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.
- 1842
The Army abandoned its Depot Key base in 1842, and the Florida Armed Occupation Act passed by Congress that year opened the Cedar Keys to settlement.
reported · Cedar Key, Florida - Wikipedia
- 1845
The Cedar Key post office was established in 1845 with Augustus Steele as its first postmaster.
reported · Atsena Otie Key - Wikipedia
etymology
How it got its name
-
Atsena Otie means cedar island in the Creek language - the cedar that gave the whole group of keys its name.
-
Atsena Otie means cedar island in the Creek language.
reported · Atsena Otie Key - Wikipedia
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.
figure
Worth knowing
- 1843
Augustus Steele claimed Depot Key under the Armed Occupation Act in 1843, renamed it Atsena Otie Key and built summer cottages there for Florida and Georgia planters.
reported · Atsena Otie Key - Wikipedia
landmark
What still stands
-
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.
-
The Eagle Pencil Company site on Way Key at 3rd and G Streets, where cedar slats and pencil boxes were made.
- 1839
Permanent occupation of the islands began in 1839, when the US Army under Zachary Taylor built Fort No. 4 on Depot Key as a depot and hospital and made it the headquarters of the Army of the South.
reported · Cedar Key, Florida - Wikipedia
- 1842
A hurricane drove a 27-foot storm surge across the Cedar Keys on 4 October 1842, destroying Cantonment Morgan and wrecking much of Depot Key.
reported · Cedar Key, Florida - Wikipedia