History’s Highlight
Osceola – January 31, 1838
January 31, 1838, sensing the inevitable, Osceola directed his followers to dress him in his best finery,
and he lay back on the blanket strewn floor of his cell at Fort Moultrie, South Carolina, and quietly
expired. His remains are buried just outside the fort gate.
Many Floridians to this day believe Osceola should be reinterred in this state
where, as a patriot warrior defending his homeland, he joined the legendary
ranks of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and Geronimo.
Osceola first appeared in 1832, sitting at Chief Micanopy's side at Payne's
Landing as the United States continued negotiations, trying to move Florida's
Indians west of the Mississippi. Osceola was about 35 years old and was
immediately recognized by U.S. officers as a force to reckon with. The Indian
agent, Wiley Thompson, called him "bold and dashing."
Negotiations, skirmishes and frustration would continue on both sides,
breaking into all-out war in 1835 - the Seminole Indian War, which would
stretch to 1842 and become the most costly Indian conflict in United States
history.
Osceola's mind was clear. He would not be moved from his homeland. He
made his point December 28, 1835, in a well-planned and spectacular pair of
incidents which formally started the war. At points 40 miles apart, Seminole forces assassinated the Indian
Agent Thompson outside Fort King at Ocala and massacred a relief force of 105 under U.S. Major Francis L.
Dade, on its way to Fort King.
Osceola continued skirmishes on a frustrated US military, fighting its first guerrilla-style war in the dense
subtropics.
October 21, 1837, a weary Osceola and Coa Hadjo, another principal leader of the Seminoles, camped at
Fort Peyton southwest of St. Augustine under a flag of truce to meet with the U.S. commander, Maj. Gen.
Thomas S. Jesup.
They were unaware that General Jesup was no longer recognizing flags of truce.
He was imprisoned in St. Augustine's Castillo (then called Fort Marion) until late November, then
transferred to Fort Moultrie, away from potential influencing of his Seminole followers. There he was buried
with full military honors in a grave outside the military base.
On his marker, military authorities inscribed, "OCEOLA Patriot and Warrior."
Image: Portrait of Osceola, painted by American Artist George Catlin at Fort Moultrie, January 1838.
Excerpt from Osceola, in St. Augustine Bedtime Stories. Click for further information on this
fascinating historic series.
Lightner to explore
American
Impressionism
This spring,
the Lightner
Museum
celebrates
the
evocative,
timeless
beauty of late
19th and early 20th century
American art with two
exhibitions of American
Impressionist paintings.
American Impressionism:
Treasures from the Daywood
Collection, features paintings
from the acclaimed collection of
the Huntington Museum of Art
in West Virginia.
A companion exhibition, St.
Augustine in a New Light:
American Impressionism from
the Collection of the Lightner
Museum is curated from the
Lightner’s own collection.
The exhibitions will run from
April 8, 2021-July 5, 2021.
Resolution to authorize
hybrid meeting format
“To ensure that the business of municipal governance
can occur without unnecessarily exposing either City
personnel or members of the public to a risk of infection,”
the City Commission Monday will consider a resolution
for the commission and city boards to use hybrid
meetings during the COVID pandemic.
“When asked whether a public body complies with the
Sunshine Law when one or more members of the body
wish to participate in a meeting electronically from a
remote location,” City Attorney Isabelle Lopez explains,
“the Florida Attorney General has opined that a quorum
of the body must be physically present in order to allow a
member, who due to ‘extraordinary circumstances’ is
unable to physically attend the meeting, to appear and
participate electronically.”
The hybrid meeting format will allow a minimum
quorum and number of staff in the Alcazar Room at City
Hall while others participate by media communication
technology.
Commission to consider Bartram trail affiliation
Commissioners Monday will consider approving the City's affiliate
membership with the Bartram Trail Conference.
The Bartram Trail Conference (BTC) is a not-for-profit corporation
established in 1976 to locate and mark the route of naturalist William Bartram
through eight states including Florida.
The Conference encourages the study, preservation, and interpretation of the
William Bartram heritage and hosts biennial meetings of members at
appropriate locations along the Bartram Trail Corridor.
“Support of the BTC would be in line with the City of St. Augustine's vision
statement for support of historical authenticity and economic activity,” City Attorney Isabelle Lopez
says.
The approval resolution includes affiliate membership, appointing a commissioner to represent the
City at events, and authorization for the Bartram Trail Conference organization to use the city seal.
Find a presentation here on the Bartram Trail Conference and recognition of Bartram Trail National
Heritage Corridor.
Commission gets 1st look at inland Harbor plan
The City Commission Monday gets its first look
at proposed changes to the Sebastian Inland
Harbor Planned Unit Development.
The regular commission meeting begins at 5 pm
in the Alcazar Room at City Hall and is live
streamed on CoSA.TV.
“This property has been zoned Planned Unit
Development (PUD) since 2004 and has gone
through several modifications since then, all of
which reflect the use of the property as a mixed-
use development with a hotel and marina, multi-family residential and restaurant/retail components,”
Planning and Building Director David Birchim says.
The proposed PUD amendment would increase multi-family units from 80 to 165, decrease hotel
capacity from 225 to 167 rooms, and reduce mixed commercial space from 37,000 to 27,000 square
feet.
Added to the PUD is the neighboring Winery and its planned Marketplace along King Street.
The Planning and Zoning Board took up the proposed modifications in February 2020, then revisited
the matter almost a year later January 5, a delay caused by legal issues.
Lincolnville residents in particular have been highly critical of the plan, citing the development’s
impact on their neighborhood. But they won’t have a chance to plead to commissioners for a month if
the commission approves advancing it to public hearing.
“You can’t do back-to-back commission meetings for ordinances because of the advertising
requirements,” Birchim explains. “You have to skip a meeting between 1st and 2nd reading.”
Commission to make appointments
- including some for themselves
Commissioners will be asked Monday to fill two
vacancies on the Lincolnville Community Redevelopment
Area Steering Committee and will be notified on two
upcoming term expirations on the Historic Architectural
Review Board.
Commissioners will also appoint themselves to a number
of intergovernmental boards.
Three applications were received for the Lincolnville
board to succeed Sue Agresta who is moving from the area
and Nicholas Noloboff whose term expired.
Julie Risenhoover, committee chair in the Lincolnville
Neighborhood Association
Madeline Wise, co-chair of the Lincolnville Historical
Preservation and Restoration Society
Dee Thomas, Torchbearer member of the Lincolnville
Museum and Cultural Center and member of the
Friends of the Lincolnville Community Garden.
Historic Architectural Review Board current Chair
Catherine Duncan and Jon Benoit have term expirations
March 28. Both are eligible for reappointment.
First Coast Opera plans Dinner & Show
First Coast Opera presents Mozart v. Salieri on February 12 and 13 in the St. Jude Preservation Hall at
St. Anastasia Catholic Church.
The production reprises February 7, 1786, when Austria’s Emperor Joseph II threw a party in the
Orangery of the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna. His guests were treated to dinner and new short
comedies by the two leading opera composers of the day, W. A. Mozart and Antonio Salieri.
Regular tickets are $75 per person, Tables will be sold as one group - six seats at each table. Details at
www.firstcoastopera.com, (904) 417-5555, or Facebook.
January 23 2021