Introduction: Francis Burdette Hagan was born September 11, 1827, Black Creek, Duval County, Florida. With his parents, Malachi and Elizabeth (Sheppard) Hagan, he moved to Micanopy, then Marion County, and finally Fort Dade in Hernando County. About 1861, he relocated to the Castalia area of Manatee County. In 1866 he served on a committee which selected Pine Level as the new county seat of Manatee County, to which he permanently settled. Francis B. Hagan died January 31, 1914. On November 4, 1852, he married Elizabeth Jane Platt (1833-1902), daughter of John and Alice (Blackshear) Platt. They had nine children.

Sit down in an easy chair under the shade of the beautiful oaks, in the yard of a Florida farmer and converse for three hours with an intelligent old gentleman who was born a “Florida Cracker” away back in 1827 and who is healthy, hale and hearty today, and if there is anything of an emotional nature in your makeup, you will experience a thousand thrills and your mind will waft over the hills and valleys, through the forests, along the streams and into the cabin of the early pioneer, in its efforts to comprehend that which is being told you by one who has lived through it all and is able to tell of it in a fascinating and charming manner.

To be born in 1827 would make one eighty-one years old. It would take you back to the time when small villages were in the majority, when a man’s word was as good as his bond, when honor was valued more highly than the dollar mark, when the simple life was the real life, and honesty was the motto of all.

In those early days the mode of travel in the state was by ox-cart, but today finds the state in possession of a splendid transportation system with ocean steamers plying from its shores to all the principal markets of the world and trunk lines of railroads belting and girding the state as though they were placed there to prevent it from bursting and its products within easy reach of any market their owners may care to enter.

From a howling wilderness infested with hostile Indians, overrun with varmints and reptiles, its broad acres unkempt, its lands unexplored, its forests uncleared, its streams unknown, the state has developed into one of the most popular domains on the globe, having become famous as a resort of health and pleasure as well as being foremost among the states of the south for its commerce. Florida, literally wrenched from out of the grasp of oblivion, is now sought by persons from all parts of the globe.

This span of life has witnessed the vanishing of the pioneer’s log cabin into the hazy mists of the long ago, and in its place has been erected pretentious dwellings and mansions, the homes of comfort, culture and refinement.

The cross roads country store with its heterogeneous mass of merchandise, covering all the wants of the time, has made its exit forever to give to that wonder of the 20th century, the modern department store.

The old fashioned schoolhouse, made of logs, with its thatched roof and quaint teacher with his three R’s, has been wafted away as a chimera, only to be known to the future as a legend and for the foundation which it built for the intellectual, moral, Christian, mercantile and industrial development of the greatest nation on earth.

The express rider, with his steaming broncho and large pommeled saddle and his bag of mail, is only a faint remembrance.

All of these primitive attributes of a now famous country have taken their way down the road of time, limitless time, time that will never witness their return, and when the natural, coherent thought rises within the breast of man, he is brought to the realization of the fact that the good old days of the corn pone and baked opossum will never return. He knows that the instinct, which has passed down to him throughout all the eternal ages that have drifted away, that creates within him a longing for the beautiful wilds of the forest, for the chase of the deer, and the hunt of the bear, will return no more forever.

But in their place, and within the limits of the span of life of this old gentleman, we have had given to us the telegraph, ocean cable, telephone, wireless telegraph, ocean greyhounds, liquid air, electricity, thousands of miles of railway, concrete construction, the automobile, the perfecting press, phonographs, engraving, steel mills, oil production, diamond, silver, gold and other mines.

Single machines operated by a child will perform the work which formerly required the services of two hundred men to turn out in the same length of time. The cotton gin, threshing and sewing machines, artificial ice, and thousands of other inventions have for their purpose the creating of comfort, happiness and pleasure for those who compose the nation while they are wrestling from the bosom of this mundane sphere a volume of wealth that would stagger the most optimist, imaginary thoughts of Croesus, the king of Lydia, who was celebrated on account of his great riches.

The subject of this sketch, the Hon. Francis B. Hagan, was born in Duval County in a portion of it, from which Clay County was created in 1827, his parents residing at that time in what is now known as the Middleberg, on the banks of Black Creek, a tributary of the St. Johns River. After residing in various parts of Florida, he finally cast his lot in the Pine Level district, this place at that time being the county seat of Manatee County, and has continuously resided in there since that time.

In 1839 and at the tender age of twelve years, he was a musician in the militia service of Florida. He fought all through the Indian war of ‘56-7, the seat of activity being around Fort Meade and in the Peace River valley. At its close he was mustered out and after a few years’ rest he enlisted in the Confederate states army and served with the militia until the close of the civil war.

Mr. Hagan relates a funny experience in which he was a participant in an effort to capture a gunboat and company of marines on horseback. While in the service during the Civil War, the fact became known that a gunboat had arrived at Punta Gorda, and a few of the vigilant scouts in the Pine Level neighborhood decided that they would ride down there and capture the federal outfit, sink the boat and hold the men as prisoners of war. There were about eight in the attacking party and they hurried to the scene of the conflict with vigor and assurance. When nearing the vicinity of the disembarkment they approached very cautiously and discovered that a few men had come ashore and pitched camp. After properly reconnoitering the situation a charge was made on the invaders and to the surprise of the “Crackers,” a whole company of marines was thrown against them, and several cannon that had been landed from the gunboat began to belch out their devastating, death-dealing loads and the scouts made a hurried retreat.

Mr. Hagan at one time was county treasurer of Manatee County and in 1873-4-5 represented Manatee County in the Florida House of Representatives. In 1879 he represented Manatee and Polk counties in the Florida State Senate.

An evidence of the healthfulness of the Pine Level district, Mr. Hagan lived for a period of fifty years without taking a dose of medicine or using the services of a physician. He now lives on his farm near Pine Level, and at the ripe old age for eighty-one years, is possessed of sufficient vigor and vitality to perform all the work that is necessary in the cultivation of his farm and attending his orange grove.

To Mr. and Mrs. Hagan, the latter now deceased, were born nine children, two of whom have passed away.

It is with pleasure The Tribune pays this tribute to an honorable old gentleman who has lived an upright God-fearing life and has always enjoyed the esteem and good fellowship of his friends, acquaintances and neighbors.

Reference: Richard Livingston, “Francis Burdette Hagan 1827-1914,” South Florida Pioneers 9 (July 1976), pages 21-24. This was published in The Herald-Advocate, 6A, June 16, 2005.