The Armed Occupation Act that followed the second and bloodiest Seminole Indian War granted any family 160 acres of land south of the Palatka-Gainesville Line, provided it would hold the land for seven years and defend it against the Indians. This Act opened up the Indian River area to settlers and confined the remaining Seminoles to the Everglades. One year before Florida was to become a State, Brevard County was created by the Territorial Council March 18, 1844. By 1860 the population was 1466, including much of the present Indian River and St. Lucie Counties. At the conclusion of the Civil War in 1865, more settlement ensued. Those Whites and Blacks migrated into the area to hue homesteads out of the palmetto and sawgrass, many using those same palmettos to build crude shacks for shelter. In 1879 the southern part of Volusia County was added to Brevard and soon after, Titusville was settled as the county "Seat" or "Site". The area along the Indian River was described in 1899; "its romantic scenery, its superb fishing, hunting, and yachting, its unexcelled fruits, its delightful climate all combine to make it the mecca of the tourist, whether he comes for health or for pleasure". And come he did - by the Northwardly flowing St. John's River from Jacksonville to Enterprise. From there he crossed to LaGrange by smaller flat-bottomed steamer; by ox-cart, and later by stage. Not surprisingly, the first public building in the vicinity was a log house which stood in what is now called LaGrange Cemetery. In 1869 Narcissa Feaster taught an integrated school of 17 pupils in this log house where the people of the community also worshiped. Prior to this time, Mr. Tom Johnson formally of Poukhkeepsie, NY taught a number of people the three "R's": readin, ritin, and 'rithmatic. It is believed he taught the first school along the Indian River in his log copper shop at night. Without compensation, he taught pupils from 6 to 46. "Uncle Tom" as he was lovingly called also led the congregation. It was comprised of many denominations who gathered together to worship. During this time the nearest Post Office was in Enterprise, which was also the closest supply station and voting place. Some of the earlier settlers walked there to vote or get a marriage license. Since the LaGrange church was the only church on the Indian River, it became the setting for the all-day Sunday meetings. The people came by ox cart and sail boat, on foot and on horse-back from as far away as Ft. Pierce. They would come on Saturday and spend the night with the families in LaGrange. Sometimes there were as many as fifty in one house! As the years passed and gatherings grew, preachers from many denominations filled up the pulpit of this little Union Church on a first come first served basis. Most of these circuit preachers originated by way of Enterprise from DeLand Academy, later called Stetson University. They traveled by horseback or boat all the way to Cocoa and back to Enterprise. One Baptist preacher; Rev. W. N. Chaudion or "uncle Chad" lived in LaGrange and preached on Sundays when he was at home. The rest of the time, he traveled over the state seeking to raise funds for Stetson University. The integrated LaGrange services started at 8:00 a.m. and lasted until 5:00 p.m. with a noon dinner served on crude tables set up in the church yard. An early account of these Sunday feasts tells of a combined menu which included wild turkey, venison, fried mullet, heart of palm salad, mangoes, chutney, sea grape jelly and sweet potato pie. (I have visited this church, and Britton Jones Mims - the first Mims to settle here, was the sponsor of one of the stained glass windows in it, dedicated to his daughter.) Mrs. Lillian Roberts Britton, later to become the first historian for the Mims Methodist Church, remembered it this way..."my earliest recollection of going to church and Sunday school was in this church....we had to walk three miles each way and over deep sand roads, and quite naturally we longed to have a church nearer home." This first Sunday School that Mrs. Britton remembered was organized on March 13, 1870. By 1872 the people had grown tired of worshiping in a log house and built a two story building. The upper story was used as a school house and for secret meetings of secret orders such as the Grange and the Knights of Labor. The lower floor was used as a church house. The timber was sawed at a nearby mill and consisted of broad boards set vertically. In 1893 the people remodeled and rebuilt the two story church and school building into the present one story church structure. During the year 1883 Mims had acquired enough individual growth to desire its own post office and community. That year the town of Mims was formed. It was named for the Mims brothers; Casper, Robert, and Britton. The earliest name was said to have been "Mims City" but in 1889 the map of Brevard County would list it simply as "Mims". finally in 1884 Mrs. Britton, then a young Miss Roberts, got her wish. A church was formed in Mims, meeting at first over the C.D. Prayer General Store where the Blue Goose packing house later stood. It was not until 1886 that the records show a postmaster in Mims. He was Charles D. Puryear. He served for a little more than two years. Following him there would be nine others to serve. Rebecca N. Mims, the daughter of Britton, took over from 1901-13. Since 1925 only two have served, Coy K. Duff until 1957 and Audrey S. Duff (Parker) from then until the present. There were no more than six Mims children attending school at LaGrange before 1886. That year, however, ten children of school age (the number required to form a school) resided in Mims. A one room school house was built on the property where the Fire Station is now located. As soon as it was completed, the Union Sunday School began holding its meetings there. An organ was purchased and occasionally a Baptist or Methodist mission preacher would hold special services. Many of these preachers walked from Mims to LaGrange to Titusville (Originally Sand Point) to fulfill their appointments. Mr. Robert E. Mims donated a quarter acre lot and about 1892 the First Methodist Church, which still stands today, was built and dedicated. Mrs. Britton reported, "....these years were lean years......Everyone, no matter what their belief, had a part in this enterprise. Those who could not give money, gave labor: carpenters, helpers, etc. and therefore, all were free to worship God there." By 1911, the small group of Baptist families felt the need for separate services, but since they were not large enough to warrant their own building, they arranged to continue using the Methodist Church Building. This was agreeable since the Methodists were holding their services only twice a month at this time. Brother R.T. Conway served as pastor of the first Baptist group. Converts for baptism were carried to the banks of the Indian River in a mule-drawn wagon. The wagon was pulled into the water far enough for baptism by immersion. The Black families in Mims formed their first separate church in 1904. St. James Baptist Church was built under the guidance of Rev. J.S. Gilbert. The first pastor was Rev. G. Brewer. Pastoral days were on the first and third Sundays. It was reported that the membership was brought before the church for any and all reported wrong-doings. By 1910 it was decided by the town folk that the one-room schoolhouse was too crowded. Mr. L.L. Price bought the building from the county. He had it moved by jacking it up and placing wooden rollers under each side. Then by using mules and wenches, it was hauled across the oyster-shell bed of U.S. 1 and along E. Main Street to his property just past the little brown church and the first town barber shop. This left room for a new and larger "community hall". This one room building was considerably larger allowing a curtain to be drawn across the middle so two teachers could teach first through eighth graders. Some of the teachers remembered were Mrs. Singeltary, Mrs. Ruth Royal, Mr. Colson, and Mr. Walker. In 1913-15 their salaries ranged from $45 - $60. Among the conveniences of the new building were separate "His" and "Hers" outdoor privies. When this largest school house also became too crowded, the problem was solved by having the first and second graders hold classes in the little brown church on E. Main Street. A Miss Walker is remembered there - with bright red hair and a complete lack of tolerance for undesirable language. She was known to take any offender to the water bucket and wash his mouth out with Octagon soap. During the same early years, the Black community had two schools. First a one room building on the Warren Estate at the northeast corner of Old Dixie and Parrish Road. The children walked to and from this wooden building. After that, the larger and nearer Cuyler School on Palmetto Street was used. This was to be the final arrangements for Mims schools until the 1917 building was completed on the present school property on U.S. 1. One of the largest changes in the history of Mims was the completion of the Jacksonville, Tampa, and Key West railway during the summer of 1885. Now mail, passengers, and freight moved to and fro with ease. This change perhaps was most largely felt by the citrus growers. Since the planting of the Dummit Groves, citrus had been a major crop for the settlers. Capt. Dummit came to the area in 1828. He shipped his earlier orange crop to the north via canoes which were dug from cypress logs. By 1887 the citrus had been recognized as possibly Florida's largest and best industry. On a map put out that year, Mims and East Mims were listed separately. This was due to the fact that although the "Jack" line from Enterprise passed directly through Mims, the mail railway line was East of town. This meant the quickest pick up points for the fruit were on the mail line so that was where the packing houses were built. At this time the Indian River Fruit was bringing from 50 cents to $1.00 per box above any other brand. The average net profit after all losses in transit was $3.00 to $4.00 per box. In 1913 a group of investors from Pennsylvania attempted to establish the town of Southmere (west of Mims) by drawing on the fame of the Indian River fruit. They built a school, post office, blacksmith, land office and country club on Lake Ellis, and invited northerners to invest in land for farms and groves in the Indian River region. This land, however, had very poor water which is probably why the project was short-lived. Many other dramatic changes occurred during these times: electricity came to Titusville in 1890 and water was piped into Titusville homes in 1915. Between these times, the first telephone office operated in Titusville on December 25, 1905. It is not known precisely when Mims also benefited from these conveniences, but it is recoreded that the first phone in Mims was at the residence of Phillip Roberts. The number was 338-R. By 1932 Mims had 12 other phones. A 12-page County Directory of the So. Bell Telephone and Telegraph Co. included all numbers from Scottsmoor to Sebastian for a grand total of 984. This included 223 in Titusville, 4 in LaGrange, and 14 in Indian River City. The three listed in Scottsmoor were long distance from Titusville, but the Canaveral light house and the U.S. Coast guard at Canaveral were local numbers. Among the 20 county advertisers in the directory were the Florida Power and Light ice department asking you to "buy your ice from the wagon or truck with the the orange oval emblem". Edwards Pharmacy advertising, "feel bad? take a dose of M.S.C. fine for the morning after" and Steward Hardware making special mention of its "undertaking department". This was just the beginning of the growth that was to come to what was one time called Mosquito County. Those early pioneers who used palmetto stumps to make smoke fires at their doorways and used the fronds of those palmettos to swish the mosquitos away from their bodies knew it came by that name honestly. The same pioneers could hardly have envisioned the area as it is today. When they made the long trek to Enterprise to get the few necessities they could not raise on their farms, such as flour, grits, and cloth, they could not have imagined that the trip would someday be possible in less than an hour. And the later town folk who saw their gasoline delivered to their garages in 5-gallon cans would never have believed the gas prices of today! And never in any of their wildest moments could they have predicted their homesteads would someday stand in the shadow of the spaceship "Columbia", as it prepares to make its way into outer space and home again to this narrow strip of land between the Atlantic Ocean and the St. John's River. Web-published by: Jungle John