Marianna, FL USDA Eligibility

Marianna is a city in and the county seat of Jackson County, Florida, United States, and it is home to Chipola College. The official nickname of Marianna is “The City of Southern Charm”. The population was 6,245 at the 2020 census.

Marianna was founded in 1828 by Scottish entrepreneur Scott Beverege, who named the town after his daughters Mary and Anna.: 442  The following year, it was designated as the county seat, superseding the earlier settlement of Webbville, which soon after dissolved and no longer exists.[citation needed] Marianna was platted along the Chipola River. Many planters from North Carolina relocated to Jackson County to develop new plantations to take advantage of the fertile soil. They relied on the labor of enslaved African Americans brought from the Upper South in the domestic slave trade.

Governor John Milton, a major planter who owned the Sylvania Plantation and hundreds of slaves, was a grandson of Revolutionary War hero John Millton, and a descendant of Sir Christopher Milton, the brother of the famous English poet, John Milton. However, Milton did not have to rely solely on a distinguished American founding family name. A Marianna resident, he was elected as governor of Florida, serving during the Civil War years. Governor Milton opposed the Confederate States of America rejoining the United States.

As federal troops were preparing to take control of Tallahassee, Governor Milton received word that the Civil War had ended and that Florida would again be part of the United States. On April 1, 1865, as the Southern cause was collapsing, Milton died of a gunshot wound from his gun at Sylvania. A New York Times article, written in polemic style, attributed Governor Milton’s sudden death to suicide, which conflicted with local reporting from Florida. The Governor’s words, likely political oratorical hyperbole, that he “would rather die” than suffer the humiliation of Federal invasion, were linked to his sudden death by the New York Times. The West Florida News reported the sudden death of Florida’s fifth Governor as a hunting accident. Governor Milton was buried in the St. Luke’s Episcopal churchyard at Marianna. The New York Times article’s account persisted in the difficult days of Reconstruction.

Marianna was the site of a Civil War battle in 1864 between a small home guard of about 150 boys, older men, and wounded soldiers, and a contingent of approximately 700 Federal troops.