The following list is from Victor Silvestri’s excellent publication, Encyclopedia of Florida Sheriffs, which is available from the Walton County Heritage Museum Gift Shop. The two-volume set has biographies of every sheriff who served in Florida from 1821 until 2008. Four Walton County Sheriffs died while in office: J. Murdock…
Tag: Cawthon
Mary Lou Cawthon
Mary Lou Cawthon (left) is shown sitting on the front porch of her father’s home with Mrs. Manning and in her father’s car (below) which was one of the first in DeFuniak Springs. The Cawthon home was on Nelson Avenue, next door to the current Thriftway Supermarket. Mary Lou was…
John Oliver Rutan
The 1937 Walton High School basketball team members were (front row, left to right): Ed Taylor, Dawson Cawthon, Gerdon Tappan, John Rutan, Jeb Stuart Gaston, (middle row) Woody Wesley, Bob Hatcher, Frank Mzwreck, Earl Wesley, Kenneth Sconiers, Charles Taylor, (back row) Buddy Lowery, coaches Shorty Waites, Grey Wilson, and Ox…
The Great Fire of 1898
Local photographer T. Hope Cawthon took the photo above on Saturday, September 17, 1898, from the post office, which was then between the train depot (now the Walton County Heritage Museum) and the Hotel Chautauqua (now the Gulf Power building). The photograph shows the train tracks running parallel to Baldwin…
The Honeymoon Route to the Gulf
On July 6, 2011, the following item appeared in The Breeze newspaper, which was published in DeFuniak Springs: The following telegram which was sent to the DeFuniak delegates at Moultrie last Friday created no little amusement when read by Mr. Storrs, in his argument before the committee: “All the world…