Marion County, Florida Biographies Josiah Seckinger written by Hal Seckinger and contributed to Genealogy Trails by Hilma Ardito Josiah Seckinger became a resident of Florida in December of 1831 according to the Land Permit dated Jan 2,1843. He served in the Seminole War as a private in a company of Florida Volunteers under Capt. Windleys. He proved up a homestead in 1843, seven miles west of Ocala, which later was named Martel. He married Synthia Rebecca Miller on Dec. 16, 1847. They had 11 children. He was a member of the Friendship Lodge # 53, F & M and the Lutheran Church. Josiah Seckinger owned and operated a farm containing about 700 acres, including timberland in Marion County, Florida. He planted one of the first orange groves in Marion County. Cotton and sugar cane were also principal crops. He sent a wagon train to Palatka every year with cotton, sugar,etc and brought back supplies such as coffee, flour, tobacco, quinine , calomel, opium and other medicines. According to his diary, he stocked those scarce items to supply other people in the coummunity reaching as far as Crystal River. He was a blacksmith, wheelwright, made plows, wagons, tools as well as shoes for the communtity. In additon to his home he had ten other buildings: blacksmith shop,wood-work shop, cotton house, grain barn, two separate buildings of horse stables, sugar house, smoke house, potoato house and slave quarters. The buildings were spaced apart, in case of fire, all would not be lost. Josiah owned 13 slaves in 1865 when they were freed. He helped them to settle land given them and gave them work to keep them from starving in the years following the Civil War. He built a log school house and hired a teacher for the small children until they were old enought to walk the 5 miles to Fellowship, the nearest country school. In 1895 there was a "big freeze" that killed all the orange trees and the Agnew Bank in Ocala closed it's doors. Josiah lost all his money. He died Mar 27,1895. he and Synthia Rebecca Miller Seckinger are buired at Fellowship Baptist Church Cemetery, Fellowship, Florida. The Seckingers came from the Salzbury, Germany ( Austria) in 1757. They settled at Ebenezer, Effingham County, Georgia. Marion County Home Page Back to Florida Home Page Back to Genealogy Trails ©2008 Genealogy Trails K. Torp