Jefferson County was established by Florida’s Territorial Legislative Council in January 1827, after settlers from the seaboard states had already begun developing cotton plantations in the area. In December 1827, the county seat was named Monticello in honor of Thomas Jefferson’s famous Virginia home. The county produced many of territorial Florida’s most prominent leaders, including representatives to Congress and the Legislative Council, territorial judges, and the state’s first elected governor, William D. Moseley. Its citizens were instrumental in establishing the Democratic party in Florida and in attaining statehood in 1845. As southerners who advocated states’ rights and opposed the abolition of slavery, they took leading roles in Florida’s 1861 secession from the Union and in Confederate military service. For decades after the Civil War, Jefferson County reflected north Florida’s economic changes and problems, attaining prominence in agriculture and related light industries, and in more recent times it has continued its significant participation in Florida’s political and agricultural development.