Cross Creek by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings - 1942

A post in honour of the birth anniversary of my mother, January 3, 1921-No finer Floridian ever lived.

Florida Timeline

8000 BC - First Native American settlement, near Sarasota

1000 AD - there are nine distinct tribes 

1500 - estimated population of the state was 375,000- 150,000 speak Timuca

April 2, 1513 - Ponce de Leon lands somewhere between Melbourne and Jacksonville.  In time the  indigenous population will be reduced to near zero, from disease and warfare. 

1521 - first colony, from Spain, near St. Augustine

1579 - The cultivation of oranges, introduced from Spain begins.  By 1835 millions of oranges were being shipped north and to Europe, for the next hundred years oranges, cattle and timber were the major sources of cash

1624 - First African American born, in St. Augustine

1763 to 1765- England Owns west Florida panhandle area

Based on research by others in the family and history, I conjecture my maternal ancestors first entered Florida, coming from. Georgia where they arrived around 1650, about 1815.


1808 - importation of slaves into USA is banned, a very large trade in slaves smuggled in from Cuba begins 

1821 - USA acquired Florida from Spain.  

1822 - Tallahassee is chosen as the territory capital, being half way between the then major population centers of St. Augustine and Pensacola

1835 Second Seminole War begins, by 1842 most Seminoles were shipped west but some escaped into the Everglades.  The 
make up of the Seminoles was largely not Native originally to Florida but a mixture of escaped slaves and Creeks from Georgia and South Carolina.


March 3, 1845 - Florida becomes a state, slavery legal.

1859 - by the end of the third Seminole War the around four hundred survivors retreat to the Everglades


Population of Florida 1861. - 154,494 - 92,741 Free, 61,75 enslaved

January 10, 1861 Florida suceeds from The Union.  Per capita, Florida sent The most men into war, 15000.  It was then the  least populated southern state.

1896- Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, born in Washington,DC.  She wins the 1939 Pulitzer Prize for The Yearling, set in Rural north Florida.In 1928 she moves to Hawthorne, Florida.  She died December 14, 1953.  She is the author of Cross Creek.

,
. 1898 - lead by Theodore Roosevelt, based in Florida, the Rough Riders invade Cuba as part of the Spainish American war.  Through this the USA acquired the Philippines and took a place as a world class international power.  This helped him become president just as Zachary Taylor's role in the Seminole Wars did for Taylor.

1914 - World War One begins

January 3, 1921 - my Mother was born in Highsprings Florida, then population 1795. 

Population of Florida 1921 - 997,000
Population of Texas 4.8 Million
Population of California 3.75 million

Last January, in consultation with Max u, it was decided that there will be an annual post in observation of the birth anniversary of our Mother.  This year I selected Cross Creek by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, author of The Yearling set in rural north Florida in the 1920s.  I saw the setting was very much like my mother's birthplace
in Highsprings, Florida, which motivated my choice. I found this book quite disappointing.  It has no real plot,the African American characters are condescending racist charactures.  The descriptions of natural beauty were wonderful, the only thing that gives this book value.