Remembering Suwannee: Major John McLemore, Part 1

Eric Musgrove

Contributor

Since I spoke about the Second Seminole War in last week’s article, I figured that I would continue with that period of our history by talking about a man who not only served in it, but who (briefly) lived in what is now Suwannee County.

John McLemore was born around 1810 in Richland District, S.C. He received his medical degree in the spring of 1830 from the Medical College of South Carolina (now the Medical University of South Carolina), one of the oldest continually operating schools for medicine in the United States and the oldest in the South. Dr. McLemore moved to Tallahassee in 1831 and opened a medical office for the young territorial capital (Florida had only been American property for 10 years at this point). It seems that the young doctor had a love of adventure and the frontier life.

In 1833, Dr. McLemore settled in the nearby town of Monticello (established in 1827) and purchased a large plantation there. It appears his medical practice and goods from his plantation granted him a small fortune that allowed him to increase his land holdings. On Nov. 21, 1835, Dr. McLemore announced that he had purchased Gadsden Spring (now Suwannee Springs) and its resort from Francis J. Ross and would be moving there shortly. His frontier medical practice and other endeavors would continue here in what is now Suwannee County, or so he thought.

Unfortunately for Dr. McLemore, there had been an increasing distrust from the Seminole Indians who inhabited much of the interior of Florida. The Seminoles were a conglomeration of Native American tribes like the Creeks, Apalachee, Yuchi, Choctaw and Yamassee who had escaped European invasion of their territory in places like Alabama, the Carolinas, and Tennessee. These various tribes banded together in what at the time was the wilderness of Florida to continue practicing their ways of life. The Spanish, who owned Florida at the time, called these Native Americans cimarrones, which means “runaways” or “free people,” because they refused to be under European control. By the time the United States took over Florida in 1821, these native peoples were simply called Seminoles.

The United States negotiated the Treaty of Moultrie Creek with the Seminoles in 1823, moving them to a reservation in the central part of Florida and opening up places like the Suwannee Valley area to American settlers. As American settlers spread, they began to encroach on Seminole territory. Eventually, it was decided that the Seminoles needed to move out west with other Indian tribes. A new treaty, the Treaty of Payne’s Landing, was signed in 1832 and ratified by the United States government in 1834. However, the Seminole chiefs stated either that they had not signed it or had been coerced into signing it. Tensions rose as some Seminole chiefs refused to leave Florida. This tension erupted in late 1835 as Americans and Seminoles began assaulting one another openly, leading to some deaths. The Florida territorial government prepared for war, ordering up the militia and asking for the loan of hundreds of guns from the Federal government.

One of the men who responded to the call for duty was Dr. McLemore. On Dec. 4, 1835, he was appointed captain in the Florida Militia and stationed near his new home at what is now Suwannee Springs. McLemore wasted no time in drumming up volunteers from the area; most of his men were from Hamilton County and Columbia County (which then included Suwannee County). However, the unit would have little time to prepare. On Dec. 18, McLemore led his company into the first battle of the Second Seminole War, what is now called the Battle of Black Point or the Battle of Black Rock. This battle occurred nearly a week before the more famous Dade Massacre.

The battle began when some 80 Seminole warriors (led by the famous war leader Osceola, according to one source) captured a military baggage wagon train near present-day Micanopy. While the Seminoles ransacked the baggage, Captain McLemore and his thirty militiamen surprised them. McLemore ordered a charge into the Seminoles to save the baggage train, but only about a third of his men obeyed. The Seminoles were able to fight off the Americans, killing six and wounding eight in the process before the militia survivors fled. In the Americans’ defense, they had only been together for about two weeks and were no doubt still untrained in how to fight.

Next week, we will complete our discussion of Major McLemore.

Eric Musgrove can be reached at [email protected] or 386-362-0564.