16th Florida Governor. Henry Laurens Mitchell received his place in American history, serving as the Governor of the State of Florida from 1893 to 1897. Born one of nine children of an itinerant Methodist minister, he attended Alabama public schools along with his father's tutoring. He left Alabama with his family to manage a farm and raise cattle in rural Florida. At the age of fifteen, he started reading law in the office of Judge James A. Gettis, a well-respected attorney in Tampa. He was admitted to the bar and started to practice in 1849 as a prosecuting attorney. In 1857 he was elected to the post of State Attorney for the Sixth Judicial Circuit, but resigned with the dawn of the American Civil War. He enlisted in the Confederate Army and was promoted to the rank of captain in the 4th Florida Infantry. At the close of the Vicksburg Campaign in July of 1863, he resigned his commission to accept a seat in the Confederate Florida House of Representatives until 1865. In September of 1867, he was named the editor of his brother-in-law's newspaper, the "Florida Peninsular". He was reelected in 1873 and 1875 to the Florida House of Representatives. He also speculated very successfully in land when the Plant System Railway built a line to Tampa in the early 1880s. He was one of the developers of Plant City. Fulfilling his duties, he traveled throughout the state during the yellow fever epidemic of 1887. He served on the bench of the Sixth Circuit Court from 1877 to 1888, and accepted an appointment to a four-year term as the 24th Justice on the Supreme Court, resigning his seat after only two years in Tallahassee and returning to Tampa. In 1890, he accepted the appointment as judge of the Seventh Circuit in Tampa. His advocacy against the Reconstruction policies of Republican Governor Ossian Hart ensured him to be a favorite in the Democratic Party. In 1892 he was one of eight candidates for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. Receiving the nomination, he was elected Governor of Florida and inaugurated on January 3, 1893. While governor, he met with many challenges: The Depression of 1893 disabled the state's economic solidity; the Cedar Key Hurricane of September 22, 1896 destroyed property at a cost of $1.5 million and claimed 100 lives in the 12-foot ocean surge; and the artic blast of the winter of 1894 with temperatures below 14 degrees Fahrenheit destroyed the state's citrus crops for several years, causing a loss of millions of dollars in revenue. He had concerns with the arrival of Cuban refugees to Florida during the Cuban revolution from Spain. To recoup the state's economy, the cigar manufacturing industry began in 1886 in his home town of Tampa. By 1896 the cigar industry in Tampa produced 86,000,000 cigars. None of these events could have been foreseen or stopped, but he had to manage them. He was paid $3,500 a year for this task, which would equal in the 21st century to $115,121.75. Leaving office of governor on January 5, 1897, William D. Bloxham, the former Comptroller of the State of Florida, became the next governor. At this point in his career, he was elected clerk of the circuit court of Hillsborough County and in 1901 to the office of county treasurer, serving until his death. He was elected in 1901 to the presidency of the Tampa Bar Association. On April 11, 1866, he married to Eucenia Eugenia Spencer and the couple were childless. His 1979 biography, "The life of Henry Laurens Mitchell, Florida's 16th Governor" was authored by George B. Church, Jr.