CSA/KGC/OAK in Florida

[Rebel - KGC]

We were getting some GOOD info about Cottonwood Plantation, Yulee Family, etc. CARRY ON! I DO believe the Order of Odd Fellows in Occula area is important, and Jewish Cemeteries down there (I am in Virginia).

 

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[Rebel - KGC]

Gonna do more R & I (Research & Investigation); getting VERY interesting...

 

[Rebel - KGC]

R & I indicate OOF became IOOF (Independent Order of Odd Fellows) in 1819 or so in Baltimore, Md. They had "CHAINED LINKS (3) 0n the tombstones of members, and had a NETWORK for travelers (to go to & stay); MY grandfather (mother's side) was IOOF; I have his ritual book. DLY was Jewish (Sephardi... as was Jean Lafitte); "google" David Levy Yulee. JP Benjamin (CSA) was "connected", and DLY was in the Congress of the Confederacy; dunno if he was IOOF or FreeMason.

 

[Rebel - KGC]

YEP! A FreeMason; "google" David L. Yulee Papers.

 

[Rebel - KGC]

DLY was owner of TWO Plantations, thus... of the OLD order; KGC. The NEW order was OAK.

 

[ECS]

DLY was owner of TWO Plantations, thus... of the OLD order; KGC. The NEW order was OAK.

David Levy Yulee was a Freemason,member of the HAYWARD LODGE #7,Gainesville,Florida,while his cousin,CSA Sec of State,Judah P Benjamin,was also a Freemason-Constitutional Grand Lodge of the Order of the Covenant,both were KGC.
Yulee owned Margarita Plantation in Homosassa which the USS Ariel raided and burned in 1864.and Cottonwood Plantation in Archer,where Jefferson Davis's baggage & part of the CSA Treasury were captured by Union forces that were station in nearby Gainesville.
Yulee was President of the FLORIDA RAILROAD,that ran from Fernandina to Cedar Key,and owned several warehouses and depots on that route.Jan 15,1862,USS Harreras invaded Cedar Key,Set the depot,warehouses,and 7 railcars loaded with turpentine afire,burned 5 schooners and 3 sloops,pulled down the telegraph lines,and destroyed the Confederate saltworks.
Yulee,as well as the Marshall Plantation and Holley Farms of Marion county,were suppliers of turpentine,sugar,grits,whiskey,salted pork,etc,to the Confederacy.
It is interesting to note that Davis's baggage train was escourted by his relatives by marriage,CSA Capt Watson Van Benthuysen,and brothers,W S & J D Van Benthuysen.
The Union suspected that Davis and Benjamin would escape by way of Cedar Key,but Davis was captured in Georgia,and Benjamin,Breckinridge,and Wood,escaped through Ocala.Wood,was Jefferson Davis nephew.
As a side note,also on the Danville train which left Richmond after the fall,was Mary Martha Reid,whose son died at the Battle of the Wilderness,ran the Florida Hospital in Richmond,and later Howards Grove Hospital.She returned home to Fernandina,after traveling that far with Benjamin,Breckinridge,and Wood.
www.homosassahistory.com/Yulee.htm
Cedar Key, Florida Civil War site photos
Florida Railroad Story

 

[Rebel - KGC]

THANKS, ECS... that's the kind of info that I was "looking for"!

 

[ECS]

Benjamin,Breckinridge,and Wood stayed at the Ocala home of CSA Brig Gen Robert Bullock May 1865,also a Freemason,and Benjamin had two cousins who lived in the Tuscawilla section of Ocala.They were also aided by Marion county's "Swamp Fox",CSA Capt John Jackson Dickinson.Bullock and Dickinson attended several Confederate Veteran Reunions,many held in Ocala.
General Robert Bullock Biography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jackson_Dickinson
The Odd Fellows Hall(demolished in the 1960's) was a white painted yellow pine clapboard building,but the symbol on it was not the standard arch shaped links.Instead,three chains formed a pyrimid with an all seeing eye at its center.The wooden panel door had a heart with an arrow pointing down at its center carved into a panel.A possible KGC symbol?
In the late 1950's,two CSA artillery short swords,bundels of paper Confederate bills,and one copper CSA penny were found in that building.The Hall was located behind the Jewish Cemetary on Magnolia Ave,and a few blocks away from Evergreen Cemetary,Ocala's first cemetary where many early settlers and CSA soldiers are buried.

 

[L.C. BAKER]

Florida had to have been important, it was just a stone throw from Cuba. Future headquarters of the K.G.C.. I would get to digging if I were you.

L.C.

 

[ECS]

Florida had to have been important, it was just a stone throw from Cuba. Future headquarters of the K.G.C.. I would get to digging if I were you.

L.C.

Breckinridge and Wood sailed to Cuba,and stayed with the relatives of Lola Sanchez,the CSA spy from Palatka,who provided information to CSA Capt J J Dickinson.The Union imprisoned her father at Fort Marion (Castillo de San Marcos) in St Augustine,believing that he was the CSA spy.

 

[L.C. BAKER]

Lewis Powell's family moved to Worth County, then finally moving to Live Oak, Florida in 1859, when Lewis was 15.
On May 30, 1861 at age 17, Lewis left home and enlisted in the 2nd Florida Infantry, Company I in Jasper, Florida. It was not where he became involved in the confederate secret service though. It is where they buried him after he was hung, but his head didn't make it there until much later. In January 1992, Powell's skull was discovered stored at the Smithsonian Anthropology Department. Two years later the skull was re-interred at the Geneva Cemetery in Seminole County, Florida, next to the grave of his father.

L.C.

 

[L.C. BAKER]

Breckinridge and Wood sailed to Cuba,and stayed with the relatives of Lola Sanchez,the CSA spy from Palatka,who provided information to CSA Capt J J Dickinson.The Union imprisoned her father at Fort Marion (Castillo de San Marcos) in St Augustine,believing that he was the CSA spy.

It makes you wonder what they could have stashed in Cuba too.

 

[ECS]

Florida had to have been important, it was just a stone throw from Cuba. Future headquarters of the K.G.C.. I would get to digging if I were you.

L.C.

There were many Confederates in Ocala/Marion county after the War.One was Dr. G G Mathews,who served as a doctor for the CSA.When Reconstruction came to Marion county with the carpetbaggers and scalawags,Mathews and 15 other families departed to Santos,Brazil,and remained for 15 years there.After Reconstruction,he returned to south Marion county,started the town of Santos with other returning Confederates.
Today,Santos has only one building standing,and wooden signs telling what was once there.

 

[Rebel - KGC]

Benjamin,Breckinridge,and Wood stayed at the Ocala home of CSA Brig Gen Robert Bullock May 1865,also a Freemason,and Benjamin had two cousins who lived in the Tuscawilla section of Ocala.They were also aided by Marion county's "Swamp Fox",CSA Capt John Jackson Dickinson.Bullock and Dickinson attended several Confederate Veteran Reunions,many held in Ocala.
General Robert Bullock Biography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jackson_Dickinson
The Odd Fellows Hall(demolished in the 1960's) was a white painted yellow pine clapboard building,but the symbol on it was not the standard arch shaped links.Instead,three chains formed a pyrimid with an all seeing eye at its center.The wooden panel door had a heart with an arrow pointing down at its center carved into a panel.A possible KGC symbol?
In the late 1950's,two CSA artillery short swords,bundels of paper Confederate bills,and one copper CSA penny were found in that building.The Hall was located behind the Jewish Cemetary on Magnolia Ave,and a few blocks away from Evergreen Cemetary,Ocala's first cemetary where many early settlers and CSA soldiers are buried.

GREAT info! CARRY ON!

 

[Rebel - KGC]

It makes you wonder what they could have stashed in Cuba too.

Moved to ex-Confederate cities in Brazil... STARTING OVER! YEP! Spanish-speaking REBELS (and families) they were/are; even a SCV chapter "down there". HA! "Google" Confederados;
Americana, Brazil.

 

[Rebel - KGC]

There were many Confederates in Ocala/Marion county after the War.One was Dr. G G Mathews,who served as a doctor for the CSA.When Reconstruction came to Marion county with the carpetbaggers and scalawags,Mathews and 15 other families departed to Santos,Brazil,and remained for 15 years there.After Reconstruction,he returned to south Marion county,started the town of Santos with other returning Confederates.
Today,Santos has only one building standing,and wooden signs telling what was once there.

YEP! Some Confederados/families DID return to SPANISH-SPEAKING Florida; follow THAT "clue". Advantages: speaking a language, MOST Americans didn't/don't understand; use of SPANISH signs/symbols in burying "treasures" & "assets"... OAK. REBELS were KGC in BRAZIL... MANY old PLANTATIONS. Look all along the border with Mexico for OAK "stuff".

 

[ECS]

Florida had to have been important, it was just a stone throw from Cuba. Future headquarters of the K.G.C...

L.C.

John J Helms,from Kentucky,was the CSA agent in Cuba.Helms coodinated Cuban payments with the CSA blockade runners,including for cattle shipped from Punta Rassa by the "Cow Cavalry".He was there in June 1865 to greet Breckinridge and Wood in Havana.Judah P Benjamin set up all the CSA blockade routes and agents.

 

[ECS]

A slight departure from the topic,but an interesting read on the Union occupation of St Augustine during the War of Northern Aggression. Those residents who would not take the Oath of Alligence to the Union,were exiled and shipped out,houses were occupied,and Capt J J Dickinson's raids are mentioned,in a collection of newspaper articles,Union dispatches,and memoirs.Yulee was also mentioned,his Fernandina house served as a Union headquarters.
St. Augustine in the Civil War

 

[Rebel - KGC]

A slight departure from the topic,but an interesting read on the Union occupation of St Augustine during the War of Northern Aggression. Those residents who would not take the Oath of Alligence to the Union,were exiled and shipped out,houses were occupied,and Capt J J Dickinson's raids are mentioned,in a collection of newspaper articles,Union dispatches,and memoirs.Yulee was also mentioned,his Fernandina house served as a Union headquarters.
St. Augustine in the Civil War

Beginning of the Spanish-American War...? Think about it...

 

[L.C. BAKER]

This is all very informative messages about the C.S.A.. I have found out of the 8 identified Knights of the Golden Circle that we uncovered, all in high positions,. Only three that were involved with the C.S.A. on a formal level. The others were not recognized as C.S.A.......but they were Rebel to the Core. The upper end of the Knights were not recognized as such by anyone as it was a "SECRET" organization. Some speculation, educated guesses, and even public accusations have been made, but to this day no hard evidence of their membership has been presented in any book that I have came across in my own research.

L.C.