APPENDIX IV
Archer Folklore:
I. The School That Sank
Following the Civil War, several black communities such
as Rastus and Long Pond started up around Archer. These
settlements had their own schools staffed by circuit-riding
teachers who stayed in one place for several months before
moving on to the next town with a school.
One such schoolhouse was found in a settlement south of Archer near the spot where U.S. 27/41 passes Blue Pete Lake. At that time Blue Pete or Blue Peter was the name of a springs in the same location and the school sat near where the springs bubbled out of the ground. One day, after class had been dismissed and the children and the teacher were headed home, an odd noise behind them caused them to turn back around and look at the schoolhouse. To their amazement, the strange sounds were coming from under the building. As they continued to watch, water gurgled out and began forming a pool. Dumbfounded, they watched as the doomed structure listed to one side and then sank into the ever-growing pond in a raft of bubbles. Today there is a small lake on the spot. Fishermen say if one rows out to the middle of the lake and looks down into its depths, on a clear day one can still see the ill-fated schoolhouse.
II. Buried Treasure
When the Confederate Treasury wagon train disbanded in
May 1865 at Cotton Wood plantation, each of the ten officers
with the wagon train received 400 gold sovereigns. Yet when
each was pardoned at different points in Florida, none had any
gold on his person. One of the escorts, T.F. Tilghman, told
drinking buddies some years later that he had hidden his share
somewhere on the Yulee Plantation in a safe location that was
also easy to find again; he intimated the gold was still on
the property somewhere. A short time later he was killed.
What happened to the gold? As far as anyone knows, it is
still buried somewhere on the northeast side of Archer.
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APPENDIX V
Important dates in Archer History in the nineteenth century:
1830........First settlers in Archer area.
1835-1842...Second Seminole War; settlers crowd into
Forts Newnan, Walker and Wacahoota.
1842-1852...Small settlement called Deer Hammock started.
1852........Deer Hammock's name changed to Darden's Hammock.
More settlers arrive from Georgia and the Carolinas.
1853........Clay is discovered; bricks made.
Water is drawn from natural well near center of town.
1857-1858...Florida Railroad reaches town.
1858........The Florida Town Improvement Society lays out
forty-acre town square for town to be called Archer, after
James T . Archer, Florida's first Secretary of State;
a dozen families move into the new town from South Carolina.
1859........Fourth-class Post-office established.
1861-1865...Civil War. A number of men volunteer;
several raids in area. Civil War dead buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery.
Treasure train makes its last stop at Cotton Wood plantation.
1866........Tracks repaired, telegraph wires strung through Archer.
Freedman's Bureau issues 80 acre homesteads to freed blacks.
1874........Population within town reaches 50.
1875........Union School built.
1876........Ballot box fraud in Archer helps Hayes win U.S.
Presidency, bringing about an end to Reconstruction.
1878........Town of Archer incorporated.
1880........Population in town reaches 100.
1884........Quaker Meeting Hall and Bethlehem Presbyterian
Church built; 85 landowners on census.
1885........Population in town reaches 250; town experiencing rapid growth
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1886........Severe freeze kills orange trees down to the ground.
1888........Yellow fever epidemic; Archer quarantines Gainesville.
1890........Methodist Church built; older log church converted into jail.
1890-1893...Ambler Lumber Company and phosphate mines build spur
lines off F.C.&P. to job sites; Archer's businessmen relocate stores near
the juncture of the various lines.
1891........Harmon Murray, a noted outlaw, is shot and killed
by Elbert Hardy at Long Pond near Archer.
1894........ A severe freeze kills a large portion of newly
planted orange trees around the town.
Mid 1890's...Henry Plant builds railroad through town to Tampa.
1896.........Third severe freeze in ten years kills orange groves
completely. Many farmers are financially ruined and move away,
including most of the Quakers; a few remain attending Methodist church.
1897........ Spanish-American War troop trains pass through Archer,
The town contributes some volunteers.
1899.........Snow falls in February.
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