The first Europeans to enter what was to become Jefferson County were the members of Panfilo de Narvaez's expedition. They passed through an Apalachee town in 1528. In the 17th century, the Franciscans administered five missions in the county along an east-west line near what would become U.S. Highway 27. These missions were destroyed at the beginning of the 18th century by the English governor of South Carolina in retaliation against Spanish depredations. When American settlers entered the county in the 19th century, the land was occupied not by the Apalachees, who had been dispersed when the missions were abandoned, but by Miccosukees, a branch of the Creeks who became part of the Seminole group.

Florida was ceded by Spain to America in 1818. Settlement of Jefferson County was spurred both by its proximity to Tallahassee, the newly selected capital, and by the suitability of its soil for cotton cultivation. Early settlers bought large tracts of virgin forest, or, if they could, the old fields of the Indians. They cleared this land to plant cotton.

Jefferson County was separated from Leon County in 1827. The county, named for Thomas Jefferson, was established January 6, 1827. Monticello, named for Jefferson's Virginia home, was named county seat before statehood, while Florida was a territory of the United States. Monticello remains the county's only incorporated city. Robison's Post Office was named its county seat, superseding the older settlement of Waukeenah. The county seat was soon renamed Monticello. The county quickly acquired its first school, the Jefferson Academy, and a courthouse. Its prosperity suffered in the late 1830's when many of the settlers went to fight in the Seminole War. The failure of the Union Bank in Tallahassee also affected the county. In the 1850's, county residents who had been endeavoring to make the Wacissa and Aucilla Rivers navigable by canals adopted the railroad instead as their means of transportation. The arrival of the train at Station Number Two signaled the birth of Lloyd, which prospered with the railroads until the 1930's. The railroad also gave a boost to Aucilla, but Monticello was left stranded three miles north of the main track.

The Civil War broke out while the county was still burdened by its heavy railroad debt. In the war's aftermath, county planters struggled with debt and fluctuating cotton profits. Within a few years, farmers and store owners all found themselves trapped in the endless cycle of credit, which characterized sharecropping.

In the 1880's, farmers began looking for other crops. William Cirardeau sent out the first shipment of watermelon seed in 1882, and 40 years later, Jefferson County produced 80 percent of the world's supply. The Le Conte pear was also produced, but pecan were a larger cash crop. The flatwoods in the southern part of the county supplied both turpentine and lumber.

While Jefferson County held its own in agriculture after the Civil War, it failed to gather a large share of the new tourist trade. However, northerners did come to spend their winters at St. Elmo's Hotel in Monticello or to fish at the head of the Wacissa, but their role in the county's economy was ultimately not that of the tourist. After the agricultural depression of the 1920's several winter visitors bought up vast tracts of Jefferson County to use as hunting preserves. 

Then the county was established in 1827, the log home of John G. Robison,  which served as post office, was selected as seat of government. A two-story frame courthouse, begun in 1834 and completed in 1841, served the county for about 70 years.

The current County Courthouse was built just after the beginning of the 20th century, when the county population was about 17,000. In November, 1908, voters approved a $35,000 bond issue to construct a courthouse. E.C. Hosford, architect of Eastman, Ga., and Bartow, Fla., designed the building after the style of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, in classic revival style with French influence. Mutual Construction Company of Louisville, Ky., constructed the building. It is built of poured concrete slabs with interior walls one foot thick. Three vaults with walls eighteen inches thick are located in various offices. Floors are pine and ceramic tile. There are four chimneys with three fireplaces each, which burned coal. Two big pot-bellied coal burning stoves were used to heat the courtroom. The Courthouse was dedicated in 1910. It housed courts and all county offices, including school administration. The Courthouse is located at the intersection of US Highways 19 and 90. 

The building was "modernized" in 1968, but little structural changes have made in the 1908 design. Much of the original oak courtroom furniture is still in use including the judge's bench and the jury box.




Written by Eleanor B. Hawkins
Former Clerk of Circuit Court
Jefferson County, Florida