Ossian B. Hart, Florida’s first native-born governor, was born in Jacksonville on this date in 1821. His father, Isaiah Hart, was one of the founders of the city of Jacksonville and the family lived on a plantation on the banks of the St. Johns River. Hart served in the Florida House of Representatives and held a seat on the Florida Supreme Court, before being elected the state’s tenth governor on January 7, 1873. Shortly after being elected, however, Hart fell ill and died in Jacksonville on March 18, 1874. He is interred at the Evergreen Cemetery in Jacksonville.
~Florida Historical Society
