| Lafayette County, founded in
1856, was named in honor of the French Marquis de Lafayette, a hero of the American
Revolution, who had been given a land grant elsewhere in Florida by a grateful Congress.
There was also, once, a Fayette County situated in the "V" between the
Apalachicola and Chipola Rivers, though it was later disestablished. When creating Lafayette County the legislature
specified that county government should convene at the "house of Aziel Jones"
until a more permanent site could be located. A seat was eventually established at New
Troy on the Suwannee River. By 1870 New Troy (there was also a sister city, Old Troy)
boasted a two-story wooden courthouse, as well as two newspapers. However, the courthouse
caught fire on New Year’s Eve, 1892, apparently the result of a drunken prank. For a
time government functions were conducted in the Methodist parsonage. At the first meeting
after the fire, it was reported that minutes were dispensed with, the records being inside
the safe which "was still too hot to open." An election was held, at which time
county residents voted to move the courthouse to Mayo. As seems common in such referenda,
a challenge was issued to certain of the X’es on the handwritten ballots, and a
second and more closely supervised canvass was convened with similar results. The site of
New Troy was quickly abandoned after the shift. Mayo is named for Colonel James Mayo, a
former Confederate officer, who had been surveying in the vicinity when the town was
founded. He was called upon to deliver a Fourth of July speech that listeners found
unusually impressive. Colonel Mayo was the father of longtime Agriculture Commissioner
Nathan Mayo, and grandfather of Public Service Commissioner William Mayo. Gator fans
revere the small town as the home of quarterback Kerwin Bell, the "Throwin’
Mayoan." |
Updated 10/17/03
