Abe Springs Bluff Courthouse

Abe Springs Bluff Courthouse. . , Side 1 , Abe Springs Bluff was Calhoun County's second county seat -- from 1849 to 1880. About 4/10 mile west of here, at a remote location overlooking the Chipola River, stood the one-story wood frame courthouse that housed county courts and offices for over three decades, including the turbulent period surrounding the Civil War. , Earlier, St. Joseph had served as the original county seat from the time Calhoun County was created in 1838 until the coastal boom town was destroyed by a yellow fever epidemic and a hurricane in the early 1840s. For a time thereafter the county actually had no seat of government. , (Continued on other side) , Side 2 , (Continued from other side) , From 1845 to 1847 the Florida Legislature tried unsuccessfully to re-establish a county seat. Finally, in 1848 Calhoun Countians voted on proposed locations and, the following January, Abe Springs Bluff -- a more centrally located inland site -- was officially declared the county seat. , Unlike its ill-fated predecessor, Abe Springs Bluff never was a true community -- just a courthouse site. In 1880 the Abe Springs Bluff courthouse was destroyed by fire and the county seat was moved to the new community of Blountstown on the Apalachicola River.