BY ROBIN MIMNA AND ELI WITEK, USING ORIGINAL RESEARCH AND TEXT BY VOLUSIA COUNTY HISTORIAN LANI FRIEND

Volusia and Vibilia were companion plantations in Spanish East Florida circa the early 1800s, developed by New York attorney James Alexander and Horatio Dexter — slave trader, land dealer, and controversial frontier diplomat — acting on behalf of Joseph Rattenbury.

For the purposes of developing a British colony, Rattenbury, a London lawyer seeking opportunity in Spanish East Florida, was awarded tracts of land by Spanish Governor José Coppinger in 1818. The land encompasses modern-day Palatka and North Volusia.

As early as mid-year 1819, Alexander (authorized to act on Rattenbury’s behalf) settled 50 enslaved people on the Volusia tract and “made considerable improvements” including introducing “various species of stock,” according to congressional documents.  

In December of that year, Dexter “commenced with Alexander a settlement” at Volusia. Seventy “hands…cleared 157 acres and planted sugarcane, built 49 slave houses, and planted orchards and vineyards.”  

Middle Florida’s economy heavily relied on slavery, the majority engaged in agricultural labor. Enslaved people in the sugar cane industry cleared land under harsh conditions, with average life expectancy lower than on cotton plantations. 

Dexter in particular was associated with the slave trade  — he was one of a few Anglo planters who dominated the St. Augustine slave market at that time.

Dexter’s plantation was an important crossing for the Seminole Indians and a strategic riverboat landing where his trading post provided supplies, labor, boats, and horses to settlers and traveling officials. 

There was still a trading post at Volusia when it was surveyed in 1834. The U.S. Survey Field Notes for 1834 mark the “Volusia Indian trading and Indian crossing” site with a dwelling icon. 

The Volusia tract, initially 10,000 acres on the west side of the St. Johns river, later expanded to 11,000 acres, was located 6 miles south of Lake George where the small community of Volusia is today. 

South of current Lake Dexter was a tract of 11,520 acres encompassing Alexander Springs and Creek, presumably named by James Alexander. 

Volusia, as seen on the Tanner Map of 1823, encompassed one of four major Native American crossings on the river. 

While the name Volusia is still in use, Vybrillia (Vibilia) and its variants went out of use in the mid-1820s when they were superseded by the Seminole-derived “Palatka.” 

The Seminoles called the crossing in the area “pilo-taikita” meaning “ferry,” “ford” or “canoe crossing.” This was eventually simplified to Pelitka, which then became Palatka.

What is the origin of the names Volusia and Vibilia? 

Much like today’s housing developments, these sites were intended to appeal to potential colonists, and the names would have been an important marketing tool. 

Nineteenth-century plantation owners would look to antiquity for inspiration: George Fleming named his 1,000-acre plantation north of Green Cove Springs “Hibernia,” the classical Latin name for Ireland, the land of his birth. 

Two early plantations in the Ormond area, “Rosetta” and “Damietta,” were named for ancient Egyptian cities and river branches near Alexandria at the mouth of the Nile. Greco-Roman references evoking timelessness and tradition were especially popular. 

 Volusia and Vibilia, Latin in origin, are Roman goddesses cited in numerous 19th-century dictionaries of classical mythology commonly used by headmasters, teachers and tutors in both English and American schools. These books were “necessary for the understanding of the ancient poets,” as written by author William King in a widely used book about the gods published in 1711.

In her article, Friend points out how in other popular references from the early 1800s both goddesses are listed on the same page, which would be convenient for anyone researching potential plantation names. 

It is likely that one of the men involved in developing the area via slave labor took inspiration from books contemporary to the time to name the area Volusia, especially given that Palatka was once named Vibilia.

In her 2019 article, Friend makes a compelling argument for the name-giver to be Horatio Dexter — in 1802, 17-year-old Horatio was living with family members in Rhode Island when three ships foundered in nearby Cape Cod. The ships were the Ulysses, the Brutus, and the Volusia, which was partially saved. 

What happened next?

In the end, a British colony never materialized, and all of Rattenbury’s land claims and grantees were rejected by the U.S. Board of Land Commissioners for not fulfilling the spirit or intention of the land grant. The land was turned over to the U.S. government.

But from 1819 until about 1828, the land became known as Volusia and was a successful sugar cane plantation and a supply depot for Indians, settlers, and traveling government officials. 

During the Second Seminole War, several U.S. Army forts were established in the area, opening up trails and bringing in steamboat transport. Volusia developed into a busy river landing, exporting local goods to Northern markets. 

In 1854 the new Florida county of Volusia, formed from Orange County, took its name from the community of Volusia.

Today, the unincorporated community of Volusia is bordered by Pierson, Lake Dexter, Barberville, Astor and Ocala National Forest.

Goddesses
According to a standard British school text book also popular in the early United States, explaining Roman goddesses, Vibilia was “a tutelar [guardian – Ed. note] goddess… presiding over young and adult persons” whose task it was to “bring wanderers into their way again.”
Volusia was described in the 1774 text as a “goddess of corn” whose responsibility it was “to fold the blade round the corn before the beard breaks out, which foldings of the blade contain the beard as pods do the seed.”
In later textbooks, Volusia was described as simply “a corn goddess” and Vibilia as “goddess of wanderers.”

A note on naming from Lani Friend

Who has the power to name? Whose knowledge is privileged? And whose narrative will dominate the political, cultural and social landscapes?

Place names can evoke strong imagery and connotations. They can tell us about the topography of a site or about its history and are of special interest to those who study the past. 

Naming is a platform for the construction of heritage and identity. It is a powerful method of creating an identification with the past and “locating oneself within wider networks of memory,” as written by Abraham Resnick, a social studies educator. 

Naming is a means of appropriating or taking ownership of places. It can also be part of the process of claiming territory and subordinating indigenous histories. 

The power of the names Volusia and Vibilia to evoke a “network of memory” was lost on most contemporary inhabitants who would have been unfamiliar with these references from classical mythology. 

In the case of Volusia, its meaning and origin may never have been known to the inhabitants of the area and, over time, became the source of endless and imaginative speculation continuing to the present. 

An English or European name, preferably one from antiquity, would have been favored by the men associated with land claims. Native names would never have been considered for a large-scale settlement of immigrants from the British Isles.

But by imposing names from the distant past and from cultural references foreign to most settlers along the river, the namers rejected authentic connections to the land and its history, stamping it with their own Euro-centric brand. 

There was no attempt to relate to any physical feature of the claims or to their planned purpose as an agricultural enterprise. 

The names may have been intended to “gentrify” the tracts, conferring a contrived status and distinction on future settlements. 

Many native Florida Indian and Seminole place names have survived in Florida, but in the case of Volusia and Vibilia, the narrative that dominated the landscape was privileged, white, male, and Anglo/American or British, based on a 19-century English educational curriculum of the time.

Oft-cited other theories 

• Volusia comes from a Native American word meaning “Land of the Euchee.” This theory was dismissed in Pleasant Daniel Gold’s 1927 History of Volusia County (Florida) for lack of comparable “V” words in Florida’s Native American languages.
• Named for a French or Belgian trapper called “Veluche” who established a trading post along the St. Johns River. There is no evidence to support this claim either. The name Veluche doesn’t appear on any documents contemporary to the time. 
• Named for a man called “Volos” (who was part of Dr. Andrew Turnbull’s Minorcan colonists). No documented evidence.
• The settlement was named by the Spanish after a celebrated Roman jurist named Volusio. No documented evidence.