William Dunnington Bloxham (July 9, 1835 – March 15, 1911) was the 13th and 17th Governor of Florida in two non-consecutive terms. Prior to his first term as governor, he served in the Florida House of Representatives. He was a Democrat.
His family had a plantation and he attended boarding schools in Virginia. He served in the Confederate army and opposed Reconstruction policies. As governor he sold off land for development.
In between his terms as governor, he served as state Comptroller when Francis P. Fleming was Governor. Bloxham was only the second governor of Florida to be born in the state.
Early life and career
Bloxham was born on a plantation in Leon County, Florida, the son of William and Martha (Williams) Bloxham. His great-grandfather had migrated from England to manage George Washington's plantation and his grandfather endured adversity due to the War of 1812. In 1861, he was elected to the Florida House of Representatives without opposition. With the Civil War raging in 1862, Bloxham organized a company of infantry from Leon County which he commanded for the duration of the war. After the war, he staunchly opposed Reconstruction and, using his popularity as a speaker, was a leading voice among Florida Democrats.
When the voting finally ended, it appeared that Bloxham had won the Lieutenant Governor race. Bloxham applied to the supreme court for a writ of quo warranto on February 20, 1871, to challenge Day's victory, but the case did not begin until November 15. On June 1, 1872, the court finally ruled that Bloxham had won the 1870 election, by which time he had missed every state senate session in the term, meaning the term was effectively concluded. Although he took the oath of office on June 3, he could not perform the lieutenant governor's only duty, which was to preside over the Senate. Thus, he is not named in lists of Florida's lieutenant governors. The ruling was the first win for the Florida Democratic Party since the war. Hart, who had tried to claim Abijah Gilbert's U.S. Senate seat two years earlier, died barely a year into his term. Before his first month as governor was complete, Bloxham and Florida signed an agreement with Philadelphia saw manufacturing heir, Hamilton Disston, whereby Disston would attempt to drain the Everglades and would receive half of the land he reclaimed. With Disston actively planning his drainage efforts, Bloxham personally travelled to Philadelphia to make an even larger deal with him. On June 14, 1881, Disston signed a contract to purchase four million acres (16,000 km<sup>2</sup>) of Florida land, larger than the state of Connecticut, for $1 million, a purchase which made international news. When Disston and a second buyer, Sir Edward James Reed, paid in full, the state was out of debt and the first land boom soon followed.
Towards the end of Bloxham's first stint as governor, in 1884, call for revision to the Florida Constitution increased, fueled by division among the state's Democrats. Supporters of Bloxham's predecessor, George Franklin Drew, criticized Bloxham for the Disston Land Purchase as well as his apparent commitment to Florida Panhandle development at the expense of the rest of the state. They rallied around Confederate General Edward A. Perry and a call for a Constitutional Convention. In 1884, Bloxham lost the Democratic nomination to Perry; in 1885, voters approved the convention which led to the 1885 Florida Constitution.
Second term
On April 18, 1885, Bloxham was appointed Minister Resident and Consul General to Bolivia by President Grover Cleveland. Bloxham took the oath of office but declined to report for the post. Instead, he accepted a November 1885 appointment to become the U.S. Surveyor General for Florida which he held until December 1889. When the state comptroller position became vacant on May 1, 1890, Governor Francis P. Fleming appointed Bloxham to fill it. Bloxham was unanimously nominated for the position in August 1890 and easily won the election, and was easily re-elected in 1892.
William Bloxham died on March 15, 1911, in Tallahassee, Florida.
Plantation
Bloxham was a cotton planter in Leon County, Florida, and from the late 1850s owned the William D. Bloxham Plantation. He had 52 slaves.
Notes
References
- The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography (1901), Volume XI, J. T. White Company, p. 382.
External links
- Official Governor's portrait and biography from the State of Florida