This World Wide Web page written by
Dan Styer;
http://www.oberlin.edu/physics/dstyer/Muir/CaptainSimmonsFlorida.html;
22 February 2010; last updated 22 December 2011.
As part of his "Thousand-Mile Walk To the Gulf", John Muir spent the nights of 20, 21, and 22 October 1867 in the Florida home of "Captain Simmons, one of the very few scholarly, intelligent men that I have met in Florida. He had been an officer in the Confederate army...". On 20 October, Simmons told Muir about "a palmetto grove on a rich hummock a few miles from here. The grove is about seven miles in length by three in breadth. The ground is covered with long grass, uninterrupted with bushes or other trees. It is the finest grove of palmettos I have ever seen and I have oftentimes thought that it would make a fine subject for an artist." The next day Muir visited for himself, and found a "sun-drenched palm garden ... well starred with flowers."
Who was Captain Simmons, and where was the sunny palmetto hummock?
According to the "Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System", seventy soldiers named "Simmons" from Florida served the Confederate army. Of these, three were captains.
Captain Henry K. Simmons of the Second Florida Cavalry died on 6 March 1865 at the Battle of Natural Bridge, so it couldn't have been him.
Muir's Captain Simmons must have been either Captain Felix Simmons or Captain Henry Clay Simmons of Company F, Eighth Florida Infantry. An Internet search shows that these individuals have been investigated by genealogist Elaine Blackman and by genealogist Arthur Bowie.
According to these two genealogists, the two Simmons captains were brothers who, furthermore, married sisters.
Holman Felix Simmons:
Henry Clay Simmons:
Which Captain Simmons entertained Muir? On 22 October 1867 Muir went hunting with Captain Simmons and an ex-judge, "while a brother of the captain entered the woods to arouse the game from cover." This sounds to me like a job for a younger brother! So I expect Muir's Captain was the 43-year-old Felix rather than the 29-year-old (and recently married) Henry.
[Another brother, George McIntosh Troup Simmons, then 31 years old, also lived in Florida, and he could have been the game-rouser.]
[According to genealogist Arthur Bowie, Holman Felix Simmons's son Benjamin Fletcher Simmons liked to tell bear hunting stories just like his father.]
So much for persons. What about location?
Muir walked across Florida from Fernandina to Cedar Key along the "Florida Railroad", which had been completed in 1860 but which had been much damaged during the Civil War. (This railroad route is paralleled by the current highways Florida A1A (200) from Fernandina to Yulee to Callahan, then US 301 to Baldwin to Starke and to Waldo, then Florida 24 to Gainesville to Bronson to Otter Creek and to Cedar Key.) He spent the night of 18 October in Gainesville, "at a sort of tavern." He walked two days before reaching Captain Simmons's home, and then walked one more day before reaching the Gulf at Cedar Key.
Two-thirds of the way from Gainesville to Cedar Key, on Florida Route 24, is the town of Otter Creek (where US 19 intersects Florida 24, and within Levy County). This must have been the vicinity of Captain Simmons's home. There are three named hammocks in the area: Rocky Hammock and Devils Hammock to the north of Florida Route 24 are both too small. Gulf Hammock to the south seems about the right size (seven by three miles). You can check out the topographic maps yourself.
I am sorry to report that D. Bruce Means ("Stalking the Plumed Serpent and Other Adventures in Herpetology" Pineapple Press, Sarasota, Florida, 2008, pages 213-214) mentions "the recent horizon-to-horizon clearcutting of the hardwoods and cabbage palm forests in Gulf Hammock." It appears that Muir's "sun-drenched palm garden" is now lost.