Orange County Sheriff David W. Mizell was shot and killed in an ambush while on his way to arrest cattleman Moses E. Barber near Holopaw, in what is now Osceola County, on this date in 1870. The ambush stemmed from earlier disagreements over the payment of taxes on cattle. Moses Barber refused to pay what he believed to be unfair taxes on his cattle, and as a response, Mizell and his family took his cattle as payment for delinquent taxes. Barber publicly warned Mizell not to step foot on his property again, but on this date in 1870, Mizell did, resulting in his death. Within weeks, revenge killings occurred on both sides, purportedly resulting in at least thirteen deaths stemming from the original feud. Today people can visit the old Mizell family homestead at the Harry P. Leu Botanical Gardens in Orlando.
You can read more about the Barber-Mizell family feud in “Florida’s Frontier: The Way Hit Wuz” by Mary Ida Bass Barber Shearhardt, published by the FHS Press