New Smyrna Sugar Mill Ruins

History of the New Smyrna Sugar Mill Ruins

In 1830, William Kemble entered into a contract to construct a steam-operated sugarcane mill and a sawmill for merchant speculators William DePeyster and Henry Cruger, both of New York, which would become known as the New Smyrna Sugar Mill Ruins.

Eliza Cruger, the wife of Henry Cruger, and various outside investors provided the financial backing for the construction of these mills. The mills were erected on a six-hundred-acre parcel of land near present-day New Smyrna Beach, which Cruger acquired from Episcopal minister Ambrose Hull. Hull received this land as a grant from the Spanish crown during the Second Spanish period. Notably, this land was previously part of the original grant allotted to Andrew Turnbull by the British during their twenty-year occupation of Florida.

The mills’ masonry structures were constructed from coquina, a sedimentary rock composed of fossilized microscopic mollusk shells from local quarries. Among these structures was the crushing house, which featured a chimney and large arched doors and window openings. This facility housed steam-driven grinding machinery designed to extract juice from sugarcane. The entire operation was carried out through the use of slave labor and draft animals, overseen by the plantation manager, John Dwight Sheldon.

Onset of the Second Seminole War

By late November 1835, white settlers in the Territory of Florida were growing increasingly concerned about the actions of the Seminole Indians. Some Seminole leaders were unhappy with the United States’ official policy of Indian removal, and the killing of Charley Emathla by Chief Osceola raised the potential for an armed confrontation.

On the night of December 24, 1835, the Seminoles initiated attacks on plantations south of St. Augustine. Over the following weeks, they burned or ransacked a total of sixteen plantations. Many refugees fleeing from the destroyed plantations sought shelter at Charles Wilhelm Bulow’s estate.

Burning of the Cruger-DePeyster Sugar Mill

On December 25, 1835, a group of Seminole Indians conducted a raid on the Cruger-DePeyster plantation after the overseer, along with his family and the resident enslaved individuals, evacuated to the mainland across the Halifax River. During that evening, the Seminoles set fire to the sugar mill and several other structures on the property. Subsequently, the New Smyrna Sugar Mill machinery was removed and relocated to the Dunlawton Sugar Mill, which had burned the night before. Continued raids during the Second Seminole War ended sugar production in Central Florida.

These initial raids served as a precursor to escalating hostilities. On December 28, 1835, Chief Osceola assassinated Indian Agent Wiley Thompson at Fort King, located in Ocala. Subsequently, Major Francis Dade and his regiment were ambushed en route between Fort Brooke in Tampa and Fort King. Out of a command consisting of 108 personnel, over 100 were killed in this ambush, which became known as the Dade Massacre. These incidents led to the formal declaration of war by the United States, the beginning of the Second Seminole War.

“Columbus’s Chapel”

After the destruction of the Cruger-dePeyster Plantation and the decline of the sugar industry, the abandoned factory fell into obscurity for nearly 60 years. This changed when travel writer Bradford Torrey suggested in his book, A Florida Sketch Book, that the stone walls were a chapel built by Christopher Columbus, despite locals calling it the “Sugar Mill.” His article, republished in the Atlantic Monthly Journal in 1894, sparked renewed interest, leading to postcards and photographs identifying the structure as a mission or convent.

“I have called the ruin here spoken of a “sugar mill” for no better reason than because that is the name commonly applied to it by the residents of the town. When this sketch was written, I had never heard of a theory since broached in some of our Northern newspapers,—I know not by whom,—that the edifice in question was built as a chapel, perhaps by Columbus himself! I should be glad to believe it, and can only add my hope that he will be shown to have built also the so-called sugar mill a few miles north of New Smyrna, in the Dunlawton hammock behind Port Orange.

In that, to be sure, there is still much old machinery, but perhaps its presence would prove no insuperable objection to a theory so pleasing. In matters of this kind, much depends upon subjective considerations; in one sense, at least, “all things are possible to him that believeth.” For my own part, I profess no opinion. I am neither an archaeologist nor an ecclesiastic and speak simply as a chance observer.” –Torrey, B. (1894). A Florida Sketch-Book. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company.

Preservation Work

In 1913, wealthy New York financier Washington Everett Connor bought the ruins and the surrounding land as a winter home for himself and his wife. His wife, Jeannette Thurber Connor, became intrigued by the “mission” on their new property and started researching its history. She continued to advocate for the mill as a mission for many years.

Mrs. Connor’s profound interest in Florida history prompted her to research early Spanish settlements within the state extensively. In 1921, she founded the Florida State Historical Society with John Batterson Stetson Jr.

Stetson commissioned researchers to assemble a photostatic collection of documents from Spain that covered essential matters in Florida’s Spanish colonial history. The Florida State Historical Society translated and published several pivotal works on early Florida, including “Pedro Menéndez de Avilés: Memorial” by Gonzalo Solis de Merás and “Colonial Records of Spanish Florida.”

Jeannette Connor passed away in June 1927, and shortly after that, the historical society was compelled to cease its operations. In 1929, the New Smyrna Sugar Mill Ruins and the surrounding seventeen acres were entrusted to the Florida Parks Service. Mrs. Connor’s initiatives played a crucial role in ensuring the site’s preservation despite uncertainties regarding the accurate origins of the stone structure.

Debunking of the old Spanish mission

The belief that the ruins were from a former mission was further exaggerated, leading some to believe they were the remnants of the non-existent Mission of Atocuimi, which the Spanish had established for the Timucua Indians. Rumors about the site being a Spanish mission persisted until 1941, when a local newspaperman named Charles Coe published a booklet titled “Debunking the So-called Spanish Mission Near New Smyrna Beach, Volusia County, Florida.” In 1950, an analysis of the artifacts revealed that they were of 19th-century English origin. Consequently, the extravagant notion of a Spanish mission was reduced to the simple reality of a sugar factory.

The site was incorrectly designated as a Spanish Mission, the Mission Atocuimi De Jororo, with a construction date of 1696. This was reported in the original 1934 Historic American Building Survey (HABS) report. HABS officially confirmed the site as the New Smyrna Sugar Mill Ruins in January 2004.

The 17-acre historic site is now a state park maintained by Volusia County. It has walkways so visitors can explore the site without damaging the remaining structures. The park is open year-round from sunrise to sunset.

Photo Gallery