In response to a series of Seminole raids in the late 1840s, the governor had dispatched a volunteer militia to guard settlements, but Orange grand jurors said that was not enough. Three settlers were killed by Seminoles near the present site of Kissimmee that year, and an Orange County grand jury that October pleaded with the federal government to remove the rest of the Indians for settlers’ safety. 22.ġ849 was a year of renewed Seminole uprising in Orange County. A second artillery unit arrived a few days later, and both had moved on by Nov. 26, 1849, when an artillery company reoccupied it. There are no records of the fort being garrisoned from then until Oct. 9, 1838, to July 1, 1839, when it was evacuated. The homesteads could not be nearer than two miles from a military post, so the Jernigans settled two miles northwest of Fort Gatlin.Ī 1939 letter from the National Archives responding to a query from an Orlando researcher said the fort was occupied by various Army artillery and dragoon units from Nov. The first of these homesteaders in present-day Orange County were brothers Aaron and Isaac Jernigan, who filed claims for adjacent parcels on the west side of Lake Holden in July 1843. Hence, the Armed Occupation Act of 1842 offered 160 acres - a quarter-mile square - free to anyone who stayed five years, built a cabin, cultivated at least five acres and helped defend the area from Seminole attack. settlers, rather than continue to fight or try to capture the Seminoles. What essentially became a guerrilla war lasted until 1842 without a formal treaty or victory by either side as the United States switched tactics and decided to try to crowd the tribe out by luring U.S. Most of the 3.4-acre property, occupied by the Navy from 1950 until 1997, could not be searched because a building and parking lot cover three-fourths of the site.īut school district officials have promised that once they move into the property, they will tear up some asphalt and let researchers do more exploratory excavating on the site, said Linda Stewart of the Fort Gatlin Historical Group, a grassroots organization that wants to preserve as much of the site as possible and document the history of the fort. But confirmation of the fort’s original site has never been made. Naval Underwater Sound Reference facility at Summerlin and Gatlin avenues. The impending takeover of the lakefront site of a former Navy sonar lab by the Orange County School District is breathing new life into hopes that researchers can pin down the site of Fort Gatlin once and for all.Ī 1997 study by a Gainesville archaeological consulting firm turned up numerous Seminole War-era artifacts and said “it is probable” the fort had been on or adjacent to the site of the now-abandoned U.S.
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