The Haddocks of Wiregrass

Spanish Land Grants Attract New Settlers

Several years after the Spanish again assumed control of Florida, Burris Higginbotham arrived to buy land, cattle and the ferry itself.

Higginbotham was born in Amherst County, VA in 1759, and moved to Georgia in 1783, shortly after the Revolutionary War. He was granted nearly 300 acres of land in Washington County, Georgia for his Revolutionary War service.

In the late 1780s however, he moved to Florida. He applied for and was granted by the Spanish Crown, some 298 acres downstream at what eventually became known as Brickyard. There, he and his wife, Isabella Donna, raised nine children who became the ancestors of all the Higginbotham families, and through the marriage of his daughter, Mary Elizabeth in 1810 to Joseph Haddock, of all the Haddock families as well, throughout the Southeast.

About 1791, Burris moved across the St. Marys River into Camden County, near St. Marys, Georgia. He died about 1820. 6 

Like Burris, many families came to Florida after Spain relaxed immigration rules in 1790.

On April 4, 1792 the Spanish authorities granted some 400 acres to Richard Lang at Casa Blanca, White House, on the St. Marys River. These lands remained in the Lang name until 1817 when the land was sold to William Drummond, and the area was then sometimes known as Drummond’s Ferry.

Grants were issued to Elijah Higginbotham and members of the Vanzant families for lands about a mile south of the Haddock settlement on the Middle Road.

Ephesus Baptist Church, the oldest Baptist Church in the State of Florida.

These families later organized the Ephesus Baptist Church in 1845, the oldest Baptist Church in the State of Florida.

Another new resident of Drummond’s Ferry was Isaiah D. Hart. Born in 1792 in Loudon County, VA, he followed his father, William to Georgia and then into Florida, settling near Cow Ford.

The Patriot War of 1812 ruined William Hart. The new Federal government inadequately supported the half-hearted attempt by settlers on both sides of the St. Marys River. It soon fizzled out in the face of Spanish resistance.

Isaiah settled on the St. Marys and married a girl named Nancy. He bought land near his wife’s family and tried to settle down. During that period he lived near and knew Joseph Haddock.

One of several Haddock land grants issued about 1817 was that to Joseph Haddock for “250 acres in Cabbage Swamp on the St. Marys River,” several miles south of the ferry crossing. His descendents would live on the land for over 100 hundred years.

According to Huxford, Joseph Haddock was born about 1787 in Pitt County, NC, a son of John Haddock and his wife, Sarah Hardee, the daughter of Capt. John Hardee.  See: Hardee, Lewis J., Jr. Three Southern Families - A History of Connecting Hardee, Jones, and Davis Families of Coastal North Carolina (1994), Southport Historical Society, Southport NC; Barefoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC]

The Haddock family moved into Camden County when Joseph was a boy, probably on or near the Hardee plantation on Hazards Neck—Rural Felicity.

In 1810, Joseph married Mary Elizabeth Higginbotham.

By 1812, John Hardee Haddock was born, the first of 14 children. Sarah would die on Nov. 12, 1870, followed by Joseph in January 1875. They are buried on their former land in the Haddock cemetery. [Source: Huxford, Folks. Pioneers of Wiregrass Georgia, Vol. II (Folkeston, GA), p. 203.]

Life on a frontier farm was not enough for Hart, however. In January 1821, he loaded all his possessions on a craft, moved them down the St. Marys and over to Fernandina, and then through the inland waterway and up the St. Johns to Cow Ford. By May 12th he had acquired 18 acres of land from Lewis Hogans and was on his way to becoming the founder of Jacksonville. [Source: Huxford, Folks. Pioneers of Wiregrass Georgia, Vol. II (Folkeston, GA), p. 122.]

Next Page