Titusville A Known City example essay topic

1,293 words
Information on a little city called Titusville The City of Titusville was a small city in the eighteen hundreds. The city was founded by Colonel Henry T. Titus. In this essay, I will be focusing on talking about Old Down Town Titusville. My main focus on Titusville will be some of the people that made Titusville a known city, such as Colonel Titus and Mr. Pritchard. I will also be touching on some of the major occurrences that happened in Titusville, Scottsmoor, and Mims. In the beginning of Brevard County, LaGrange community was the first social grouping.

Titusville was first referred to as Sand Point. The city was eventually named after Colonel Henry Theodore Titus, who won the right to rename the city to Titusville, after winning a game of Dominos against Captain Clark Rice. "Today's Titusville might have been known as Rice ville". Sand Point became known as Titusville in eight-teen seventy-three.

Colonel Henry Titus arrived in Sand Point in eight-teen sixty-seven with his wife and six children. He decided to move because he wanted to take over his wife's land. "Our Hopkins Avenue was named in honor of Mary Hopkins Titus", Colonel Henry Titus's wife. Mr. and Mrs. Titus donated land for the first courthouse, four churches and laid out many of the town's streets. The Brevard County courthouse located in Titusville was built in nineteen twelve and cost thirty-one thousand, four hundred and seventy seven dollars, it replaced the original wooden courthouse. Colonel Henry Titus was born on February thirteenth, eight-teen twenty-three in Trenton, New Jersey.

Titus was said to be in favor of slavery. Saint Gabriel's Episcopal church was another building built on donated land by the Titus's. Colonel Titus and his wife built the "Titus House" " in eight-teen seventy five with the rates of three dollars a day. "Colonel Titus gave the land on which our county buildings stand, but stipulated they be used only for county or public purposes" Titus had rheumatism and neuritis, which confined the Colonel to a wheel chair most of the time. He eventually died Sunday, August seventh, eight-teen eighty-one, at age fifty-nine. His grave can be found at the LaGrange Cemetery, located off of the Old Dixie highway.

In the LaGrange cemetery on the headstones of the graves you can find the history of Titusville, such as Here lies the father of the city; here is buried the first judge; etc. "Mrs. Avon Price estimates at least six hundred family plots are already taken". Captain James Pritchard and his descendants dedicated themselves to the progress of their adopted city, Titusville. He helped establish the first bank in eight-teen eighty-eight. Pritchard erected the first light plant in Titusville. Electric light poles were introduced to Titusville in eight-teen ninety (page thirteen).

The lights would come on in the early afternoon and would shutdown at midnight. At twelve-o-clock, midnight the lights would blink all through out the town as a warning to the townsfolk to get home as soon as possible During the summer the lights came on much later and on moonlit nights street lights were not used. "Captain Pritchard offered to sell the plant to the city but they turned down the offer. In nine-teen four-teen, he sold the plant to Southern Utilities, who then sold it, in nine-teen twenty six, to Florida Power and Light". The people of Titusville had a curfew of eleven-o-clock P.M. and if anyone broke curfew they would immediately be arrested and put into jail. Captain James Pritchard met his wife while stopping in route at Galveston; he spied a pretty girl walking down the street and vowed to marry her.

He got a proper introduction to Miss Haley Boy of Key West. After a three week courtship, on January seventeenth, eight-teen sixty seven, he married her". The Pritchard House, built in eight-teen ninety-one, (still standing today on the corner of US 1 and Pine street) is a Queen Anne-style home. Till this day it is still occupied by Captain Pritchard's granddaughter, Mary Schuster.

The oldest home still standing in Titusville is Dr. Benjamin Rush Wilson's house, built in eight-teen seventy-seven. Dr. Benjamin Rush Wilson was the first physician in Titusville and also served as judge and Mayor for many terms. "Cracker" style-homes had open wrap-around porches. Generally the kitchens were separate from the main building to lessen the chance of a devastating fire. On December twelfth, eight-teen ninety-five, Titusville was three-fourths destroyed in a fire. The cause of the fire was unknown.

The three-story Dixie Hotel was constructed in 1890 and was a very popular stop for tourist, and for people to enjoy any type of social gathering. The Hotel burned in nineteen sixty two, the Federal Housing and Urban Development Building, also known as the Titusville Twin Towers is now located on that site. Very few original buildings still remain standing in Titusville. In the nineteen fifties, Cape Canaveral Was chosen for the American Space Program and with it brought major job opportunities to Titusville, Cocoa, and Merritt Island. Such job opportunities as TWA, McDonnell Douglas, Boeing, North America, Grumman, Bendix, and several others. Scottsmoor was once known as having the richest citrus land in all of Florida.

The little town was also a major attraction for tourist traveling on a train from Flagler's East Coast Railroad from Jacksonville to Miami; Scottsmoor had its own railroad station. Segregation was still a part of society in Titusville, in the early nineteen hundreds. Harry T. and Harriet Moore were murdered in Mims in nineteen fifty-one, because they spent most of their time fighting for racial equality. A bomb that exploded under their home was their cause of death. "Britton J. Mims, a relative of the outlaw Jesse James, moved to the area and began the town of Mims. Unlike their cousin Jessie, the Mims family was a good law abiding family that made great contributions to the development of the area.

Wilson Avenue was the first road in Titusville to be paved with broken seashells. Some of the major events that happened in Titusville would be: Doris Scho edel Porter made a parachute jump at age seventy-five in honor of D-Day's golden anniversary (pg 81), due to the fear of German submarines landing spies on the local beaches during WWII, as soldiers were returning by truck, from beach patrol, the truck crashed through the railing on Walker Bridge. Six men were pinned inside the wreck and drowned (page 82). One of the earliest musical groups was the Indian River Band of Titusville, organized in eighteen eighty-nine (Page 82). I have learned several interesting facts about my city that I might have never had the chance to learn.

As time progresses; I will learn new facts that were in the past. I did not know anything about Colonel T. Titus or Captain Pritchard. I did not know anything of any importance happened in Titusville's history. This was something to learn from.

There is so much more to learn about our little town, but history speaks for itself and is forever an on going process. To learn about yesterday to better prepare for tomorrow will continue and the past is what makes an impact on the future. Titusville's past is in some parts still part of the present, such as buildings and memories and they will eventually become part of the future..