Levy County, Florida
The story of Cedar Key
Everything below is a single verifiable claim with a citation attached. Where the record is a local legend rather than a document, it says so.
founding
How it started
- 1843
Augustus Steele bought the military structures on Atsena Otie Key in 1843 for $227 along with title to its 167 acres, and the island became the nucleus of the first organised settlement in the Cedar Keys.
etymology
How it got its name
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Atsena Otie means cedar island in the Creek language - the cedar that gave the whole group of keys its name.
industry
What it lived on
- 1886
Cedar milling was the making of the town. The Eberhard Faber mill, set up in 1865, cut red cedar slats for pencils, and by 1886 the 17 sawmills at Cedar Key were turning out nearly half a million board feet a week.
claim to fame
What it is known for
- 1896
Cedar Key supplied the wood the world wrote with: both the Eberhard Faber mill and the Eagle Pencil Company cut pencil slats here until the 1896 hurricane and fire damaged both so badly that they closed soon after.
landmark
What still stands
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Atsena Otie Key, the island first settled, where more than thirty-five houses on the high ground survived the 1896 storm surge that locals still call the tidal wave.
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The Eagle Pencil Company site on Way Key at 3rd and G Streets, where cedar slats and pencil boxes were made.