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Note: HI35385
Note: (Research):Notes for HARMON CRUM:
According to an ARMED OCCUPATION ACT LAND PERMITS, DM ID: 148425, Doc. Date: 03/17/1843, Legacy Doc. Locator: AOP3344 Harmon Crum came to Florida in December 18 1840.
Listed as being at 9-Mile Pond in Marion County, Florida in 1844.
According to the State of Florida Tract Books, vol 19, p. 14, Harmon owned land in section 24, twnshp/rng 17S/22E of Marion County.
Participated in the First Statewide (Florida) Election May 26, 1845. He voted at the 9-Mile Pond Precinct, Marion County. Name recorded is Crum, Harmon. Source: p. 70, Florida Voters in Their First Statewide Election, May 26, 1845, by Brian E. Michaels, The Florida State Genealogical Society, 1987.
The following appeared in the Ocala Star Banner, Ocala, Florida Sunday February 28, 1954. By Joe R. Allsoff. "History of Summerfield Goes Back To Early Days When Harmon Crum Jr. Was Settler" By Joe R. Allsoff The old Wire Road led south from Fort King for some 20 miles. Hence in a southwestern direction to Fort Brooke. It was the policy of government to establish "points" or forts at intervals of approximately 16 miles along the route from Palatka to Fort Brooke.
It is interesting to note that Whitesville (which later became Summerfield was located just about 16 miles south of Fort King. Therefore it is only resonable to assume that it was one of these "points" or sub-forts on the old Wire Road.
The Wire Road derived its name from the fact that the War Department ran a telegraph wire down the state, from Palatka to Fort Brook, and in so doing cut a right-of-way through the mass of wilderness and pine forest.
Early travelers found it convenient to follow the wire. At first this was only possible for horseback riders or foot travelers. But as time passed, the logs and stumps were removed, and the Wire Road became the stage route.
The "points" along the road became exchange stations, where passengers rested and horses were relayed. Fort Brooke
In due course, Fort Brooke became a part of the city of Tampa. Fort King, located less than two miles west of Silver Springs, went out of existence after the establishement of Ocala.
Ocala, a nameless settlement prior to the year 1848, was named and christened in that year. General Robert Bullock, who could qualify as a first citizen, is responsible for the following statement regarding Ocala's name and origin:
" I came to Fort King, November 10,1841, which was situated three miles east of Ocala. Fort King was one of the most important of a series of points, or forts that, extended at intervals of say 16 miles, from Palatka, thourgh the state, to Fort Brooke at Tampa.
"The first board of county commissioners met at Fort King, Feb. 20, 1846, consisting of Judge McIntosh, Thomas Barnes, S.M. Haliday, and Abram Geigher.
There was a spirited contest over selecting a name for the new town. Many favored palos, for the city from which Columbus set sail for America, but Ocala won as it should, thereby perpetuating an important Indian name."
First Settler Harmon Crum, Jr. born in Lowndes County, Georgia in the year 1803, is credited with being the first white settler to move to the area that later became Whitesville and Summerfield. The exact date of his coming is not recorded, but it is of a certainty that he came after Florida had been acquired. (Florida was acquired by treaty and purchase in July, 1821.
It is also certain that he was here before hostilities commenced with the Seminole nation in 1832. This conclusion is based on the fact that many indians lived in the area where he settled, and they were friendly, so much so that the Crum children learned to speak the Seminole dialect from the Indian children with whom they mingled.
Crum eventually moved south to near Mascotte, in Sumter county, (now a part of Lake county).But this was not until after the Summerfield-Whitesville community had become fairly thickly settled.
In spite of the significant part which he had in bringing civilization to this section, the only evidence now that he ever lived there. Is the cemetery which bears his name, located about two miles sourtwest of the Summerfield post office.
Crum Cemetery An everlasting pity is the absence of more specific data regarding the first settlers to our county. Only by word of mouth from our oldest citizens, are we able to piece together, fragments of our early history.
Some of these oldsters can remember the time, when they were young, they sat and listened to the old timers of that day. In this manner we are able to grasp only a flickering knowledge of the past, for memory is a figment that vanishes with the years.
Indeed, we will never know all. For there is no record of the people who came to settle the area about which we write. But this burial ground, which has been called for more that a hundred years, the Crum Cemetery, bears much testimony of its antiquity.
Certainly we do not know who were the first persons buried here. Many graves were marked only with limestone boulders, which group we may assume to be the more ancient. A later group of stones appear to have been carved but bear no epitaphs. Inscriptions, if any have ever existed, have been oblierated by time and the elements.
Stones which belong to the group upon which the lettering is legible, reveal to some extend the antiquity of the older groups. The first of these stones carries the date of June 3, 1854.
Harmon Crum died at Mascotte. But an old story persists that his widow, determined that he be interred in the old burial ground at Summerfield, started north with the body in a wagon. Reminded of the long journey and the hot weather that would hamper the success of her mission, Mrs Crum is said have replied: "I'll do it, if I have to fight the buzzards every step of the way."
Except for such courage and determination as was manifest in our pioneers, our country would still be an impenetrable wilderness.
Following the trail blazed by Harmon Crum, came new settlers. Some of whom brought slaves. Of theses, the one of whom most is known was Colonel Adam Summers. Many have claimed that he brought with him a thousand slaves, but it is believed that the number was likely to have been nearer one hundred.
With the end of the Civil War. Colonel Summers, established each slave upon a tract of land, and a shack to call his own. Not much, to be sure, but more vital to the ex-slaves than their new found freedom. Not much, but a great deal for a former master, who had been pauperized by the cause that had lost.
Colonel Summer's negroes had places to live and were scattered over an area from Belleview to the Sumter County line.
The only slave of Colonel Summer who is still alive is David Crocket Elmore, and he is uncertain about his age. Some white people who have known him for 70 years say he was nearly 20 and a plow-hand, when the war ended. Elmore remembers that he had a place to live, and plenty of corn meal, but no utensils for cooking.
"We buried the dough," he said "and built a fire on top, to cook our corn bread."
Many and varied were the names assumed by the slaves of Colonel Summers. One, Joe Brooks, was said to have taken the name because it was the name of a man he knew was a good fighter. Another, Peter Cassel, chose his name because he thought his father was going to use it, but later found his father preferred something else. Some of course, took the name Summers. End
Another story passed down was that Harmon and Rhoda had a child born dead and he built a small coffin and went by wagon to find a place for buriel which has been said was the first burial in Crum Cemetery.
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