The following story was written by Thomas Burton Webb III about his great grandfather Rev. Thomas Mitchell Webb and his family. Thomas Mitchell Webb was the husband of our great grandaunt Amanda Jones. The story represents most rural families of North Florida in the nineteenth century and is printed with the kind permission of Thomas Burton Webb Jr., father of Thomas Burton Webb III.

The Reverend Thomas Mitchell Webb

By Thomas Burton Webb III.

"On March 3, 1845, the Territory of Florida, which the United States had gained from Spain in 1821, became the twenty-seventh state to join the Union. Florida at that time was hardly the major state it is today - - the 1840 census showed only 54,000 people (less than the city of Tallahassee could claim in 1980) and at the time of it's admission to the Union ranked twenty - sixth in population. Only Iowa, admitted the same year, had fewer people.

That same year Thomas Peter Webb, his wife Mary Sullivan Webb, and his brother Samuel Sanders Webb moved from Culbreath, (Randolph County), Georgia to Madison, County, Florida. Thomas Peter Webb was a farmer and Baptist preacher, the son of axiom Webb, whose descendants, along with those of his brother, can be found in Madison County to this day. Thomas Peter and Mary Sullivan Webb had thirteen children before her death in 1856; in 1862 he married Carolyn Lyons and with her fathered a further seven children. He was also, incidentally, the first Thomas Webb, a name which has remained for seven straight generations.

Thomas Mitchell Webb was the twelfth child of Thomas Peter and Mary Sullivan Webb. Named for his father and an uncle, Mitchell Sullivan, Thomas Mitchell was born May 28, 1855, on the family farm in Madison County, about four miles south of the city of Madison. His mother died when he was two years old; he was raised by his father's second wife, Carolyn Lyons, along with her own seven children.

Thomas Mitchell Webb grew up during a tumultuous time in American and Florida history. He was too young to fight in the Civil War, although seven of his brothers did fight for the Confederacy, three of them dying in battle, along with one of his sister's husbands. In those days, too, North Florida was very nearly as remote a wilderness area as those towns on the frontier of the West. Survival was the first order of business; however, stories which have passed down indicate that life was not without its lighter moments.

Despite the perils of the time, Thomas Mitchell Webb grew to manhood and on October 8, 1876, married Amanda Jones, one of the fifteen children (including one set of triplets), William Kennon Jones and Elizabeth Davis who lived near Rock Sink in Lafayette County. At the time of the marriage, Amanda was living with her married sister (one of the triplets), Alice "Rhody" Jones Scarborough. Thomas Mitchell and Amanda lived in Lafayette County and Suwannee Counties prior to moving to southern Lafayette County in 1889. Thomas Mitchell bought 160 acres in what would become (in 1921) Dixie County from a man named Saunders on December 28, 1889.

Like his father before him, Thomas Mitchell was a farmer and a Baptist preacher. Farming was the major occupation of Florida in the late 1800s,long before the land boom of the 1920s and the Sun Belt boom of the 1970s. In 1880 the population of Florida had only risen to 391,000 and was predominately rural.

The farms of the time were generally family-run affairs which were as self sufficient as possible. In those days before the tourist, retirement and citrus industries Florida's main draw - - as it was for the western states - - was free land. The Homestead Laws allowed any adult (white) male to claim 160 acres if he would settle on it and improve it. Thomas Mitchell and his family increased their holding in this manner - - he homesteaded an additional 160 acres to that he had bought from Saunders, and as his children reached adulthood they too homesteaded 160 acres, until the entire family held over 1000 acres.

Farm life at that time required hard work and long hours, but was not quite the desperate struggle it had been before and during the Civil War. The houses were usually simple frame dwellings, built with the abundant and durable yellow pine, with fireplaces made from cross-cut limestone and roofs made from hand-split Cyprus shingles. The kitchens were generally separate from the main house and connected by a covered walkway. There were several outbuildings-a corn crib, a barn for the mules (which were much better adapted to the heat and heavy work than horses), a smokehouse, and, of course, an outhouse. Water was drawn by hand from a well, and cooking was done on a heavy iron wood-burning stove.

Most of what Thomas Mitchell and his family had they raised or made themselves. Food was grown on the farm - which did not indicate a narrow diet: corn, peas, beans, watermelon, greens, okra, cabbage and sweet potatoes were all grown in the fertile Florida soil. For meat, pigs, cows, chickens were also kept, the latter two also supplying milk and eggs. Hogs were slaughtered in cold weather and their meat cured with salt or sugar (salt, in particular, was plentiful in this area of Florida) and then smoked. Beef, however, would not keep, and when a cow was slaughtered the family ate what it could and gave the rest to neighbors - an act which was reciprocated when the neighbors slaughtered a cow. There was also some game - fish, turkeys, ducks, squirrels, and the occasional deer--to supplement the meat.

As their existence depended upon it, the family made wise use of their land. The cattle, for example (fifteen or twenty head) were kept in a large corral formed by a split rail fence. Every year three sides of the corral were moved to form a new pen, and the area of the former corral was plowed for the family garden already well fertilized. For the things they could not grow or make themselves some cotton was also grown as a money crop.

Social life, as can well be imagined, was rigidly circumscribed by the long hours and hard work necessary to run the community work project such as a house-raising or cane-grinding, the only social life was centered in the church. Thomas Mitchell was a leading force in the Church. He was the minister of the Missionary Baptist church and about 1892, when his children were getting old enough to manage the farm, he began preaching for the Lafayette Baptist Association and became a circuit preacher for the Mission Board. He would travel by horse and buggy to area Churches , sometimes staying overnight with church members if it was a considerable Distance. He was seldom paid money for these trips - - there was generally little to spare among the congregations - - but mostly with goods such as cured meat or vegetables.

Thomas Mitchell was well regarded as a preacher. He had a strong voice and delivered the kind of hellfire and brimstone sermon the fundamentalist Baptists liked to hear. He was known particularly For his exhaustive knowledge of the Bible, which he could quote at great length without missing a word. A lifetime of hard work on the farm had made him energetic and strong, although he was not very big in size, and he had a strong grip. It is said that after finishing a sermon he would stand, wet with sweat, and wring the hands of the congregation as they filed out. Older people with arthritis in their hands would avoid him.

Thomas Mitchell continued farming and preaching until his death. In the course of his ministry he established a church in Cross City (now the First Baptist), the Lydia Baptist Church, the new Prospect Baptist Church and the Scrubb Creek Church, all in the vicinity of Cross City. He preached at several other churches, including Airline Church and Half Moon Church near Mayo and the Beaulah Church in Madison County.

In Addition to these activities, Thomas Mitchell found time to enter politics. He was elected without opposition to the Lafayette County Board of Commissioners in 1908, but retired after one term.

He and Amanda also found time to raise a family of seven children, all of who lived to adulthood - - no small achievement in that day and time. The children were Luther and Lura (twins), Thomas Burton, Arbertha, Sumter, Olin and Mary. All eventually married. Mary married Grover Cannon, who also homesteaded 160 acres adjacent to the family holding.

Thomas Mitchell and Amanda were well remembered by their children and grandchildren. Amanda was recalled as a pretty, quiet, firm woman, who smoked a long-stem clay pipe and kept a jar of syrup cookies for her grandchildren. Thomas Mitchell is also remembered as being fond of his grandchildren, bouncing them on his foot and reciting a rhyme. Both lived long, energetic and full lives through what are today considered difficult times, and left an enviable legacy through their children and grandchildren. The land they developed in Dixie County is still, for the most part the property of their descendants.

Amanda Jones Webb Died in 1923 at the age of 75. Thomas Mitchell Webb died in May 1930, also at the age of 75, at his son Olin's house in Jasper, Florida. He is buried at Rock Sink Baptist Church in Dixie County."

 

 

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