Stories
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Luisa de Abrego and Miguel Rodríguez—A Marriage of American Firsts
Did you know that the first recorded Christian marriage, and the first interracial marriage, in the continental United States took place in Florida? In the…
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Marjorie Harris Carr—The Woman Who Stopped the Canal
Born in Boston in 1915, Marjorie Harris Carr was raised in rural Bonita Springs in southwest Florida, where her parents taught her how to identify…
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Margaret “Tantie” Huckabee—The Pioneer Teacher of Okeechobee
Before the city was officially Okeechobee, it was called Tantie—a wild frontier town named after a redheaded schoolteacher. In 1896, settlers carved a rough life…
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Coacoochee “Wild Cat”—A Warrior’s Daring Escape
Wild Cat, also known as Coacoochee, was a leading Seminole chieftain during the later stages of the Second Seminole War as well as the nephew of Micanopy. Wild Cat may have had…
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Roxcy Bolton—Florida’s Fiercest Feminist
Roxcy Bolton was born in the small town of Duck Hill, Missisippi in 1926. When she was just 10 years old, she was forced to…
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Lawrence Silas—The Black Cattle King of Kissimmee
He was born in 1891 in the scrublands of Kenansville, the son of a formerly enslaved man. By the time he was twelve, Lawrence Silas…
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John Ashley and Laura Upthegrove—Florida’s Bonnie and Clyde
From 1915 to 1924, John Ashley and his moll Laura Upthegrove led their gang in over 40 bank robberies, stealing more than $1 million &…
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Alice Osceola—An Indigenous Innovator
Around 1917, Alice Osceola—Bird clan member, wife of William McKinley Osceola and mother to little Mittie—may have been the first woman to wear and design…
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Willie James Howard—Lynched for Being in Love
New Year’s Day, 1944, Live Oak. 15-year-old dime store employee Willie James Howard slipped a note to his crush, fellow 10th-grader and co-worker Cynthia Goff.…