THñ SOUTH ÍIaTS ( FLORIDA SECTION)
October 10» 19U1.
MI DLUBURO !IOHNuC>í!I?lfl PICNIC
MIimLBBUHO, PLOHini
Roso Shepherd, Writer
MIDDLEBURO HOMBCOMING PICNIC
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Right from Orange Park (ü. B. 17) 2 n, on» paved county
road la Middlehurg, in Clay County, now a small village of 1^0, but in
the 13U0»a, due to shipping and port facilities, it rivalled Jacksonville
as a center of population.
Lying directly west of St. Augustine, the section was known
to the early Spanish settlers, but onaanent settlement did not begin until
the second Spanish period when grants of land were made along the St, Johns
Hivor and its tributary, Black Crook, so called boouuse its waters were
alnaat jet black fron decaying foliage*
The junction of tho north and south forks of Black Creek
formed a natural harbor with deep water on each side, and h^re on a
narrow atrip of land the settlement was founded. It waB first known ad
"Black Cr >ek". Two o<* the loading, lanrt-ownors, George Branning, and
Osias Budit^ton, oach operating largo plantations with over a thousand
slaves, had a disagreement, which in tlrao divided the community into two
separate factions. The Budington toot ion in the late lQi+O* s settled bn
the name o'' Whitosville tor their town, located on the south fork six niles
away, while the Branning tootion changed thoir village raise to "Hiddleburg,"
as half way between the fork of the crook and Yrhitesvilln.