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From River Boat Captain to Governor, Florida’s 19th Governor, Napoleon Bonaparte Broward
Born on April 19, 1857, to Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, Sr. and Mary Dorcas Parsons Broward in rural Duval County, Florida. His parents were American, but he had French heritage from his paternal line. He spent his childhood on a series for family farms along the St....
Francis Philip Fleming; Florida’s 15th Governor served in the Confederate Army as a Lieutenant
Francis Philip Fleming was born on September 28, 1841, and was the oldest of Lewis Fleming and his second wife Margaret Seton Fleming three children. He had two brothers, Charles Seton and Frederick A. He also had two half-siblings from his father’s first marriage to...
Florida’s 20th Governor, Albert W. Gilchrist a quiet man
Born on January 15, 1858, in Greenwood, South Carolina, looked to have a life in the military. He attended the Carolina Military Institute and went on to attend the United States Military Academy at West Point. He would have graduated from West Point in 1882, except...
Florida’s 18th Governor, began draining the Everglades
William Sherman Jennings was born in Walnut Hill, Illinois. After attending public schools near Marion County, he attended Southern Illinois University and graduated in 1883. He then went on to study law at Union College of Law in Chicago. The school is now known as...
Florida’s 16th Governor began his career in politics as a County Solicitor
Originally from Birmingham, Alabama, he moved with his parents Thomas and Elizabeth Starns Mitchell in 1846, at the age of fifteen to Jacksonville, Florida, and then shortly thereafter to Tampa, Florida. He had six brothers and two sisters. Mitchell’s early education...
Florida’s 14th Governor was a general under Robert E. Lee
Born in Richmond, Massachusetts on March 15, 1831, Edward Aylesworth Perry was the fourth child of Asa and Philura Perry. He was a descendant of Arthur Perry, one of the earliest settlers of New England. After briefly attending Yale University, in 1853, he moved to...
Florida’s 13th and 17th Governor was the second to be born in the state
William Dunnington Bioxham was born on a plantation in Leon County, Florida on July 9, 1835, to William and Martha (Williams) Bioxham. To manage George Washington’s plantation, his great-grandfather migrated from England and his grandfather endured adversity due to...
Florida’s Eleventh Governor was the last Reconstruction Governor
Marcellus Lovejoy Stearns was born on April 29, 1839, in Center Lovell, Maine, to Caleb and Eliza Russell Stearns. His mother was a descendant of the Revolutionary War patriot, Major Benjamin Russell, whose portrait hangs in Faneuil Hall. He also published The...
Florida’s Tenth Governor; the first Florida native governor
The tenth Governor of Florida, Ossian Bingley Hart was the first to be born in the state on January 17, 1821, in Jacksonville. He was the son of Isaiah and Nancy Hart. His father was one of the founders of Jacksonville and became one of the largest slaveholders....
Harrison Reed; Florida Ninth Governor and first Republican
One of eight children, Harrison was born to Seth Reed and Rhoda (Finney) Reed in Littleton, Massachusetts on August 26, 1813. In 1836, the family moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin where he and his siblings contributed to the newly developing area and two of his brothers...
David S. Walker, Florida Eighth Governor, work to minimize changes during Reconstruction
David Shelby Walker was born on May 2, 1815, in Logan County, Kentucky. Born into a prominent Kentucky family, he attended private schools in Kentucky and studied law in Tennessee. Politics was in his blood. His father, David Walker served in the US House of...
William Marvin, Florida’s Seventh Governor, but first he was a US District Court Judge
The son of Selden Marvin and Charlotte (Pratt) Marvin, William was born on April 14, 1808, in Fairfield, New York. Raised on his family’s farm, he attended the Homer Academy and after graduating at the age of 15, began teaching school. After studying with a local...