LIVING HISTORY
set up a new outpost called Fort Capron in present-day St.
Lucie Village, near the scene of the attack. A handful of folks
came back, including sickly Caleb Brayton, who served as tax
collector, sheriff and mail carrier. His wife finally did come
down to share his final days when he was skin and bones. He
died on June 9, 1854, when he was almost 38.
With almost no constituents left to represent, 51-year-old
William F. Russell took a seat in the Florida legislature, where
he served as Speaker of the House from November 1854 to
January 1855. During that legislative session, he changed the
name of Florida’s first St. Lucie County to Brevard County in
honor of a friend in Tallahassee (in 1905 a section of Brevard
County was renamed St. Lucie County).
A final clash with the Seminoles began in 1855. Another
attempt was made to move them all out West. But in 1858,
as the nation blundered toward disunion, the soldiers were
called home. They closed Fort Capron and abandoned the
area to the natives and their wilderness. The Seminoles
won again.
Memory, like all human possessions, is unequally distributed;
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and yet, time’s clues are always there to find. Ossian
Hart went on to experience more difficult challenges as life
moved on. He became a noted Loyalist and opposed Secession
when Florida joined the South in the Civil War. During
the Reconstruction period that followed, Hart advocated civil
rights for Florida’s African-Americans. For a time he served
on Florida’s Supreme Court, and then he became Florida’s
10th governor. His term began on January 7, 1873. He had big
plans for the New South, but he caught pneumonia early on
and never quite regained his health. Governor Hart died in
office on March 18, 1874.
RICK CRARY
A monument in St. Lucie Village commemorates the location of Fort Capron,
where soldiers tried to bring the settlers back.
Still today, there are places on the river
where the wind and waters speak of a
long-forgotten colony — and its settlers
filled with dreams.
RICK CRARY