06/25/2025

One of Jefferson County’s earliest settlers and most illustrious citizens was General William Bailey, who was born in Camden County, GA but moved to the area of Jefferson County in 1824, before Jefferson County was formed in 1827. He owned The Cedars Plantation, now known as Livingston Place near Asheville, but better known as Dixie Plantation.

The wealthy investor and financier Gerald Livingston bought The Cedars in 1909 for a hunting preserve and renamed it Dixie Plantation.

More than a prosperous planter, Bailey established several mills and businesses in Jefferson County—one a cotton and woolen mill near Palmer’s Mill, about a mile east of Monticello. It contained 1,500 spindles, forty looms, and employed 65 white laborers. He also owned a salt works operation at the coast and was the county’s first judge.

He had created Bailey’s Mill, in the town of the same name. The town today is called Lloyd.

During the Indian war, he moved the family into Monticello for their safety. He also commanded a company of Jefferson County soldiers, who rescued a small group of soldiers commanded by Lt. Littleberry Walker of Jefferson County. The soldiers, in a blockhouse on the Withlacoochee River, were rescued after being besieged by the Seminoles for 48 days.

Bailey once ran unsuccessfully for Governor.

During the Civil War, he moved the family to Tallahassee, where he had bought “The Columns” in 1847. Today, the Columns houses the Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce. He moved them there in 1862, where he died in 1867. He was 78.

During his lifetime, he was widely known as the richest man in Florida and was known to most as General Bailey.

When he passed away, his body lay in state in the Capitol, before the family had him taken back to Jefferson County for a funeral service in Monticello’s Episcopal Church and burial in their family cemetery.

06/11/2025

Here’s a video that the state of Florida did about one of Jefferson County’s most illustrious citizens, Lucreaty Clark, who was presented a Florida Folk Heritage Award.

https://fb.watch/A9wuW4sh5h/?

05/28/2025

Two members of the First Presbyterian Church in Monticello were killed in action during World War II, and they were remembered last Monday on Memorial Day—Maynard McLeod and William Lloyd.

We just learned the latter was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross and a ship, the USS Lloyd, was named for him.

The Navy Cross is the second-highest military decoration awarded to individuals in the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. It's a symbol of extraordinary heroism and valor in combat. The act must be performed in the presence of great danger or at great personal risk, and it must be performed in a way that renders the individual highly conspicuous among others of equal rank and responsibility.

Ensign Lloyd was the brother of Mrs. Betty Jane Lloyd Satterwhite and uncle of my classmate Ben Satterwhite. He died in the Battle of Corregidor.

Does anyone have information on why he was awarded the Navy Cross and why a ship was named after him? His mother was there when they launched the ship in 1943.

In our church on April 1, 1946, the Ladies’ Bible Class posted a commemoration for the two boys killed in action and the rest of the boys who served in World War II.

This Memorial Day, we remember William R. Lloyd and Maynard M. McLeod.

William Rees Lloyd was born on 23 September 1916 in Monticello, Florida. He enlisted in the United States Navy on 9 October 1940 and was appointed midshipman on 15 December 1940 and commissioned Ensign on 14 March 1941. He served briefly aboard USS Luzon, then reported to USS Oahu on 26 September 1941. He was killed in action on 6 May 1942 when Oahu was sunk at Corregidor at the close of the Battle of Corregidor. He was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross.

The USS Lloyd (DE-209/APD-63), a Buckley-class destroyer es**rt of the United States Navy, was named in honor of Ensign William R. Lloyd and launched in 1943.

Maynard Morris McLeod was killed in action on Peliliu, which was fought between the United States and Japan during the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign of World War II, from 15 September to 27 November 1944, on the island of Peleliu.

US Marines of the 1st Marine Division and then soldiers of the US Army's 81st Infantry Division fought to capture an airfield on the small coral island of Peleliu.

05/21/2025

We have been going through boxes of Dee Count’s research, and we found a negative of an early photo of the Monticello Coca-Cola Bottling Company, which was formed in 1907. The Keen Family bought it in 1931.

This building which fronted on the courthouse square, across the street from the Opera House, was torn down sometime in the 1920s, though we are not sure of the time period. North of this building was a hardware store facing the courthouse square, too.

We believe its next home was a new one-story building built for the bottling company at the corner of Mulberry and West Washington after the old building was torn down. Next door to this building was the bus station. All of this was in the area where the newspaper office is now.

By the way, the overall Coca Cola company’s timeline is below:

1886: Dr. John Pemberton creates Coca-Cola as a syrup and sells it at Jacobs' Pharmacy in Atlanta.
1887: Asa Candler purchases the rights to the Coca-Cola formula.
1892: The Coca-Cola Company is incorporated.
1894: Bottling franchises begin, allowing Coca-Cola to be produced and sold in various locations.
1903: Co***ne is removed from the formula.
1950: Coca-Cola becomes the first worldwide company.