Florida Historical Markers Programs - Marker Detail

Description: The Fletcher Community was established when Dixie County was part of Lafayette County and both were part of their parent county, Madison. In the early 1850s Fletcher families and other families emigrated south from the Carolinas through Georgia, bringing their livestock and looking for better pastures. Other families followed including the Edmond, Bell, Boatright, Gronto, Hatch, Matthis, Jones, Sauls and Ward families. They used the Suwannee River to move cotton and farm produce by steamboats to the railroad at Cedar Key. Most settlers of the Methodist faith attended services at Pleasant Grove Church, established by Rev. John A. Fletcher (1811-1858). This church is now gone but the Pleasant Grove and Ward Cemeteries are reminders of the Fletcher Community’s settlers. William Rete Fletcher served as Madison County’s Justice of the Peace 1847-1849 and Clerk of Court of Lafayette County 1856-1858. U.S. Postal records show Matilda J. Jones Fletcher as the community’s first Postmaster. Eborn Haywood Sauls, William R. Fletcher, and Mittie (Matilda) Fletcher were later Postmasters.