By Spessard Stone
Joe A. Akerman, Jr., retired history instructor at North Florida Community College, and his son J. Mark Akerman, a school administrator in Greensboro, North Carolina, portray the life and times of Jacob Summerlin in Jacob Summerlin: King of the Crackers, who for over two decades was Florida’s wealthiest cattle king.
The genesis of the biography of Jacob "Jake" Summerlin, Jr. (1820-1893) originated when the elder Akerman, while a student enroute home from Orlando High School, would often go by the old Orange County Courthouse to gaze at a photo of Summerlin, in which dressed in range clothes, with a large bandanna, and a turned-back Stetson, he, clutching a bullwhip in one hand and a corncob pipe in his mouth, epitomized the Cracker cattleman. A genealogy of the Summerlins in Virginia, Georgia, and Florida introduces us to the family’s roots and the frontier in Columbia County, Florida where Jake came of age and his character, marked by a strong philanthropic spirit, sturdy moral tenacity, resourcefulness, courage, and a sense of never taking himself too seriously, was formed.
On February 13, 1845, he married Frances Knight Zipperer, daughter of the Rev. Samuel Knight, who had moved to Knight’s Station in Hillsborough County in 1843. The young couple settled nearby where Jake turned out his herd of cattle driven from South Georgia and Columbia County. "Fannie" was the widow of John Jacob Zipperer, by whom she had a son, Gideon, who became an integral part of the family, which would grow to include six more children, Martha, Jasper, George, Robert, Samuel, and Alice.
Summerlin rapidly expanded his cattle herds so that by 1861, he had over 20,000 head of cattle with commercial connections extending from the Caloosahatchee to the Suwannee. Presented is an overlay of the growth of the cattle industry, including trade with Cuba, and Jake’s contemporaries, including Capt. James McKay, William B. Hooker, John T. Lesley, and F. A. Hendry.
Chronicled concisely is the Second Seminole War to the Civil War, in which Jake served as a volunteer soldier on six separate enlistments, which to him was a duty. From 1861-63 for the Commissary Department of the Confederate government, he supplied 25,000 beeves for which he received no pay. He also furnished a company and served in Capt. F. A. Hendry’s Cow Cavalry.
During his life, he lived in various locales and exerted a significant role in the development and growth of Central Florida. Detailed are his philanthropy, which led to his becoming a founding father of two cities, Bartow and Orlando, and his altruism in the creation and development of Summerlin Institute in Bartow.
In 1883 Summerlin, then living at Punta Rassa, sold most of his operations to his sons for $100,000 and returned to live with Fannie in Orlando where he died on November 1, 1893.
Since this book has been published, there has been an allegation that it may be biased due to the use of "Cracker." There is nothing racially derogatory in it. The etymology of "Cracker," as used in this biography, refers to the cowman’s crack of the whip as he herded cattle and the associated culture with Summerlin its best representative.
Jacob Summerlin: King of the Crackers contains 154 pages, with table of contents, 24 illustrations, 5 appendices, bibliography, and index. Published by the Florida Historical Society, it is available at Florida Historical Society or Joe Akerman, 164 NW Whispering Pines Loop, Madison, FL 32340.
Jacob Summerlin
Jacob Summerlin