A Little History

I hope I have not lost you in my story with many parts; and, I hope you will not run away as I tell you I feel compelled to insert a little history in the blog today. 

We lived for many years with a home in a rural community whose history was unknown to us. Life was a five day a week drive into Gainesville where Michael restored historical buildings and I worked in finance. We knew Gainesville and its historical significance; but except for Sunday church and the fact our younger children rode the bus to school there each day we had no connection to Hawthorne.( Even later, when I began teaching at Chester Shell Elementary School in Hawthorne I still didn't really know it's history.)  And, the fact that an elderly neighbor had mentioned Rex, well, that community no longer existed. 

 

 Paging through the computer I have discovered that the area known as Rex, was a small community in Alachua County east of the railroad tracks between Hawthorne and Campville. (The train whistles can  be heard from the Godwin Seminary House to this day.)  It is believed to have began as a timber and turpentine camp in the mid 1800s and the population was estimated at around 100 in 1906.  Rex was also known for the Godwin Seminary School. Jacob J. Godwin established and was headmaster of the Godwin Seminary, an old-fashioned school in Rex where students entered in the first grade and graduated after the equivalent of two years of high school ready for a teaching certificate. Jacob was highly esteemed among the teaching professionals of the state of Florida. The first principal of Zephyrhills  High School graduated from Godwin Seminary School and the following is the wording from the Memoriam found in Dade City at the Pioneer Museum: James Wilton Sanders attended the public schools of Orange Lane and later went to Godwin Seminary.

 



The Godwin Seminary School looked much like this.

In addition to running a school, family history says that. "Jacob Godwin farmed, had a sawmill, blacksmith shop and cotton gin, ran a commissary and was postmaster of Rex. No wonder he died a
relatively young man." (Mary (Mrs. Ernest B.) Godwin)

 In 1902, the Eden Baptist Church was founded in Rex and it is  still being used today.

  

                

In 1907, the post office in Rex closed and the area became a part of Hawthorne. Rex's largest neighboring community was Hawthorne. A brief history from the Alachua County Historical Commission states: 

 In 1774, noted botanist William Bartram travelled across what is now the southeastern corner of Alachua County following an old Indian and trading trail. In Florida's territorial period, English-speaking settlers used the same route as a frontier road. By 1840, another road from the north crossed that trail near present day Hawthorne. In 1848, Morrison had begun to operate a mill there on what Bartram had described as a "rapid brook." A United States post office called Morrison's Mills was established at that site in 1853 in order to serve the increasing population of the area. : In 1879, the Peninsular Railroad was completed from Waldo to Ocala, bypassing Morrison's Mills. In that year, a new town grew up nearer the railroad. This village was at first called Jamestown, but in 1880, the name was changed to Hawthorne. Both names were in honor of James M. Hawthorne, a local landowner. In 1881, the Florida Southern Railway was completed from Palatka to Gainesville, crossing the Peninsular Railroad at Hawthorne. In the 1880's the community there was also known unofficially as Wait's Crossing in reference to another family living in the area. In 1883, a stone quarry near Hawthorne became the site of Florida's earliest phosphate mill. The mill was operated for two years by Dr. C. A. Simmons, who in 1879 had been the first person to recognize phosphate in Florida. However, the most important resources of the Hawthorne area have been its agricultural and forestry products such as sea island cotton and turpentine.

So now that I understand the community of Rex a little better, I wonder what I will find out about the people of the Godwin Seminary School before I called it a home?



Our house 1986