Robert B. Archibald

Judge Robert Burns Archibald was one of the four original incorporators who chartered the Florida Development Company in November 1891, the corporate concern that owned and platted the town of Avon Park.[savannah-1891-11-02]

Background and Judicial Career

Robert Burns Archibald was born on 15 July 1842 in Alva, Clackmannanshire, Scotland, and emigrated to the United States as a young man. During the American Civil War, he enlisted in the Union Army and served three and a half years. Following military service, he attended the University of Michigan Law School, graduating with a degree in law before relocating south to Florida during the Reconstruction era.

In Florida, Archibald quickly rose to prominence within the state’s legal establishment. On 24 January 1873, he was appointed and confirmed by the Florida Senate as Judge of the Fourth Judicial Circuit of Florida, serving an eight-year judicial tenure extending to January 1881.[98-fla-802] As Circuit Judge, his jurisdiction encompassed northeastern Florida, including Duval, Baker, Nassau, Clay, and St. Johns counties.

Following the conclusion of his judicial term in 1881, Archibald entered private law practice in Jacksonville. By the mid-1880s, he operated law offices at 10 1/2 West Bay Street in downtown Jacksonville alongside his brother, James W. Archibald.[gazetteer-1886]

Family and Connecticut Connection

Archibald married Dr. Mary Allen Starkweather (1864–1952), a practicing physician born in Norwich, New London County, Connecticut, and the daughter of Joseph Allan Starkweather and Ursula Comstock Noyes.[dar-lineage-29370] This marriage connected Archibald directly to eastern Connecticut society, the same regional sphere from which town founder Oliver Marvin Crosby (of Danbury) and northern sales agent Frank E. Sperring (of Sharon Valley) drew settlers and capital for Avon Park. In 1903, the couple built a large Colonial Revival residence in Jacksonville’s historic Springfield neighborhood at East 7th Street.

The Florida Development Company

On 2 November 1891, Archibald joined Oliver M. Crosby, Frank E. Sperring, and Charles H. Smith in executing and filing the articles of incorporation for the Florida Development Company, Limited, with the Florida Secretary of State.[savannah-1891-11-02] The charter established the company’s capital stock at $250,000 (reported in contemporary notices as $350,000) and designated principal operating offices in London, New York, Jacksonville, and Avon Park.

As a former Circuit Judge and practicing commercial attorney in Jacksonville, Archibald provided the venture with senior legal counsel and judicial standing in Duval County, the commercial center where the company conducted banking, purchased machinery—including the sawmill equipment bought on credit in 1891[maxwell-1976]—and negotiated northern land titles.

Later Civic Life and Death

Archibald remained an active figure in Jacksonville’s legal and civic affairs throughout his life. In May 1914, he was appointed by the Duval County Circuit Court as one of nine trustees to administer the historic Edwin M. Stanton School (Jacksonville’s pioneering public school for Black students, originally established under the Freedmen’s Bureau). He died in Jacksonville on 27 March 1928 at the age of eighty-five.

References

• savannah-1891-11-02 — The Morning News (Savannah, Ga.). The Morning News (Savannah, Ga.), 2 November 1891, page 1: Articles of incorporation of the Florida Development Company, Limited. 2 November 1891. https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn86063034/1891-11-02/ed-1/?sp=1
• 98-fla-802 — Supreme Court of Florida. State ex rel. Davis v. Giblin, 98 Fla. 802, 124 So. 375 (1929). 24 October 1929. https://openjurist.org/98/fla/802
• gazetteer-1886 — The South Publishing Company. The Florida State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1886–1887. 1886. https://archive.org/details/floridastategaze1886sout
• maxwell-1976 — Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell. The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida. 1976. the-first-hundred-years-of-avon-park_leoma-bradshaw-maxwell_1976.md
• dar-lineage-29370 — Daughters of the American Revolution. Lineage Book, National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Vol. 30, Entry 29370. 1910. https://archive.org/details/lineagebook29370daug

Related

• Entity: Florida Development Company
• Entity: Charles H. Smith
• Entity: Frank E. Sperring
• Entity: Oliver Marvin Crosby
• Entity: George W. Bacon
• Report: The Founding of Avon Park

Where this comes from

Evidence

corroborated — More than one independent source agrees.

Review

unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.

Rights

society

Sources

1. The Morning News (Savannah, Ga.), The Morning News (Savannah, Ga.), 2 November 1891, page 1: Articles of incorporation of the Florida Development Company, Limited (1891) · newspaper
2. Supreme Court of Florida, State ex rel. Davis v. Giblin, 98 Fla. 802, 124 So. 375 (1929) (1929) · official
3. The South Publishing Company, The Florida State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1886–1887 (1886) · book
4. Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell, The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida (references/the-first-hundred-years-of-avon-park_leoma-bradshaw-maxwell_1976.md) (1976) · book
5. Daughters of the American Revolution, Lineage Book, National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Vol. 30, Entry 29370 (1910) · book

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