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Dudley Farm Historic State Park

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Coordinates: 29°39′15″N 82°32′37″W / 29.65417°N 82.54361°W / 29.65417; -82.54361
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Dudley Farm
Dudley Farm visitor center
Map showing the location of Dudley Farm
Map showing the location of Dudley Farm
LocationAlachua County, Florida, USA
Nearest cityNewberry
Coordinates29°39′15″N 82°32′37″W / 29.65417°N 82.54361°W / 29.65417; -82.54361
Area325 acres (1.32 km2)
EstablishedOctober 4, 2002
Governing bodyFlorida Department of Environmental Protection

Dudley Farm Historic State Park (Florida), also known as Dudley Farm, is a U.S. historic district and museum park located in Newberry, Florida. It was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on October 4, 2002. The address is 18730 West Newberry Road.

The park encompasses approximately 325.6 acres (1.318 km2), and contains 21 historic buildings and 13 structures, including the family farmhouse with original furnishings, an 1880s kitchen outbuilding, a general store and post office, and a cane syrup complex.

The farm maintains a registered Cracker cattle herd, and at least one Florida Cracker horse. There are also chickens and turkeys on the farm. These are specimens of poultry breeds common on late 19th and early 20th century U.S. farms. During part of its existence, the farm was a large, local egg producer.[1]

Park staff and volunteer living historians perform necessary farm chores and other period activities while dressed in period clothes. Depending on their work schedule, they also guide visitors about the farm. The site is a working farm, showing agricultural development in Florida from the late 1850s through the mid-1940s. After that period, the farm was used solely for subsistence farming by a few third-generation family members. In 1996, Myrtle Dudley, the youngest and last living member of the third generation, died, leaving the site to the Florida Park Service.

Other features include a visitor center, a picnic area and nature trails. At least one open ranger-led tour is scheduled per month, not including the summer months. Tours for school classes and other large groups can be scheduled. A 19th century "Domestic Skills" group of volunteers meets every Wednesday morning, working on everything from pine needle baskets to quilts.

While the farm is part of the Florida park system, "The Friends of Dudley Farm" (FoDF), a state-recognized, volunteer Citizen Support Organization, holds numerous historical activities and festivals throughout the year in cooperation with state park personnel.

Due to deterioration of the historic cane syrup complex at the homestead, through continued use to produce cane syrup for sale at the farm, its use was suspended. However, FoDF built a similar cane syrup complex outside the homestead area, but still on park property.

The FoDF runs a "commissary," also outside the homestead area, where the cane syrup and authentic corn meal and corn grits are available for sale. All three items are produced at the park using traditional methods. Plus, an on-site nursery provides heritage and Florida native plants for sale. All proceeds are used to support the park. The commissary is an exact duplicate of a commissary on an old turpentine plantation. It was built by a son of the man who built the original, who then donated it to the park. The park's visitor center is located in a house built in Newberry in 1918. It was also donated and moved to the park.

Other supported community activities include weddings at the farm; tours of the homestead gardens by local and regional gardening groups; Boy and Girl Scout activities---such as living history, invasive weed control, fencing reconstruction, etc.; Earth Day and National Public Lands Day. The schedule for many of these activities is available on the Friends of Dudley Farm Web site (see below).

Dudley family

The Dudley Family was of English origin... and are considered an ancient and honored family in that country, and the Dudley line can be traced back to 1079. Among its many prominent English ancestors is Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester (1532-1588), a favorite courtier of Queen Elizabeth I, while a son Robert (1754-1649), knighted by King James, served [in 1602] as mayor of Newcastle.

When the Dudleys immigrated to the American colonies in the early seventeenth century, they were noted as statesmen, politicians and prominent businessmen. One of the first arrivals, Thomas Dudley (1576-1653)... was named the second governor of Massachusetts in 1634, serving in that post for eleven years. His daughter Anne, who married Simon Bradstreet, became the best-known poetess of the colonial period. One of his sons, Joseph, was also elected governor, a post he held for thirteen years.

Another Dudley branch settled in Virginia during the 1630s... while Edward B. Dudley served as the [28th] governor of North Carolina from 1836 to 1841. Another Dudley Farm [built in 1845 by Erastus Dudley, a prosperous farmer, gristmill and tannery owner] exists in Guilford, Connecticut, today, and is open to the public as an historic farm.[2]

First generation on the farm

Individual's age at death in parentheses.

Original owners:[3] 

 Philip Benjamin Harvey Dudley, 1814-1881 (67 years)
        married Mary Magdelena Thomson, 1816-1880 (64 years)
Mary Magdelena and P.B.H. Dudley, pre-1880

Born in Dorchester County, South Carolina, P.B.H. Dudley arrived in Florida in 1836, the same year he married Mary M. Thomson of Charleston. By the age of 19, Dudley had already served as an accountant and overseer of a cotton plantation in South Carolina and then owned his own farm in Summerville, S.C.[4]

In 1836, because Florida was still mostly wilderness, he left his wife in Charleston. Dudley often returned to Charleston, as six of his seven children were born there. In Florida, Dudley was engaged in the cattle trade and later as an overseer on a large cotton plantation. But around 1855, he moved his family to Florida, initially to Archer, where he had purchased 640 acres[5][6]

By the mid-1850s Dudley was well known in the area. He was appointed as one of the trustees of Alachua County schools and also as road commissioner in 1857. In the latter capacity, while surveying the lands around the county roads, he probably first saw the land which would become Dudley Farm. Dudley made his first purchase of 360 acres of what would become that farm in 1859. However, the 1860 census lists Dudley and his family still living in Archer. But just before the Civil War, Dudley built the earliest homesite at Dudley Farm, a double-pen, dog-trot cabin and moved his wife and five surviving children there. This cabin was located a little northwest of the present homestead, just inside the treeline across an open pasture.[7]

Benjamin Dudley supported Florida's secession in January 1861 and, beginning in July 1861, served as a captain and company commander of the Alachua Rangers, an infantry unit, stationed in several areas of Florida. But in April, 1862, the company was mustered in with other companies at Gainesville to form the 7th Florida Volunteer Infantry Regiment. The regiment then joined the Confederate Army of Mississippi, later renamed the Army of Tennessee, and fought with that army until the end of the war. However, in early 1863, Captain Dudley contracted dysentery so severely he was sent home in a wagon accompanied by three of his men, and was medically discharged on March 3, 1863. Arriving home, he was bedridden and nursed by his wife Mary for a long time before recovering. Local history also has him fighting in Florida's Battle of Olustee, but there are no records to indicate that. Despite all this, he would always be referred to locally as "the Old Captain.[8][5][9]"

Mary Thomson married P.B.H. Dudley when she was sixteen. However, she stayed in Charleston, S.C., for almost twenty years while her husband worked and built up their assets in Florida. They had seven children, but only five lived to adulthood.

Although the "native Florida Dudley Farm roses" are popular with park visitors, Mary brought many of them from her home in South Carolina. Her new home in Florida must have been somewhat of a shock to her, as life in Florida, just a decade after the Second Seminole War, was quite different from her life in the civilized Lowcountry near Charleston. The final years of her life were spent as an invalid due to a stroke, and 1880 records reveal her granddaughter, 17-year-old Alice Jones, was keeping house. Another grandchild, 10-year-old Philip Jones, also lived with her to help with the chores.[10]

Mary Dudley died in August, 1880, while living in the original dog-trot cabin on the farm. Her obituary commented on her patience and lifelong religious fidelity. It also stated:

It can truly be said, none knew her but to love her and many eyes are moist when they reflect that the hands that dispensed so many benevolent acts and the lips that spoke such kind encouraging words are still and cold in death.[11]

After her death, P.B.H. Dudley, Sr. traded his farm for his son's---P.B.H. Dudley, Jr.---land in Archer. For the next year, Dudley Sr. lived in Archer with his daughter Malinzie Harriet and his son-in-law James Williams. However, about thirteen months after his wife's death, "Captain" Dudley died on September 14, 1881. His obituary included the following:

For years his home was a place where weary travelers found rest and none applied in vain.... His word was his bond and beneath a rugged exterior was a true and kindly heart.[11]

Second generation on the farm

Individual's age at death in parentheses.

Seven children (5 girls, 2 boys) of P.B.H. Dudley, Sr., and Mary Thomson[3] 

 Malinzie Harriet, 1837-1895 (57 years)
       married James Williams
 Sarah F., 1841-1842, (less than 5 months)
 Mary Ann Elizabeth, 1844-1864 (19 years)
       married John Joseph Jones
 Zachariah Taylor Harvey, 1847-1850 (3 years)
 Virginia Emeline, 1850-1914 (64 years)
       married John Joseph Jones (after death of Mary Ann)
 Phillip Benjamin ("Ben") Harvey, Jr. 1852-1918 (66 years)
       married Sarah Frances ("Fannie") Wynne, 1858-1937 (79 years)
 Joanna Zilphia, 1855-1886 (30 years)
       married Thomas Monroe Kirby

Malinzie Harriet, the first child of Benjamin and Mary, was born in Charleston. S.C., where, in 1853, she married James Washington Williams when she was sixteen. However, the 1860 census recorded she and James were living in Archer, Florida, where her parents also lived until they moved to the Farm just before the Civil War. The 1870 census listed James Williams' occupation as a merchant in retail dry goods and groceries.[12][10]

Sarah F. and Zachariah Taylor Harvey both died as young children in Charleston, S.C.[10]

Mary Ann Elizabeth was born in Charleston. S.C. In September, 1858, when only fourteen years old, she married John Joseph Jones, a young Alabama farmer who had moved to Alachua County in 1849. While a young mother, Mary died in May, 1864, leaving two small children, Frances and Alice. At that time, her husband was serving as a lieutenant with the 7th Florida Volunteer Infantry in the Confederate Army of Tennessee. The 1870 census has seven-year-old Alice living with her aunt, Malinzie, while nine-year-old Frances lived with her father and his second wife, Virginia Emeline, and their two younger children.[13][14]

Virginia Emeline, like most of her siblings, was born in Charleston. In 1865, when she was fifteen and after her sister Mary Ann's death, Virginia married John Joseph Jones, her brother-in-law. The two of them had seven children together.[10] She maintained a close connection to her brother Ben and his family, especially after Ben and Fannie became the owners of the Dudley Farm property in 1880.[15]

The farm owned by John Joseph Jones was located southwest of the Dudley Farm, along the old road to Archer which visitors enter as they exit the main gate of the Dudley homestead. The Jones farm was also south of what is now Florida State Road 26. Later, in the mid-1870s, Jones became postmaster in a small settlement east of Dudley Farm, which then became known as Jonesville.[16]

Joanna Zilphia was the youngest of the second generation of Dudleys on the farm. She may have been born in 1855, the year Dudley is said to have moved his family to Florida. The 1860 census gives Florida as her place of birth, but the 1870 census lists her birthplace as South Carolina. In March 1873, Joanna married Thomas Monroe Kirby.[17]

Philip Benjamin ("Ben") Harvey, Jr., was born in Charleston, but, in 1855, moved with his family to Florida as a three-year-old. Ben was 13-years-old when the Civil war ended in 1865, and was already capable of doing a grown man's work. Apart from time spent in school he worked alongside his father on the farm. As the sole surviving son, he was destined to inherit the farm. But Ben, when he was probably in his late teens and early 20s, also lived apart from the family for sometime, while possibly going to school in Cave Springs, Georgia. According to an old family letter, this is where Ben met and began courting Sarah Frances ("Fanny") Wynne of Georgia, and they wed in Gainesville on June 28, 1877. After the wedding, they lived on the family's farmland in Archer where their first two daughters, Mary Catherine and Laura were born. However, after his mother's death in 1880, Ben and his father traded farmlands. Ben and Fanny moved to the double-pen, dog-trot cabin at Dudley Farm, while Benjamin Dudley, Sr., moved to Archer.[18][13]

Ben Dudley and Fannie Wynne on their wedding day, June 28, 1877

Ben Dudley was a tall, thin, blue-eyed man. "Uncle Ben," as many of his friends and neighbors later knew him, was strict, reserved and allowed no hunting or drinking on his property. Though undemonstrative, he was described as "kind to everything" and forbade any trapping of animals on his farm. Ben and Fanny instilled strong moral values in their children as to the way they treated others and to be hardworking, frugal and not waste anything. Under Ben's management, Dudley Farm prospered and expanded. Perhaps it was due to these values that almost everything you see on the Farm today was owned by the Dudleys.[19][13]

Ben Dudley died on October 27, 1918. Although he had been bed-ridden for almost a month, the night before he died he had to be restrained from leaving his bed to attend to farm chores. While his death might have seemed to be the end of the second generation on the farm, Fanny, with the help of her children, remained fully in charge.[20][13]

Third generation on the farm

Individual's age at death in parentheses.

Twelve Children (8 girls, 4 boys) of Benjamin Dudley, Jr., and Sarah Wynne:[21] 

 Mary Catherine ("Dolly"), 1878-1955 (76 years old) 
       married Cadimus W. McLarty
 Laura, 1880-1914 (33 years old)
       never married
 Dora Margaret, 1882-1969 (87 years old)
       married William L. Pickett
 Annie Virginia, 1885-1968 (83 years old)
       married Thomas E. Garland
 Leila, 1887-1971 (84 years old)
       married Arthur H. Benner
 Edna, 1888-1963, (75 years old)
       never married
 Winifred ("Winnie"), 1890-1968 (78 years old)
       never married
 Philip Benjamin Harvey III ("Harvey"), 1892-1982 (90 years old)
       married Narcissus Johnson
 Ralph Wynne, 1894-1967 (73 years old) 
       never married
 Norman Woodall, 1895-1970, (75 years old)
       married Nina Geraldine Harris
 George Francis ("Frank"), 1899-1980 (81 years old)
       married Cara Elizabeth Long
 Myrtle Elizabeth, 1901-1996 (94 years old)
       never married

Citations

  1. ^ Pickard & Morrison 2003, p. 69
  2. ^ Pickard & Morrison 2003, p. 7
  3. ^ a b Ballou 2002, p.1
  4. ^ Ballou 2002, pp.7-8
  5. ^ a b Ballou 2002, p.2
  6. ^ Pickard & Morrison 2003, p. 8
  7. ^ Pickard & Morrison 2003, pp. 8-9
  8. ^ Pickard & Morrison 2003, pp. 10-12
  9. ^ Ferry 1983, pp.170, 174
  10. ^ a b c d Ballou 2002, p. 3
  11. ^ a b Pickard & Morrison 2003, p. 21
  12. ^ Pickard & Morrison 2003, p. 9
  13. ^ a b c d Ballou 2002, p. 4
  14. ^ Pickard & Morrison 2003, p. 12
  15. ^ Pickard & Morrison 2003, p. 13
  16. ^ Pickard & Morrison 2003, pp. 17-19
  17. ^ Ballou 2002, pp. 3-4
  18. ^ Pickard & Morrison 2003, pp. 8, 16, 26
  19. ^ Pickard & Morrison 2003, pp. 26
  20. ^ Pickard & Morrison 2003, pp. 56
  21. ^ Ballou 2002, pp.1-2

See also

References

  • Ballou, Mary Jane (July 2002). "Who's Who in the Dudley Family" (Press release). Friends of Dudley Farm.
  • Ferry, Richard J. (1983). Soldiers of Florida in the Seminole Indian, Civil and Spanish-American Wars. Board of State Institutions. OCLC 1164678973.
  • Pickard, Ben; Sally Morrison (2003). Dudley Farm : A History of Florida Farm Life. Gainesville, Florida: Alachua Press. OCLC 58458699.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dudley Farm.
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