This story is by the folks at the Clay County Archives Center.
Pioneer families – These are the men, women, and children who first lived in Clay County dating back to pre-1858, the year Clay County (AKA, the Black Creek District) was initially carved out of Duval County. To this day, the descendants of these pioneers call Clay County home. There may be no better time than the present, due to population growth and construction, to learn more about these families and their early efforts to make Clay County their own. Through a series of articles and related genealogical studies, a spotlight will focus on them and their accomplishments through the centuries and decades.
Ozias Alonso Budington chose the Black Creek District of Duval County (now Clay County) to be his home. Arriving here in the 1820’s, he originally hailed from Groton, Connecticut. A sea captain by trade, this seventh-generation member of the Budington maritime trading dynasty (a company founded before the American Revolution) was designated to set up his family's southern base of operations. Ozias and the other family members who soon joined him established a network of commercial, political, and marital connections that stretched statewide.
Budington saw great opportunities in Whitesville (modern day Middleburg) and Black Creek. His house still stands along Main Street in Middleburg. He plied the waterways of Black Creek, the St. Johns River, the Savannah River, and the Atlantic Ocean, traveling as far away as New York.
In May of 1835, Budington married Susan Garey, the eldest daughter of another influential pioneer, Samuel Garey (of Garey’s Ferry fame). Together, they had nine children. Ozias served the public in the Florida Senate, as a county judge, as the county’s first superintendent of schools, and as county clerk for a number of years.
He was even once the postmaster of Whitesville. He was a very civic-minded person as you can tell from all the offices he held and made many friends along the way. He gladly stepped forward to sign the petition to create Clay County in 1858.
Ozias Budington was also philanthropic. He donated the land for the first small courthouse in Clay County which was completed October 8, 1860. To him, building a thriving business empire also required building a community and encouraging the success of others.
Never one to let injustices go unchallenged, he advised the Tutson Family (brutally attacked by the KKK during Reconstruction at their McRae homestead) to press official charges. They did, and three of the criminals were brought to justice.
In another instance in 1823, Budington joined a large group of fellow sea captains asking that a particular law In Charleston, South Carolina, be overturned. The law (Negro Seaman Act) required all free Black sailors to be “quarantined” in the county jail while their ships were in port. To say the least, this was financially disastrous for the captains. Money, however, may have been the true motivation behind the petition, but it also spoke about the principle of it all.
From the petition, “the act in question destroys the liberty of free men and regulates commerce by interfering with the freedom of navigation.” The U.S. Circuit Court found the law unconstitutional, and the U.S. Attorney General concurred. Ozias was no abolitionist though; he was a slave owner himself.
Budington owned many large tracts of land all over Clay county where he engaged in the timber and naval stores industry. He used his own steamboats to transport the products to market. He even owned the wharf (this is the reason why Wharf Street in Middleburg is called that even today) where the ships were berthed. He owned a mercantile and a sawmill.
Budington's mission was enormously successful. For decades at his direction, his Florida operation shipped Sea Island cotton, naval stores, agricultural products, lumber, and the highly-sought-after tall oak timber for ship masts to northern and international markets.
Considered a religious man at that time, Budington even acquired the bell for the Middleburg Methodist Church, a structure his slaves helped build. It is the oldest Methodist meeting place in Florida, built in 1847. The seats for slaves were at the back of the church with smaller, narrower pews than those built for everyone else. This provides some insight into how inhumanely slaves were treated.
Ozias Budington did very well financially for a long time. Then, the Civil War happened, and Ozias and other Clay County citizens suffered greatly. Reconstruction lasted here until about 1871. Ozias seemed to get sued every other day. The civil lawsuit files housed at the Clay County Archives Center contain more than twenty listings.
From his obituary:
His store and place were pillaged and despoiled by the war; misplaced confidence in security bonds, and his best efforts through year as an administrator resulted in lawsuits which swept away the earnings of so long a life. Many testify that he was subjected to the severest tests, but his faith never failed, and though his sight failed for months before he died, his spiritual vision was better to the last and his senses continued good to the last day, and his testimony of word and life was "I am ready."
Some called him "captain" and others called him "judge”. For the people of Clay County, especially around the north and south prongs of Black Creek, he first and foremost was considered a friend. He died on August 27, 1886, at the ripe old age of 90 and is buried in the Budington Cemetery in Middleburg, along with his wife and several children.