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DID YOU KNOW?
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Brevard Sheriffs from 1847 to 1870
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Upon leaving office in 1847, Sheriff Burnham was succeeded by Sheriff F. M. K. Morrison, who served until 1850. The county’s third sheriff, C. L. Brayton, served from 1850 to 1855. While leaving the county’s boundaries and government structures intact, the 1855 Florida Legislature renamed the county from St. Lucie to Brevard and ordered that the name change take effect in 1855. James A. Armoux was the first sheriff elected in the newly0named county. He was followed two years later by William B. Davis, who remained in office until 1860. By that year, Brevard County’s population had nearly doubled to 267. Missing from the 1860 Census were the soldiers who left the area when Fort Capron closed in 1858. When the first shots of the Civil War rang out at Ft. Sumpter, South Carolina, Brevard County’s frontier community numbered just under 300 men, women and children. Among them were 31 slaves. When Florida seceded from the Union and joined the Confederacy in early 1861, most of Brevard County’s young men marched off to war to fight in Virginia, Tennessee and elsewhere. One of Sheriff Burnham’s sons was killed in battle and a son-in-law was wounded. Brevard County government functioned with no serious interruptions during the war years. The office was held by Thomas M. McDaniel who remained from 1860-1865. Florida’s Confederate soldiers surrendered in May 1865. President Andrew Johnson appointed a provisional governor to oversee the formation of a new state government and asked local officials to remain in their positions until new elections were held. Among Brevard County’s interim officials was Sheriff Jackson Clifton, who took office that year. The new state constitution, written and implemented in July 1868, provided for the appointment of all local officials by the governor. Appointed to serve as Brevard’s next sheriff. Dempsey Cain was a resident of the area now known as Roseland in Indian River County. |
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