Duval County FlArchives Biographies.....Upchurch, Nathaniel S. 1825 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Nancy Rayburn http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00025.html#0006128 September 16, 2015, 12:03 am

Source: Vol. II  pg.78-79  The Lewis Publishing Co. 1923
Author: History of Florida, Past and Present 

        NATHANIEL SMITH UPCHURCH was a Florida pioneer and a man of prominence
and distinction in the Southeastern States. For many years he lived in
Jacksonville, where he died.
	He was born near Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1825, son of GILBERT and 
LUCRETIA (MILLS) UPCHURCH. Both his paternal and maternal grandfathers served 
as soldiers in the Revolutionary war. NATHANIEL UPCHURCH proved himself a man 
of self-reliance even in his youth, when by much effort he secured a practical 
education. On leaving North Carolina he went to Georgia, and in 1858 
established himself in Nassau County, Florida. He was a general merchant there, 
and during the war between the states he accepted a contract to maintain the 
Cuba telegraph line. He built the first line of telegraph from Doctor Town 
Georgia, to Live Oak, Florida. In spite of the fact that this line was torn 
down by the Federal troops he quickly rebuilt and succeeded in maintaining 
communication during the greater part of the war. He was the first to announce 
the news of Lee’s surrender at Lake City.
	Following the war he was for twenty years in the service of the old
Florida Railroad in charge of its land department, and in that way he became
prominently identified with the development work of various sections of Florida
and performed the service of lasting benefit to the substantial interests of
the state.
	NATHANIEL UPCHURCH retired from active business about 1900, and 
thereafter he lived in Jacksonville. In 1858 he married SARAH ELIZA PARKER, of 
Florida. She was born in Nassau County, this state. Ten children were born to 
their marriage, eight sons and two daughters: BENJAMIN, who died at the age of 
twenty years; JOHN J. a prominent lumber manufacture and one of Jacksonville’s 
most prominent and wealthy citizens; ELLEN AGNES, who died at the age of
twenty-four; GEORGE W., who also died at the age of twenty
four; GEORGE W., who also died at the age of twenty-four; SARAH ELIZABETH, wife
of W. E. BENNETT, their home being South of Jacksonville; NATHANIEL SMITH, Jr.,
of South Jacksonville; WALTER D.; NOBLE A.; EDWARD P., who lives at Brunswick,
Georgia, and is married and has three children; and FREDERICK B., a resident of
Jackson County, Florida.


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