Pensacola-300 Years

Pensacola, 300 Years 1698 - 1998

1513-1763 First Spanish Period

1528 -- Panfilo de Narváez was commissioned to conquer Florida, he arrived there in 1528, sent his ships to Mexico, and led his force inland in search of gold.
Disappointed and harassed by the indigenous people, they returned to the coast, built crude vessels, and set sail for Mexico

1540 -- Francisco Maldonado waits at Pensacola for Hernando de Soto in several visits through 1543. Soto never showed.

1559-1561 -- Tristan de Luna y Arellano, expedition and settlement on Bay of Santa Maria Filipina (Pensacola Bay). Fort abandoned 1561. Emanuel Point Ship

1698 -- Andres de Arriola fortifies Pensacola. Pensacola was founded by the Spanish.
November 21 - Beginning of continuous settlement in Pensacola(on land currently belonging to the Naval Air Station)called Santa Maria de Galve - the "First Pensacola."

1719 --France and Spain go to war. After a greaat naval battle, Pensacola surrenders to France.
The History of Fort Toulouse

1720 -- France and Spain make peace.

1722 -- France burns Pensacola in a scorched earth policy. Spanish secure return of Pensacola and reoccupy, November 25. Spaniards build on Santa Rosa Island - the "Second Pensacola."

1754 -- Hurricane destroys the village of Pensacola on Santa Rosa Island. Survivors move to the mainland.

1753-1763 -- -- Spanish garrisoned at Pensacola

1757 -- King Ferdinand VI issues royal orders naming settlement near San Miguel mission (near today's Seville Square), Panzacola - the "Third Pensacola."

1763-1781 British Period

1763 -- At the close of the Seven Years War (French & Indian War), Britain gained control of Florida. Spanish evacuate. Settlers from Europe and the American colonies to the North began to move into the area. Provinces of East and West Florida were formed.

1764 -- First meeting of West Florida Council, November. Began by declaring all titles purchased from departing Spaniards void. Surveyor, Elias Durnford, prepares a plan for the city. Divides town into building and garden lots

1773-74 -- Botanist William Bartram explores Florida

1775-83 -- Revolutionary War, Florida remains loyal to England

1781-1821 Second Spanish Period

1781 -- Bernado Galvez captures Pensacola, West Florida evacuated by British.
The saga of the First Battalion of Maryland Loyalists who participated in the Battle of Fort George
The land that St. Michaels Cemetery occupies was designated a burying place.

1783 -- Florida given to Spain by England in exchange for Bahamas and Gibraltar.
Most British settlers leave.

1784 -- Spanish census of Pensacola. Population = 593 persons

1785-1847 -- Panton, Leslie & John Forbes & Co. Trading Post in Pensacola
Scottish Traders
Some Creek Indian Families and Friends

1795 -- Spain yields its claim to the northern part of West Florida

1803 -- Louisiana Purchase. Capital of Spanish West Florida moves from New Orleans to Pensacola.

1805Population = 1,398 persons

1808 -- Pensacolians rename their principal streets and plazas in honor of their deceased monarch, Ferdinand VII, and the spirited Spanish resistance movement against Napoleon.

1810 -- Republic of West Florida proclaimed.
Formal survey of St. Michaels Cemetery.
Population = 1,000 persons

1812 -- War of 1812, United States declares war on England, June 18. United States annexed portions of West Florida to Louisiana and to the Mississippi Territory.

1813 -- British occupy Pensacola.

1814 -- Treaty of Ghent
Andrew Jackson occupies Pensacola, November 7-9. He evicts British from the Spanish forts.

1817-18 -- First Seminole War (Jackson's campaign)

1818 -- May 24, Andrew Jackson captures Pensacola again to end Spanish supply of arms to Indians.

1819 - 1821 Adams-Onis Treaty wherein Spain cedes East and West Florida to the United States.

1820 -- Spanish census of Pensacola. Population =712 persons.

1821-1845 Florida Territorial Period

1821 -- Andrew Jackson accepts Pensacola from Spaniards, July 17.
Florida organized into two (2) counties, Escambia (West Florida) and St. Johns (East Florida).
First newspaper published in Pensacola August 18, 1821, The Floridian .

1822 -- Florida organized as a territory. March 30.
Jackson and Duval created, causing changes in Escambia and St.Johns.

1824 - Pensacola Gazette and West Florida Advertiser first published, March 13^th.
City of Pensacola incorporated.

1824-26 -- Road built from St. Augustine to Pensacola.

1825 -- Authorization of Navy Yard and depot at Pensacola.

1826 -- Construction of Navy Yard begins.
December 20, 1826, Pensacola Lighthouse first illuminated.

1829 - 1834 -- Construction of Fort Pickens.

1830 -- Florida's first Federal census. Indian removal begins.

1834 - 1837 - Construction of Fort McRee.

1836-43 -- Second Seminole War

1839-1844 - Construction of Fort Barrancas.

1842 Santa Rosa county created from Escambia county.

1843 Jonathon Walker, was arrested on the coast of Florida, while attempting to run off with some slaves in a boat; was put in jail in Pensacola, tried, and sentenced to pay a fine and be branded with SS (slave stealer) in the palm of the hand.

1845 -- Florida becomes a state, March 3. Sections and townships laid out by the General Land Office.

1861 - First shots of Civil War fired at Fort Barrancas on January 8^th.
Col. William Chase authorized by Governor M. Perry to seize the forts at Pensacola. January 8^th
.
Florida seceded from the Union, January 10.
Navy Yard at Pensacola surrendered to southern militia troops, Jan 12.
Outbreak of Civil War, April 12.

http://dhr.dos.state.fl.us/museum/civwar/index.html FLORIDA during the Civil War

October 9, 1861 - Battle of Santa Rosa Island

1862 -- Union troops seize Fort Pickens at Pensacola.
Federal troops received the surrender of Pensacola, May 10
Pensacola city government goes into exile in Greenville, Alabama.

1865 -- Florida formally surrendered to Federal forces, May 20. Civil War over in June.

1867 - Perry Home built by Danish-born Charles F. Boysen, currently the Scottish Rite Lodge (1922) at Palafox and Wright Streets.

1868 -- Florida readmitted to the Union, June 25.

1870 - Lumber boom begins.

1876 -- First burial at St. Johns Cemetery, August 10^th.

1880 - Pensacola is Florida's third largest city.

1883 -- Railroad reaches Pensacola. Opening of the Opera House, built by Daniel F. Sullivan. Saunders Fish Company formed by Thomas E Welles and Captain E. E. Saunders.

1885 -- A new court house is completed.

1891 - Lee Square, formerly Florida Park, dedicated on June 17 in memory of Jefferson Davis, Stephen R. Mallory, E. A. Perry and the Confederate dead.

1898 -- Spanish American War

c. 1898 - William Dudley Chipley monument erected in Ferdinand Plaza. Chipley was several times mayor of Pensacola, founder of the Florida Chautauqua and Florida State Senator. The monument is inscribed, Soldier - Statesman - Public Benefactor.

1900 - Alger-Sullivan Company begins operation in Century.

1901- Theisen Building built and named for Danish-born Chris Thiesen.

1905 - The last yellow fever epidemic in Pensacola.

1906 - Hurricane, category #3, MS/ AL/ Pensacola - 134 dead.

1908 - New Pensacola City Hall built, current site of T. T. Wentworth Jr. Florida State Museum.

1910 - Hotel San Carlos opens.

1911 --- Navy Yard abandoned.

1912/3 - New L & N Depot opens.

1914 -- Naval Air Station established at Old Navy Yard.
Banks in Pensacola collapse, February 2.

1915 - Pensacola Hospital opens on 12^th Avenue by Daughters of Charity (Sacred Heart Hospital).

1916 -- Hurricane, heavy destruction in Pensacola & Milton

1919 - Serious influenza epidemic.

1920 - Ten cases of bubonic plague epidemic in Pensacola which includes 6 deaths.

1925 -- Saenger Theater built.

1926 -- Hurricane, category #4, Miami/ MS/ AL/ Pensacola 134 dead.

1930 -- Warrington, a civilian community named for Capt. Lewis Warrington, moves from Naval Air Station to present site across Bayou Grande.
H. Clay Armstrong produces the History of Escambia County.

1931 -- Bridges are built across Santa Rosa Sound and Pensacola Bay.

1936 -- Spearman Brewery opens.

1938 -- Pensacola's first public library opened for white residents of the community.

1940 -- Attucks Court (Negro) and Aragon Court (White), low -income housing is open for occupancy.

1941 -- Pensacola Pulp & Paper Company opens, becomes St. Regis and then Champion International.

1948 -- Escambia General Hospital opens, becomes University Hospital.

1951 -- Baptist Hospital opens.

1963 -- University of West Florida founded, opens in 1967.

Bibliography

Appleyard, John, The History of Local Government in Pensacola & Escambia County, Pensacola: 1991

Coker, William S. and G. Douglas Inglis,
The Spanish Censuses of Pensacola, 1784-1820: A Genealogical Guide to Spanish Pensacola, Perdido Bay Press: 1980

Coker, William S. and Thomas D. Watson, Indian Traders of the Southeastern Spanish Borderlands; Panton, Leslie & Company and John Forbes & Company, 1783-1847,
University of West Florida Press/ Pensacola: 1986

McGovern, James R., editor, Colonial Pensacola, 1974: Pensacola

McGovern, James R., The Emergence of a City in the Modern South: Pensacola 1900-1945, Pensacola: 1976

Parks, Virginia, editor, Iron Horse in the Pinelands; Building West Floridia's Railroad: 1881-1883, Pensacola Historical Society: 1982

Pensacola News-Journal, Sunday, October 2, 1949

Pensacola News-Journal, Passport 1995, p. 7.

Vicker, Elizabeth D., "A Chronology of Epidemics in Pensacola, Florida, 1764-1995, West Florida Footprints, #14, 1994

Wentworth, T. T. Jr., Pensacola Picture Book, #17 in a series .