Arcadia Sawmill and Arcadia Cotton Mill

About a mile southwest of Milton, Florida, Arcadia developed from land once owned by Juan de la Rua into an ambitious early industrial community. After Joseph Forsyth bought the property in 1828 and expanded an existing dam, he and Andrew and Ezekiel Simpson built up sawmill operations, while Timothy Twitchell added nearby manufacturing. Difficult transport to the Blackwater River led the lumber mills to move to Bagdad in 1840, and Arcadia was refocused as a cotton mill worked by enslaved labor. By the early 1850s it was Florida’s largest cotton mill, surrounded by support buildings and workshops, before fire, death, war, and long abandonment ended the enterprise.

Florida · United States