Tyler Sugar Mill Ruins Historic State Park.
David Levy Yulee, born June 12, 1810 on St. Thomas (West Indes), was a lawyer in St. Augustine. He became a member of Florida’s first constitutional convention in 1838-39, territorial delegate in 1841, and first U.S. Senator of the new state in 1845.
Yulee moved to the 5,100 acre plantation (Margarita) with his wife, and by 1851 the mill had over 150 slaves. For 10 years, the mill ran in peace until the war when Yulee resisted using his new railway (one of Florida’s first–Fernandina to Cedar Key) to support the war effort. Yulee’s home eventually became a supply house for Rebel troops and was burned by the Union’s Navy in 1864. Although the mill escaped harm, Yulee was briefly imprisoned for treason, and it never reopened. Yulee died in New York in 1886.
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