Ossian B. Hart Explained

Ossian Bingley Hart
Office1:Justice of the Supreme Court of Florida
Predecessor1:Inaugural
Successor1:Franklin D. Fraser
Office2:Member of the Florida House of Representatives
Term2:1845
Birth Date:17 January 1821
Birth Place:Jacksonville, Florida, U.S.
Death Place:Jacksonville, Florida, U.S.
Party:Republican
Signature:Signature of Ossian Bingley Hart.png
Office:Governor of Florida
Term Start:January 7, 1873
Term End:March 18, 1874
Order:10th
Lieutenant:Marcellus Stearns
Predecessor:Harrison Reed
Successor:Marcellus Stearns
Termstart1:1868
Termend1:1873
Parents:Isaiah Hart

Ossian Bingley Hart (January 17, 1821 – March 18, 1874) was the 10th Governor of Florida from 1873 to 1874, and the first governor of Florida who was born in the state.

Early life and career

Born in Jacksonville to Isaiah Hart, one of the city's founders, he was raised on his father's plantation along the St. Johns River. He was a lawyer in Jacksonville. He moved to a farm near Fort Pierce, Florida in 1843, and was a founding member of the St. Lucie County Board of Commissioners.[1] In 1845, Hart became Florida State Representative for St. Lucie County. In 1846 he moved to Key West where he resumed his law practice. In 1856, he moved to Tampa, Florida. Among his clients was "Adam", a black man who was lynched after the Florida Supreme Court declared his murder conviction a mistrial.[2]

Despite his upbringing, Hart became a Republican and openly opposed secession from the United States, causing some difficult times for him during the American Civil War. Following the war, he helped reestablish the governments of the state and of the city of Jacksonville. In 1868, he was appointed a justice of the Florida Supreme Court. In 1870, he ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Congress, only to be elected governor two years later on November 5, 1872. He appointed Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs as Florida's first African-American Superintendent of Public Instruction. During his tenure, "limited civil rights legislation was passed, and some improvements were made in the state's weakened finances."[3] Weakened by the campaign, he fell ill with pneumonia and died in Jacksonville. He was succeeded by lieutenant governor Marcellus Stearns, Florida's last Republican governor until 1967.

Personal life

He married his wife Catherine Smith Campbell, a resident of Newark, New Jersey, on October 3, 1843.[4] [5]

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Shofner, Jerrell H., History of Brevard County volume 1
  2. Book: Allman, T. D. . Finding Florida. The True History of the Sunshine State . . 2013 . 9780802120762.
  3. Web site: Ossian Bingley Hart . April 20, 2018 . myflorida.com (Florida Department of State).
  4. Web site: Historical Monument Trail : Visit : Friends of the Riverwalk . 2024-01-30 . thetampariverwalk.com . en.
  5. Web site: Ossian B. Hart Correspondence and Documents . 2024-01-30 . original-ufdc.uflib.ufl.edu . en.