Part II
Captain John Nuttall was born in Gloucester County, Virginia, but moved to North Carolina early in life and may be the same John Nuttall who served as a gunner in the Virginia Navy during the American Revolution. In 1789, probably after the death of his first wife, he married Mary Alston in Granville County, North Carolina, which adjoins Mecklenburg County, Virginia. From this marriage, a number of children were born including brothers, James, Alexander and William. No exact date of William’s birth has been found but it can be reasonably inferred as circa 1800.
From surviving public records, it is apparent that John Nuttall was an affluent land owner and planter, whose ambitions included his sons’ education and advancement. While little is known about William’s youth in North Carolina and Virginia, accounts of him in later years validate a good education and schooling in the manners of a Southern gentleman. His training would also have embraced agricultural operations and general administration but he developed a strong interest in the practice of law as well. The Litchfield Law School in Connecticut was the oldest proprietary law school in America and very highly regarded, having, as graduates, John C Calhoun and Aaron Burr, both Vice Presidents of the Unite States, as well as three U.S. Supreme Court Justices and scores of U.S. Senators and Congressmen. William enrolled in this outstanding program in 1823. By this time, Florida had become a territory of the United States; this generated wide spread interest in its lands, which were surveyed, subdivided and auctioned by Federal authority. Initially, the most desirable area, referred to as Middle, Florida, lay between the Suwannee and Appalachicola Rivers. The impetus for migration ranged from pure speculative investment to the need for new agricultural lands due to detrimental farming practices of that era. It should be noted the lack of commercial fertilizer, combined with unbridled cultivation and soil erosion, led to land considered, “worn out.” Thus, the planters in Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia looked hard to the South for new opportunities in Florida.
The Nuttalls would not be left behind, and John purchased land as an investment in Jefferson County in January of 1828. This became the nucleus of El Destino Plantation, which was originally conceived as a profit-sharing venture between John and his sons, William and James. John put up the initial capital and all but sixteen of the fifty-two slaves dedicated to the project. James contributed the sixteen slaves, and William would contribute his sweat equity by moving to Florida with the requisite labor force, developing the agricultural lands and improvements and providing the long-term management. A plan was executed by the three partners whereby William’s focus shifted from law to this most challenging endeavor, not the least of which was the initial journey and its strenuous and complicated logistics.
His exact route is unknown, but, at length, would likely have passed through Augusta or Savannah, Ga. He would have traveled on horseback or wheeled carriage, accompanied by his slave entourage on foot with provisions and implements in carts or wagons, encamping each evening. Roads were generally crude and at times intermittent such that the slaves might have to clear woods or build bridges. Upon arrival in Florida, the task of clearing woodlands for cultivated fields and constructing rudimentary housing would commence while camping continued. The first year was the most difficult. However, William managed his trek, he was in Jefferson County by May of 1828, and the development of El Destino was well underway. Typical of his subsequent business affairs, he almost immediately began acquiring additional lands. A formal contract was signed by William, John and James in the Fall setting forth the profit sharing and other details of their venture. Going forward it appears that most, if not all, of the land acquired by William was deeded solely to him, and this included acreage along the lower Aucilla, destined to spawn a community bearing his name. El Destino, with its big labor force, would soon become a working plantation initially focused on sugar cane production but soon shifting to cotton. Its infrastructure featured typical slave cabins, out buildings and the Nuttall home. The house burned in 1925 but a surviving photograph shows a large and somewhat tall frame dwelling, plain and utilitarian in appearance.
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