Putnam County FlArchives Biographies.....Moseley, William D. 
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Nancy Rayburn http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00025.html#0006128 July 7, 2015, 7:57 pm

Source: Vol. II  pg.36  The Lewis Publishing Co. 1923
Author: History of Florida, Past and Present 

        MOSELEY, WILLIAM D. Conspicuous among those strong and resourceful men 
who have honored the State of Florida by their lives and services was the late 
Hon. WILLIAM D. MOSELEY, who had the distinction of being elected the first 
governor of this commonwealth after its admission to statehood.
	At fine old Moseley Hall, the family homestead in the State of North 
Carolina, WILLIAM D. MOSELEY was born and reared to manhood, and in the 
University of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill, he was graduated as a member of 
the same class as was JAMES K. POLK, who later became president of the United 
States. He became a citizen of prominence and influence in his native state 
prior to his removal to Florida, as evidenced by his having served nine years 
as a member of the State Senate of North Carolina. There are available but 
limited data concerning the details of the career of Governor Moseley, but the 
following record will measurably indicate the great service which he rendered 
to the state of his adoption.
	The first state election in Florida was held on 26 May, 1845, and the 
result of the same placed WILLIAM D. MOSELEY in the executive chair as first 
governor of the new commonwealth. As may well be understood, his administration 
was marked by heavy responsibilities and much work of a constructive order. 
Within his regime much public land in the state was sold and there ensued a 
steady increase in the population of Florida. Much interest was manifested in 
the providing of adequate educational advantages, and in this important work 
the Governor took a leading part. In his message to the Legislature of the new 
state he urged the establishing of schools and seminaries, especially the 
common schools “that should bring instruction to every man’s door.” It was in 
the first year of his administration that the state capital was completed, the 
cornerstone of the same having been laid, under the territorial government, 
twenty years previously. The Governor also took prompt action in connection 
with Indian affairs in the state, and in this connection the following 
quotations are worthy of perpetuation: “there were now several hundred Indians 
in the state, 150 of whom could bear arms. Though so few in numbers, it was 
remembered that in the Seminole war a great harm had been done by small bands 
of Indians when our forces were in the field. Citizens, especially those near 
the Indian reservation, did not feel that life or property were safe, for the 
Indians did not confine themselves to their prescribed limits but would make 
excursions into neighboring counties, sometimes as far as 100 miles. One of 
these outbreaks occurred in 1849 and was promptly suppressed by the action of 
the Governor in sending state troops to quell the outbreak.”
	The department of general history in this publication gives further 
information concerning Governor Moseley and his effective administration, and 
that he was” not without honor in his own country” found noteworthy evidence in 
the year 1908, when his native state of North Carolina, through its 
Legislature, appointed a committee to there create a new county from territory 
drawn from Green, Lenore and Wayne counties, and to give to the new county the 
name of Moseley, as a tribute to this distinguished native son.
	The death of Governor Moseley occurred at Palatka, Florida, in 1862, at 
the home of his daughter ELIZABETH, wife of the late Judge T. S. HAUGHTON, to 
whom a memoir is dedicated in the preceding sketch of this volume.
       

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