Sunday, October 26, 1992
Sen. Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri placed a bill before the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives in 1840, the purpose of which was to rid Central Florida of the Seminole Indians. The bill was known as the Armed Occupation Act, and it was passed in 1842.
Settlers who came to this part of Florida would be given 160 acres if they agreed to live on the land for five years, cultivate 5 acres and build a dwelling. They also were supposed to receive guns, ammunition and food, but the government did not follow through with those promises.
The settlers came to Florida in the same way settler journeyed West - in covered wagons carrying their families and whatever belongings they could bring along.
Some of the settlers who came during this time were Maj. John D. Parsons, who settled on land at the mouth of the Weeki Wachee River. Another group included 23 settlers who crossed the Withlacoochee River at Istachatta on the way to the Annuttaliga Hammock, in what today is northern Hernando County.
Some of them were William S. Coffee, C. I. Jenkins, Eli Hart, Albert Clark and William Muen. Another group that crossed the river and came to homestead land were M. Baker, B. W. Baker, Wesley Baker, John Baker and quite a few other members of this family.
They stopped at a lake we now call McKethan Lake and made two rows of their wagons. During the day, the men and boys would go out to the homesteads and work, leaving several men to guard the camp and the women. Here, they had a fresh supply of water. It took several years to get all the houses built and the land cleared.
The Spring Lake area was settled by Edward M. Harville and Capt. John Townsend. Those who went to the Chochatcha area included William Hope, David Hope, Isaac Garrison, R. Crum, Capt. William Tucker, John Taylor, James A. Boyett, Jehu Mizell, James Lanier, Richard Wiggins, John Wiggins and Daniel Wiggins. Old Spring Hill settlers were Peter W. Law, Malcolm Peterson, Perry G. Wall, John F. Bassett and William Garrison.
As more settlers came into this area, the need to form a county became apparent, and on Feb. 24, 1843, an act and resolution of the Legislative Council of the territory of Florida was passed. It made Hernando a county (named for early explorer Hernando de Soto), with the boundary beginning at the mouth of the Withlacoochee River and running all the way to the Hillsborough River, then cutting due west to the Gulf of Mexico then along the gulf back to the Withlacoochee, also to include all islands along the coast.
In 1844, to commemorate Benton’s introduction of the Armed Occupation Act, Hernando County’s two legislators, James Stanley and James Billions, place a resolution before the Legislature to change the county’s name to Benton County.
The resolution passed, but the name change did not last long. In 1850, after Benton became a leader in the anti-slavery movement and after a confrontation on the floor of the Senate with Sen. Henry S. Foote, Benton county residents petitioned the Florida Legislature to change the name back to Hernando.
In the 1850s, a new wave of families came into Hernando County.
The Fredrick Lykes family settled in Old Spring Hill. The Anderson Mayo family purchased land 1 mile north of Lake Lindsey called Tiger Tail Hill and renamed it Mayo Hill. The Frank H. Ederington family settled not far from there on a hill they called Mount Airy. Today it is known as Chinsegut Hill.
The family of Matthew Raiford Howell bought 160 acres just northwest of the courthouse. The Hale family moved to the Melendez community south of Brooksville. And John May purchased 160 acres from Richard Wiggins that ran northeast of the courthouse.