I've added another new page as part of the expansion of the main http://www.twoeggfla.com/ website. This one focuses on Sylvania Plantation, the home of Governor John Milton that stood less than 7 miles southwest of downtown Two Egg, Florida.The future governor was a prosperous and successful lawyer and businessman when he arrived in Jackson County in 1847, having acquired a couple of thousand acres of land surrounding Blue Spring. The property had originally belonged to his mother's family, but Milton decided to relocate there from New Orleans following a terrible steamboat accident in which he had been severely burned by scalding hot steam.
By 1855, the plantation had grown to encompass more than 6,300 acres and Milton was also beginning to develop a second farm near today's Parramore community east of Two Egg. His holdings made him one of the most powerful men in the South and in 1860 he was elected Governor of Florida. In those days nearly one year passed between the election of a governor and his inauguration, so he did not take office until October of 1861. In the months that passed between his election and his inauguration, Florida had seceded from the Union and the War Between the States had begun.
Milton often came home to Sylvania during the war and kept his family there throughout the conflict both for their comfort and their safety. The main house was described as a long, low dwelling with a piazza extending entirely across its front. It was set in a large grove of trees, a sylvan setting from which it took its name.
Milton ended his life at Sylvania on April 1, 1865. Realizing that the Confederacy was about to fall, he had told friends that death would be preferable to defeat at the hands of the North.
To visit the new page, please go to www.twoeggfla.com/sylvania.
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