Stories from Bosque Bello

The lives they led…

Antonio Diaz

Born in Palma, a city in the Spanish Canary Islands, Antonio Diaz was an early resident of Old Town. He was witness to invasions, changing of flags, and ultimately a U.S. territory. To learn more about Diaz, we need to know about what happened during his day.

First, how did Diaz, a native of the Canary Islands, end up in Florida? During the 18th century, the Spanish Crown strongly encouraged Canary Islanders to move to their colonies in the West Indies, Spanish Texas, Spanish Louisiana, and Spanish Florida, among other locations. Spain's aim was to populate and defend certain regions with Spanish settlers. Diaz, the young man, was most likely part of this settler movement. Documents state that he later went from the West Indies to Florida, perhaps spending some time in Saint Augustine, prior to his final movement to Old Town Fernandina, an important yet underdeveloped Spanish outpost at the time.

Diaz, now married, was settled in to life in Old Town, when in March 1812, a group calling themselves “The Patriots" crossed from Georgia into Spanish East Florida, and along with a number of rebellious Florida settlers, declared themselves in revolt against Spain. As the rebellion grew, it expanded into the Patriot War that slowly merged into the U.S.-Britain War of 1812.

The Spanish garrison commanding officer, of what is now known as Fort San Carlos/Old Town Fernandina, made plans to repel the Patriot invaders, but soon found that he, along with the town's 600 inhabitants, also faced U.S. Navy gunboats. The Fernandina defenders soon surrendered, and Fernandina was taken without a shot. Ultimately, the Patriots were unsuccessful in their attempt to take over Eastern Florida and disbanded. Diaz witnessed this 1812 attack, and later, in 1817, Diaz became a participant in another outsider takeover.

In that year, Gregor MacGregor, a Scottish-born soldier of fortune, led a small number of mercenaries on an attack of the Fort San Carlos and Old Town. This time, another Spanish Fort commander called Fernandina militia volunteers and his soldiers together to make plans to drive back the mercenaries. However, an account by the daughter of one of the defenders states that the commander "quivered in fear" in his quarters and countermanded his initial call for a fight. It was then that Antonio Diaz and another man set out for one of the Fort’s blockhouses, determined to fire the cannons at the approaching enemy. Unfortunately, the Spanish officer had posted guards there to keep anyone from attempting such an act. Ultimately the garrison surrendered. In time, MacGregor faced the threat of a Spanish reprisal, and without adequate reinforcements and supplies, he departed Fernandina but left a small detachment to defend the island. These stay-behinds joined forces with the French-born pirate Louis Michel Aury, who also laid claim to Amelia Island. President James Monroe sent troops to rid Aury and vowed to hold Amelia Island in a trust for Spain.

While the MacGregor and Aury occupations annoyed islanders, the actions of U.S. occupation forces that succeeded them were far worse. According to later property loss requests for government reimbursement, Fernandina residents stated that soldiers stole property, stripped barns and houses for firewood, destroyed crops, and killed domestic animals. The soldiers had told Diaz that they would continue to do so “until better provisions were furnished to them.” Diaz wrote in his claim that they slaughtered a pet cow and sheep which “had been raised in my yard and fed by my daughter.” Diaz also discovered the “feathers and remains” of his poultry at the quarters of soldiers. They had left him a note to “look for his fowls and be damned.” Ten of those were prized poultry that Diaz had brought from the West Indies.

In October 1820, still under Spanish rule, more than two hundred local men signed a petition to the Spanish governor of East Florida, asking that a municipality be organized for them similar to Saint Augustine. Diaz was one of the signers. They claimed that their district should have its own municipal government because it contained more than the one thousand inhabitants specified by Spanish governing principles.

Additionally, Spanish documents show that Antonio Diaz was officially appointed by Spanish Governor Kindelan to the position of harbor pilot.

When Spain ceded East Florida to the U.S., Antonio Diaz was elected as a City Council alderman under the town’s first mayor, Charles Seton. Diaz died in 1841 at the age of 58. Interestingly, his grave is directly across from the blockhouse where he heroically attempted to fire a cannon at McGregor's invading forces.