William Henry Traxler, Jr. (1857-1928), born in Columbia County, Florida, was the son of pioneers William Henry Traxler, Sr. and Ann Elizabeth Sandford, who had come from Colleton County, South Carolina, to grow long-fibered Sea Island cotton. One of eleven children, he was orphaned at age 14. In 1879, using $100 of his inheritance, the 22-year-old Traxler bought 360 acres on the Bellamy Road, built a small store adjoining his home, and supplied goods needed by local farmers. In 1889, he brought his bride, Mary Keika Dell, to this home, beginning the Traxler community. The home became a hub of activity, and the store grew into a general merchandise business with inventory valued at $5,000 in 1900. From 1891 to 1906, a post office operated from the store and Traxler served as postmaster. Along with a cotton gin, grist mill, and sawmill, the store formed the heart of the community, where local and tenant farmers created a busy Saturday marketplace near Spring Hill Methodist Church and a one-room schoolhouse. After the Leno trading post on the Santa Fe River closed in 1896 when the railroad bypassed it, business increased at Traxler. He may have brought the grist mill grinding stone to the community and extended business ties to Savannah and up the East Coast as a cotton broker and merchant. In 1917, the Traxler house burned completely and was rebuilt. Boll weevils appeared that year and had destroyed the cotton crop by 1919, leading many farmers to shift to tobacco as their main cash crop. Traxler later served as president of the First National Bank in Alachua until his death in 1928. The bank survived the Great Depression but was later sold. The grist mill stone is displayed in O'Leno State Park, and the store building and cotton gin were moved to the Florida Agriculture Museum in Palm Coast.