On this day in the Sunshine State …

1840  Major Fauntleroy and his party continued operations against the Seminoles in the Everglades.

1841  A detachment of Company D of the 4th United States Infantry and Company I of the 8th United States Infantry was engaged in fighting with Seminole warriors today at Big Cypress Swamp.  A sergeant of the 8th Infantry and a private of the 4th Infantry were wounded.

1855 First Lieutenant G. L. Hartsuff was wounded today in action against Seminoles at Billy’s Town, near Forty Myers.  Hartsuff was leading a detachment of 10 men from the 10th United States Artillery.

1865 David Shelby Walker, Florida’s eighth governor (December 20, 1865-July 4, 1868), took office today. Shelby was born in Russellville, Kentucky, on May 2, 1815.  After attending private schools in Kentucky and Tennessee, he settled in Leon County, Florida, in 1837.  Walker was a member of the first Legislature under statehood as a Senator from Leon County (1845) and a Representative from Leon County in 1848.  From 1849 until 1854, he served as the Register to Public Lands and the State Superintendent of Public Instruction.  He was Mayor of Tallahassee, and in 1860, became a Justice on the Florida Supreme Court, a position he held until he became governor.  Although Walker opposed secession, he supported Florida when it left the Union.  Walker’s administration had the difficult task of restoring civil government during reconstruction.  He returned to the practice of law in 1868 and was appointed Circuit Court judge in 1876, a position he held until his death on July 20, 1891.

1879 Jacksonville’s Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company was chartered today. 

1908 Francis Philip Fleming, the 15th governor of Florida (1889-1893), died today.  Fleming, who was the son of Lewis and Margaret Seton Fleming, was born at Panama Park in Duval County.  Educated by tutors on his father’s plantation, Fleming engaged in business prior to the Civil War.  He entered service and received a battlefield promotion to first lieutenant while on duty with the Army of Northern Virginia.  While convalescing in Tallahassee, Fleming commanded a company of irregulars in the Battle of Natural Bridge, which stop a Union advance on Tallahassee.  Following the war, he studied law and became a widely respected attorney.  He died in Jacksonville.