Our Pioneer Developer: Samuel Swann

A century ahead of Charles Fraser and Chester Stokes, who developed Amelia Island Plantation and Summer Beach respectively, Amelia Island boasted a big league developer in the person of Samuel A. Swann. His prime area of concern was "new" Fernandina as platted in 1857 when the
community moved from what is now Old Town to its present site to accommodate the building of Florida's first cross-state railroad. Florida Railroad Company owned 3,500 acres of land in and around the "new" town and Old Town.

Actually, Swann was more of a land peddler than a true developer, and in this regard his activities ranged far beyond Amelia Island - throughout Central Florida to the Gulf of Mexico. At one time, he was appointed by the State to sell three million acres, of which his commission would be three cents per acre! Swann was also a brickyard owner, blockade runner, shipper, philanthropist and devout church warden. What brought him to Fernandina?

Samuel A Swann came from good early American stock dating back to 1630, when William A. Swann and his family came here from England and settled on a large grant of land on the James River opposite Jamestown. Two generations later, the family member from whom Samuel was descended moved to North Carolina. On May 20, 1832, Samuel A. Swann was born in Pittsboro, N.C., the son of Frederick James Swann and Ann Sophia Green.

Samuel A. Swann
(Photo courtesy of George T. Davis)
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Following education and training appropriate to his station, Swann came to Fernandina from Wilmington, N.C., in November 1855 at age 23 to be the accountant for Joseph Finegan and Company, contractors hired to build the railroad from Fernandina to Cedar Key on the Gulf. He also became assistant secretary and treasurer of Florida Railroad Company, of which David L. Yulee was founder and president. In November 1859, Swann married Martha R. Travers, daughter of William Travers of St. Augustine.

David Yulee had inherited vast acreage in central Florida from his father, Moses Levy, and had purchased substantial acreage both in Fernandina and Cedar Key. In addition, the company received generous grants of land contiguous to the railroad from both state and federal governments. Land sales were to provide interest on bonds issued to build the railroad.

More importantly, the railroad was the key to opening the Florida interior to development by providing transportation to carry lumber, cotton, naval stores and foodstuffs to seaports and thus to market.

Land sales lagged behind expectations as the railroad was being built from the summer of 1855 to its completion in Cedar Key in March of 1861. With the outbreak of the War Between the States, Fernandina was occupied first by Confederates and then by Federal forces, and many residents evacuated. Swann and his family settled in Gainesville, where he served as treasurer, superintendent and bookkeeper for the Florida Railroad.

In late 1862, Swann became interested in blockade running. In spite of losing one of the first vessels in which he, Yulee and others invested, he actively participated in blockade running with cotton as the usual export and supplies for Confederate troops as his import. In 1864 he was appointed to the War Department of the Confederacy, and his job was to sell cotton and sugar and purchase food, supplies and ammunition. He saw a lot of blockade running in 1864 and 1865.

With the end of the war, Swann became connected with the import-export firm of Savage and Haile, engaged in shipping cotton and lumber with offices in Gainesville and Jacksonville. Swann spent 1866 and most of 1867 shipping cotton from Jacksonville. At the end of summer in 1867 he moved his family back to Fernandina and formed the shipping firm of Swann and Brother. He also owned and operated a brickyard which supplied some of the brick used in the construction of Fort Clinch. Also in 1867 he and Henry Dotterer were named as agents for the bondholders of the Florida Railroad, which was experiencing financial difficulties. He and Dotterer supervised the apportionment of land held by the railroad. A large portion of the holdings became the property of the Florida Land and Immigration Company, which Swann served as land agent.

Swann's most extensive work in the promotion and development of Florida real estate occurred in the 1870s and 1880s. He became associated with M.A. Williams, and, for a time, Hugh A. Corley, in selecting, locating and selling swamp and overflowed land for the State. He served as special agent to the Florida Governor and Cabinet, acting as trustees of the International Improvement Fund of Florida. He promoted the sale, settlement and development of state lands and attracted both foreign and domestic investment to Florida.

He was given the assignment of selling three million acres of state land in April 1877, and in this quantity the commission was figured at three cents an acre (a total of $90,000). Swann devoted five years to the project, traveling extensively in England and New York. Though he secured two firm buying deals, the State informed him that it had another purchaser. Swann went to court. Out of the $20,000 he was awarded, he personally got $4,000 for his five years of work.

Swann and Williams bought large tracts of land in pine, cypress and hard woods and also hammock and agricultural land. Williams died in 1888 and was replaced in the business by his son. Of the land purchased in 1855, 100,899.44 acres had been sold by April 1888. Swann returned to Europe in an unsuccessful attempt to sell land. By 1901, he had liquidated most of his land holdings, selling large tracts to Michigan lumber dealers. Swann served both the Florida Town Improvement Company and the Fernandina Development Company as land commissioner. In 1901, he sold the holdings of both companies to Fred W. Hoyt for $94,000. Hoyt hoped to build a railroad from Fernandina to various Georgia towns.

During the latter part of the 19th century, Swann devoted his life to quiet philanthropies and community benefits. He donated a reading room, a gymnasium and a kitchen for use by Fernandina's young people on the upper floor of his building on the NW corner of Centre and 4th streets. He was a founder of St. Peters Episcopal Church, served as senior warden for many years and contributed generously to the support of the church. His private philanthropies were many; yet he sought no public acclaim, and no public offices.

In January 1909 he went to Baltimore with his son for surgery. That summer he went to visit his daughter in Greenwich, Connecticut, and died there on August 26, 1909. While his own residence, known as the Cottage Ornee, has vanished from its location on Centre and 6th, we still have
Swann's architectural legacy of the house he built for his son at 214 S. 7th Street (known as the Kelly House) as well as the Swann Building at Centre and 4th.

(This article was based upon "Samuel A Swann and the Development of Florida 1855-1900" by Helen R Sharp published in the Florida Historical Quarterly, July 1941 issue.)