Isaiah Hart
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Isaiah David Hart (November 6, 1792 – September 4, 1861) was an American
plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...
owner, and the founder of
Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...
. Originally from
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...
, Hart took up arms against Spain in the Patriot Rebellion of 1812. After moving to a location near the cow ford on the narrows of the
St. Johns River The St. Johns River ( es, Río San Juan) is the longest river in the U.S. state of Florida and its most significant one for commercial and recreational use. At long, it flows north and winds through or borders twelve counties. The drop in eleva ...
, he began platting the town in 1822, and later served as postmaster, court clerk, commissioner of pilotage, judge of elections, major in the local militia during the
Seminole War The Seminole Wars (also known as the Florida Wars) were three related military conflicts in Florida between the United States and the Seminole, citizens of a Native American nation which formed in the region during the early 1700s. Hostilities ...
, and as a Whig member of the Florida Territorial Senate. The Isaiah D. Hart Bridge over the
St. Johns River The St. Johns River ( es, Río San Juan) is the longest river in the U.S. state of Florida and its most significant one for commercial and recreational use. At long, it flows north and winds through or borders twelve counties. The drop in eleva ...
in Jacksonville is named after him.


Early life

Isaiah Hart's father, William Hart, a native of Pennsylvania, was a
saddle The saddle is a supportive structure for a rider of an animal, fastened to an animal's back by a girth. The most common type is equestrian. However, specialized saddles have been created for oxen, camels and other animals. It is not k ...
r by trade who moved south to Virginia and later settled in
Burke County, Georgia Burke County is a county located along the eastern border of the U.S. state of Georgia in the Piedmont. As of the 2020 census, the population was 24,596. The county seat is Waynesboro. Burke County is part of the Augusta-Richmond County, GA ...
, where Isaiah was born on November 6, 1792. In 1801, William Hart moved his family to
East Florida East Florida ( es, Florida Oriental) was a colony of Great Britain from 1763 to 1783 and a province of Spanish Florida from 1783 to 1821. Great Britain gained control of the long-established Spanish colony of ''La Florida'' in 1763 as part of ...
when he received a land grant of 640 acres on Moncrief Creek and the Trout River from the Spanish governor. He and his sons Isaiah and Dan were citizens of Spanish Florida and served in the Spanish militia, but joined the so-called "Patriots of East Florida" during the Patriot War of East Florida, in which disaffected farmers and woodsmen, mostly from Georgia and led by rich planters, tried to seize control of East Florida from the Spanish in 1812. As a young man participating in Patriot raids, Isaiah Hart organized bands of marauders that raided Florida plantations for slaves and cattle, drove them northward into Georgia, and sold them. Isaiah Hart married Nancy Nelson in 1818 and settled at King's Ferry where the old
King's Road King's Road or Kings Road (or sometimes the King's Road, especially when it was the king's private road until 1830, or as a colloquialism by middle/upper class London residents), is a major street stretching through Chelsea and Fulham, both ...
crossed the St. Marys River. After the United States took control of Florida, Hart observed an increase in traffic on the road as settlers came south from Georgia and the Carolinas to the
Florida Territory The Territory of Florida was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 30, 1822, until March 3, 1845, when it was admitted to the Union as the state of Florida. Originally the major portion of the Spanish ...
. In 1819, William Dawson and Stephen Buckles opened a general merchandise store on the King's Road, near the cow ford at the narrows of the St. Johns River, where John Brady operated a busy ferry service. Hart realized that the location offered economic opportunities, and on May 18, 1821, he bought 18 acres on the north bank of the St. Johns from Lewis Zachariah Hogans, owner of the surrounding land, which was formerly part of the Taylor Grant, for $72 worth of cattle. Here, to the west of present-day Market Street, he built a store-cum-tavern that served as his residence, as well as a riverfront dock called Hart's Landing. Over the years Hart became prosperous enough to establish himself as a man of means. He appears in the 1850 Jacksonville, Duval, Florida census taken 14 Oct 1850 with his wife and 7 children: Isiah D. Hart, age 57, planter, b Georgia, with wife Nancy, age 50, b South Carolina, and children: Oscar Hart, age 31, b South Carolina, a lawyer, Ossin Hart, age 29, b Georgia, a lawyer, Laura Hart, age 27, Lodiska Hart, 25, and Daniel Hart, age 20, a clerk, all born in Florida, Berry Briers, age 25, a laborer, born New York, Nancy Hart, age 18, listed as "idiotic", and Julia Hart, age 16, both born in Florida. It is written either in a history of the Hart family or of the City of Jacksonville that Laura and Julia Streets in downtown Jacksonville were named for two of Isaiah and Nancy's daughters.


Founding of Jacksonville

When Duval County was incorporated in 1822, Hart saw new opportunities for development, and persuaded his neighbors John Brady and Lewis Z. Hogans to join his enterprise of
plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Surveys to show the distance and bea ...
ting a town. In 1822, Hart, Brady and Hogans began to lay out the plan of the town, naming it after Gen.
Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...
, the provisional governor of the Florida Territory. The men gathered near the north bank of the St. Johns River and laid out a grid of eight streets. By this time, Hart was becoming prominent in the Territory; in 1824 he was appointed Deputy U.S. Marshal of East Florida, and in 1826 as the Clerk of the County Court, an office he held until 1845. He successively held public office as postmaster, commissioner of pilotage, and judge of elections in Duval County. By 1830 Hart owned four slaves and managed his own farming and ranching operations, as well as a timber business. He continued to buy more real estate, and by the mid-1830s had acquired 2,000 acres of land ten miles west of Jacksonville near present-day Marietta, where he established a plantation he called "Paradise". Hart's various enterprises prospered, and as his fortune increased, he invested in railroads and banks, and bought more slaves, eventually owning 57 human beings. He held various public offices and was admitted to the bar. Hart served as a major in the local militia during the Second Seminole War, and in 1839 was elected as a Whig to the Florida Territorial Senate. Although a slave owner himself, Hart supported the Union vocally and opposed
secession Secession is the withdrawal of a group from a larger entity, especially a political entity, but also from any organization, union or military alliance. Some of the most famous and significant secessions have been: the former Soviet republics le ...
, consequently becoming one of the founders of the Florida Whig Party. He maintained his stance on the issue while in the Territorial Senate. In 1859, Hart extended the original plat of Jacksonville to include all of his property, and moved the town business center to higher ground on a sand ridge. Here he set aside land for a public square (now
James Weldon Johnson Park James Weldon Johnson Park is a public park in Downtown Jacksonville, Florida. Originally a village green, it was the first and is the oldest park in the city. History Beginnings The area was established as a public square in 1857 by Isaiah H ...
), and surveyed smaller lots facing the square for the new shops and businesses that he anticipated would be built on Duval, Hogan and Monroe streets.


Legacy

When he died in 1861, Isaiah Hart was one of the richest men in Florida. He owned extensive real estate in north Florida, and had substantial stockholdings in the Florida, Atlantic & Gulf Central Railroad, the Jacksonville Natural Gas Company, the Bank of St. Johns County, and a steamship line, as well as 53 African-American slaves. His son, Ossian B. Hart, was active in the Republican Party, and became the tenth
governor of Florida A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
in 1873.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hart, Isaiah 1792 births 1861 deaths History of Jacksonville, Florida People from Jacksonville, Florida