Elisha Greene and Samuel Spearing

Elisha Greene and Samuel Spearing. Heritage Park Village. Elisha Greene arrived in Baker County on Christmas Day in 1830, leading the first wagon train of pioneer settlers. , Acting as advance scouts were William and Mose Barber, and other men acting as scouts. , Others traveling in the train were the Westers, Wilkersons, Barber other families. , , Elisha and his family settled on the south prong of the St. Mary’s River building a palmetto hut until a log farm house could be constructed. , , Elisha educated his slaves as well as his children. They attended church with him and he paid them a modest salary allowing them to spend their earnings any way they desired. At the end of the Civil War, most of his slaves stayed on the farm to live and work. One slave, Samuel Spearing, left for Jacksonville at the encouragement of Elisha who recognized his potential, and became a man of many accomplishments. , , Elisha Greene was an adventurous frontiersman exploring the uncharted Florida wilderness when it was primarily an Indian territory. He was the son of an Irish immigrant and his birth in 1790 made him an American citizen instead of a British citizen as George Washington had been recently inaugurated president of the New American republic. , , He was the father of 19 children, six by his first wile Elizabeth Wilkerson, 13 by his second wife Elizabeth Ann Driggers. , He fought in the Indian wars and uprisings and the War of 18 12. His army papers describe him as six feet three at the age of Twenty- two with black hair and blue eyes, a characteristic of the many descendants of the Greene family still living in Baker County today. , Elisha was a farmer first but also served as a county coroner and a county surveyor. He died at the age of 85 and is buried in the South Prong Cemetery once known as Greene’s Creek. , , Samuel Spearing , Samuel Spearing was a distinguished Sanderson Florida slave purchased by Elisha Greene, a pioneer farmer south of Sanderson in 1853. Elisha was a kind and respected "master". Each slave was allowed to choose a mate of preference. In addition to food and clothing, Elisha also paid a modest salary to those working on his farm to manage as they desired. Samuel was exceptionally bright and ambitious and became Elisha's trusted friend and general foreman. With, the end of the Civil War, Elisha's slaves, now free, chose to remain on the Greene farm. Elisha encouraged Samuel to move to Jacksonville. Samuel agreed if his master would promise to summon him at his death to dig his grave and speak at his funeral. The agreement. was made. , In Jacksonville, Samuel’s intelligence and natural political ability served him well. In 1867 Spearing convened a meeting of 1200 blacks. He served as a justice of the Peace in Duval County as well as both councilman and treasure for La Villa. He served in the Florida Senate in 1874. He opened the first respectable grocery business of its kind on Bay Street in Jacksonville and on January 20, 1884, Spearing was elected an officer of the Grand Lodge of Florida (black Mason's). , , At the death of Elisha in 1873, Samuel was notified by telegraph. He promptly returned to Sanderson by train where he helped to dig his old master's grave. He also wrote Elisha's obituary which led Columbus Drew, a Jacksonville businessman and poet, to write and publish, "The Burial of the Master". , Columbus Drew: Some of his literary work: (The Drew Press, 1910)