Bartram on the St.John’s

1. Bartram on the St.John’s

2. Bartram on the St. John’s Early years The Florida Frontier First visit with John Bartram The Travels Bartram’s Legacy

3. 1739 - 1765 The Early Years

4. The Early Years • Born in Pennsylvania, April 9, 1739 • Father was John Bartram, who was a self-educated and highly respected botanist

5. The Early Years • His father’s extensive library included the works of Linnaeus and other influential scientists of the day. • Young Bartram read extensively

6. The Early Years John Bartram’s home and gardens in Philadelphia, completed in 1770

7. The Early Years • John Bartram was friends with many leading figures of the day whom he hosted, including Benjamin Franklin, James Logan, William Breitnall, and many visiting naturalists.

8. The Early Years • John Bartram was pleased with his son’s talents and interests, but feared he would not be able to translate them into a career. Howard Pyle illustration of John Bartram

9. The Early Years “It is now time to prepare some way for him to get his living by. I don't want him to be what is commonly called a gentleman. I want to put him to some business by which he may, with care and industry, get a temperate, reasonable living. I am afraid that botany and drawing will not afford him one, and hard labour don't agree with him.” John Bartram discussing William on his 16th birthday

10. The Early Years Turned down an opportunity to learn the printing trade from Benjamin Franklin Rejected his father’s suggestion to take up surveying or study medicine Ignored family friend Peter Collison’s suggestion to learn engraving as a way to balance a profession with his artistic interests

11. The Early Years 1761 : abandoned a frustrating business apprenticeship in Philadelphia and left for Cape Fear, NC where his father’s half-brother owned a plantation (“Ashwood”) Worked at a trading venture, but initially devoted little time to collecting native plants, which he had promised his father

12. The Early Years "Thee disappointed my expectation much in not sending me any seeds…I have not received one single seed from my son who glories so much in the knowledge of plants and whom I have been at so much charge to instruct therein…” John Bartram, in a letter to his son, December 1761

13. The Early Years “Everything goes wrong with him there.” John Bartram on his son William during his stay in North Carolina

14. The Early Years • 1765: John Bartram appointed Royal Botanist to the Colonies • Invites William to join him on an expedition to the southern colonies

15. The Florida Frontier

16. The Florida Frontier

17. The Florida Frontier Treaty of Paris (1763) ends struggle between Great Britain, France, and Spain for control of the colonies France cedes all lands east of the Mississippi (except New Orleans) to England and England receives control of East Florida from Spain in exchange for Cuba Royal Proclamation Act of 1763 establishes East and West Florida

18. The Florida Frontier Wealthy English speculators were encouraged to establish colonies in the Floridas British government provided financial incentives for settlement. Speculators stimulated a southern migration in America and personally sponsored emigration of colonists from Europe.

19. The Florida Frontier • Pensacola – capital of West Florida • St. Augustine – capital of East Florida

20. The Florida Frontier • Ill-conceived Utopian community at Rollestown • Social experiment initiated by Denys Rolle • Settlement comprised of vagrants, debtors, and prostitutes • Rolle ‘s leadership was notoriously poor

21. 1765 First Visit with John Bartram

22. First Visit with John Bartram

23. First Visit with John Bartram “It is ironic that for all of the scientific merit of the Bartrams’ expedition, its purpose (in the eyes of the king) and eventual result was the promotion of real estate ventures in the recently acquired land.” Bartram Trail Heritage Report ….The more things change, the more they stay the same . . .

24. First Visit with John Bartram “He travelled several thousand miles in Carolina and Florida. At the advanced age of near seventy years, embarking on board of a vessel at Philadelphia, he set sail for Charleston, in South-Carolina. From thence he proceeded, by land, through part of Carolina and Georgia, to St. Augustine, in East Florida. “ -William Bartram on his father John Bartram

25. First Visit with John Bartram “When arrived at the last mentioned place, being then appointed botanist and naturalist for the King of England, for exploring the provinces, he received his orders to search for the sources of the Great River St. Juan.”

26. First Visit with John Bartram “Leaving St. Augustine, he travelled, by land, to the banks of the river, and, embarking in a boat at Picolata, ascended that great and beautiful river (near 400 miles), to its sources, attending carefully to its various branches, and the lakes connected with it. “

27. First Visit with John Bartram “Having ascended on one side of the river, he descended by the other side, until the confluence of the Picolata [St. John’s] with the sea.”

28. First Visit with John Bartram “In the course of this voyage or journey, he made an accurate draught and survey of the various widths, depths, courses, and distances, both of the main stream, and of the lakes and branches.” The St. John’s at Picolata

29. First Visit with John Bartram “He also noted the situation and quality of the soil, the vegetable and animal productions, together with other interesting observations, all of which were highly approved of by the Governor, and sent to the Board of Trade and Plantations, in England, by whose direction they were ordered to be published, for the benefit of the new colony”

30. The Travels of William Bartram 1773 - 1777

31. The Travels of William Bartram Bartram’s Travels through the Southeast

32. The Travels of William Bartram • 2400 miles • Chronology is sketchy • 1773 – 1777

33. The Travels of William Bartram • Bartram notes early in this portion that trees were being cleared so that rice, indigo, corn and potatoes could be planted. Abandoned dike near Broughton Island, GA, used to control flooding of rice fields

34. The Travels of William Bartram March of 1774, William Bartram leaves St. Simons Island, Georgia for the St. Johns River. Destination Spalding and Kelsall’s Lower Store, located at Stokes Landing on the west side of the river about six miles southwest of present Palatka Dispatched his chest of books and valuable papers to this point. Many trading posts were in operation on the colonial frontier

35. The Travels of William Bartram His ship meets a trading schooner at Cumberland Island. Passengers tell of recent raids by the Indians upon both Spalding stores. Captain determined to return to Frederica on St. Simons Island for instructions. Bartram, anxious to proceed, has the captain to put him ashore on Cumberland Island so that he might continue his journey. Bartram reports “harsh treatment from thorny thickets and prickly vines.” He was taken to Amelia Island, Florida, by the captain of Fort William. Map of Georgia Barrier Islands

36. The Travels of William Bartram Lands on the north end of Amelia Island and crosses present Clark’s Creek (formerly Egan’s Creek) to the headquarters of Lord Egmont’s plantation. The plantation contained between eight and nine thousand acres, and a town—Egmont Town—laid out in 1770 on the northern end. Bartram remains several days on this plantation and reports that he was much impressed with the fine state of cultivation, particularly of the indigo. According to local historians, the indigo plantation was in the northeastern sector of present Fernandina. Bartram observed here several very large Indian mounds. Surveyor’s map of Grant’s Villa, a British East Florida indigo plantation

37. The Travels of William Bartram Leaves the Egmont Plantation by boat, passing through Kingsley Creek and across Nassau Sound. Probably camped on the north end of Talbot Island, as Bartram reported a well of fresh water there; Faden’sAtlas of 1776 shows a small spring in that location. Little Talbot Island

38. The Travels of William Bartram • Proceeds by way of Sawpit Creek and Sister Creek to Cow-Ford, present Jacksonville. • At that time there was a public ferry there, and nearby—probably in the area of Arlington on the east side of the St. Johns opposite Jacksonville—Bartram secured a small boat and fitted it with sails for the journey up the river. Cow-Ford or “WaccaPilatka” … early Chamber of Commerce photo

39. The Travels of William Bartram Now mid-April Leaves Cow-Ford and camps in or near present Ortega. The next day he recrossesthe river to the vicinity of Goodby’s Creek where he visits the Marshall Plantation The next plantation after Marshall’s was very likely at New Switzerland Point in St. Johns County where Francis Philip Fatio of Berne, Switzerland, had received a grant in 1772. Popo Point and Hallowes Cove, south of New Switzerland Plantation

40. The Travels of William Bartram Bartram sails up the river to Picolata where he found the old fort dismantled and deserted. On a previous visit here in 1765, he had attended a congress with the Lower Creek Indians. This was also near the spot where he had tried his hand as a planter of rice and indigo—and failed some eight years before. Bartram Trail Marker at Picolata

41. The Travels of William Bartram Next camp in the area of Hibernia near the mouth of Clark’s Creek in Clay County, on the west bank of the river. His description of the giant live oak corresponds closely to the great oak still standing at Hibernia as late as 1940. He next stopped somewhere between Racy Point and TocoiCreek. Live Oak

42. The Travels of William Bartram Keeps along the west shore. Describes the promontory and Indian settlement on the site of Palatka. Some of the Indian youths were fishing; others were shooting frogs with bows and arrows. Some of the women were hoeing corn. Reports a large orange grove at one end of the village with trees large and carefully pruned and the ground beneath them clean, open and airy. Several hundred acres were cleared for cultivation around the village, much of which was planted in corn, beans, potatoes, squash, pumpkins, melons and tobacco. Ravine Gardens State Park, Palatka

43. The Travels of William Bartram Stops at Rollestown (or Charlotia) established in 1764 At the time of Bartram’s visit in 1774, only the overseer and the blacksmith and their families were in residence. Rollestown was but one of many Utopian experiments in the American colonies

44. The Travels of William Bartram Chief Micanopy A few days after his arrival at the Lower Store in April, Bartram joins a trading party preparing to leave for the trading house on the Alachua Savanna near the Indian village of Cuscowilla on Tuscawilla Lake near present Micanopy.

45. The Travels of William Bartram • From the Lower Store Bartram and his party travel southwest about four miles to Camp Branch, crossing Deep Creek, and passing present Kenwood. • Crosses Little Orange Lake, LochloosaCreek), the River of Styx, Tuscawilla Lake and arrives at the village of Cuscowilla. Bartram sketch of a Great Yellow Bream

46. The Travels of William Bartram • “The extensive Alachua savanna is a level green plain, above fifteen miles over, fifty miles in circumference, and scarcely a tree or bush of any kind to be seen on it. It is encircled with high, sloping hills, covered with waving forests and fragrant Orange groves, rising from an exuberantly fertile soil. The towering magnolia grandiflora and transcendent Palm stand conspicuous among them…Herds of sprightly deer, squadrons of the beautiful fleet Siminole horse, flocks of turkeys, civilized communities of the sonorous watchful crane, mix together, appearing happy and contented in the enjoyment of peace, till disturbed and affrighted by the warrior man.” The Alachua Savanna

47. The Travels of William Bartram • Much of the savanna was under shallow water at the time of Bartram’s visit. • Bartram noted the ulcers on the cows grazing in the swampy area which resulted from their continuous contact with swamp water. Bartram sketch of the Alachua Savanna

48. The Travels of William Bartram • About the middle of May, Bartram sails up the river to visit Spalding and Kelsall’s Upper Store at present Astor on the west side of the river five miles above Lake George.. Lake George

49. The Travels of William Bartram • Passes between the two large islands at the north end of Lake George—Hog Island on the west and Drayton’s Island on the east. • Camps at the south end of Drayton’s Island. • After crossing Lake George, some fifteen miles wide and about fifteen to twenty feet deep, they camp one night at Cedar Point [Zinder Point] on the eastern cape where river and lake meet. The following day they reach the Upper Store. Aerial view of Drayton Island and the SJR

50. The Travels of William Bartram • Bartram remains at the Upper Store only a few days before leaving to visit at a plantation 60 miles further up the river. • Travels through Lake Dexter and camps at a shell mound on the west bank (Bartram’s Mound). Most of the shells have been removed for road materials. Here occurred Bartram’s encounter with the alligators which he described so vividly in his Travels. Wilderness Area near the site of the “Battle Lagoon”