The Historical Society of Avon ParkAVON PARK, FL · EST. 1886
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Chapter 8513, Laws of Florida 1921: the act that created Highlands County

The act

Chapter 8513 (No. 118), Laws of Florida 1921, a general act:

“AN ACT to Divide the County of DeSoto, and to Create and Establish the Counties of Hardee, Highlands, Glades and Charlotte from Portions of DeSoto County, and Providing for the Organization and Government Thereof.”[lof-1921-8513]

Enactment and Approval. Senate Bill 18 and House Bill 56 were introduced during the regular legislative session by Senator Frank M. Cooper (27th Senatorial District) and Representative Dr. E. J. Etheredge (DeSoto County). The bill passed the Senate on 20 April 1921 and the House of Representatives on 21 April 1921.[wpa-hrs-highlands] Governor Cary A. Hardee officially approved and signed the enrolled act into law on Saturday, 23 April 1921, as printed in the official session laws (Laws of Florida 1921, General Laws, Vol. 1, Pt. 1, p. 118).[lof-1921-8513]

Old DeSoto County covered about 3,750 square miles of south-west Florida, with its seat at Arcadia, fifty miles from Avon Park.[nrhp-90000486] This act cut it into five.

What the act does

Section 1 describes each new county’s boundary. Highlands County’s begins “at the Northwest corner of Township 33 South, Range 28 East” — the north-west corner of the township that contains Avon Park — runs east along the township line to the Kissimmee River, follows the river south, and comes back west and north by township and range lines. A curiosity of the printed text: the boundary paragraph calls it “Highland County,” singular, while the act’s title and Section 3 use “Highlands.”

Section 2 places the new counties in the First Congressional District, the Twenty-seventh Senatorial District and the Twelfth Judicial Circuit, each with one member of the House of Representatives.

Section 3 names temporary county seats: Wauchula for Hardee, Sebring for Highlands, Moore Haven for Glades, Punta Gorda for Charlotte.

Section 4 directs the Governor to appoint the first officers of each county.

Section 5 requires each new board of county commissioners to order an election for a permanent county seat, “to be held not later than the 2nd Tuesday in February, 1923.”

Sections 7 to 10 provide for dividing DeSoto County’s debts and surplus, and for splitting any special road, bridge and school tax districts cut by the new lines.

Sections 11 and 12 carry over jurisdiction and pending suits.

Sections 13 to 15 are the record-transcription provisions — see below.

Section 13 and the Transcript Books

Section 13 requires the Clerk of the Circuit Court of each new county to obtain from the DeSoto County Clerk

“a transcript or copies of all deeds, transfers, mortgages, leases, bills of sale, assignments or other conveyances of real or personal property, and all judgments, orders, decrees, and any and all matters of record whatsoever, and any and all papers or documents in the custody of the Clerk of the Circuit Court for DeSoto County, that may in anywise affect the interest of such new county,”

to certify them, and thereafter to treat the certified copies as having “the same force and effect as the original records.” Section 14 allowed each new county to pay its clerk up to $100 a month per man for the work. Section 15 does the same for the County Judge’s records.

This is the statutory origin of the Transcript Books in the Highlands County Clerk’s office — and it is the reason a plat filed in DeSoto County before 1921 can legitimately be found in a Highlands County book today. See the finding on the transcribed plat books.

How to get it

The file is LOF1921V1Pt1 GeneralLaws (Pt1).pdf (47 MB) in the Florida State Library’s electronic documents repository. Get the file names from the directory listing at http://edocs.dlis.state.fl.us/fldocs/leg/actsflorida/1921/ and URL-encode the spaces; the <year>/<year>.pdf pattern that works for the nineteenth-century volumes does not work here. pdftotext extracts a searchable, if imperfect, text layer.

References

Where this comes from

Evidence
single-source — One source. Treat as reported, not established.
Review
unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.
Rights
society

Sources

  1. Legislature of the State of Florida, Chapter 8513 (No. 118), Laws of Florida 1921, General Laws: An Act to Divide the County of DeSoto, and to Create and Establish the Counties of Hardee, Highlands, Glades and Charlotte (1921)
  2. Works Progress Administration, Historical Records Survey (Florida County Histories, Series S 1284, Box 2, State Library and Archives of Florida), Historical Sketch of Highlands County / A Brief Sketch of the Creation and History of Highlands County (1939)
  3. United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Avon Park Historic District (1990)

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