Fort Braden, Florida

Fort Braden is a former community in western Leon County, Florida, United States.

Location of Fort Braden
Fort Braden store, date unknown

History

On December 3, 1839 Fort Braden was established as a military fort during the Second Seminole War. It was located on the Ochlockonee River eighteen miles southwest of Tallahassee. Fort Braden was named for Virginia Braden, formerly Virginia Ward. She married Dr. Joseph Braden, a prominent citizen of Tallahassee. Joseph Braden's brother, Hector, was director of Tallahassee's Union Bank.

Virginia was the daughter of Leon County plantation owner George T. Ward, of Southwood Plantation and Waverly Plantation.

On June 12, 1840 a fight with Indians near Fort Braden resulted in the deaths of two soldiers of Company B of the 2nd Infantry. Fort Braden was abandoned on June 7, 1842 at the conclusion of the Seminole War.

Like other forts around the nation, a small community had grown near this fort. In 1843 an E.M. Garnett attending the Leon County Convention in Tallahassee came from the area. In 1847 collection of taxes took place at the Fort Braden School House. In 1856 and 1872 Fort Braden was one of the voting precincts in Leon County.

Cotton planters

Though Fort Braden was south of the cotton rich Red Hills Region, it had successful planters Hugh Black, H.H. Black, P.B. Chanlers, John Gray, Joseph Haines, C. Gray, John Grissette, R.L. Harvey, and J. E. Williams.

Early churches

It is reported that in Florida State Gazetteer of 1886-1887 that Fort Braden had one Methodist church and one Baptist church.

Other buildings

Fort Braden is reported to have had a school house, a blacksmith shop, a grist mill, and a cotton gin.

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See also

Old Fort Braden School

References
  • Fort Braden School
  • Florida State Library Collection in Tallahassee, Call No. 71, M. No. 617, Roll No. 1497, "Post Returns from Ft. Braden, Fl. Jan. 1840-May 1842;" see also Julia Floyd Smith, Slavery and Plantation Growth in Antebellum Florida (Gainesville: 1973), 131.
  • David A. Eldredge, Finding Florida Forts (Fort Lauderdale, 1990), 39.
  • Tallahassee Floridian, August 7, 1847.
  • Tallahassee Floridian & Journal, October 11, 1856; and Tallahassee Weekly

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