Rochelle, Florida
By Joanna Grey Talbot
A few minutes south of Windsor is a forgotten town that has many stories to tell. The former town of Rochelle is located at the crossroads of County Roads 234 and 2082.
Like Windsor, the area was first settled by farmers and plantation owners in the 1840s. Madison Starke Perry, who would go on to serve as governor of Florida, owned 3,000 acres in what was first known as Perry Junction. He had moved from South Carolina in 1847 to start a cotton plantation. Governor Perry died in 1865 and is buried in the Oak Ridge Cemetery in Rochelle, the second oldest cemetery in the county. He had donated the land for the cemetery in 1854. The oldest section is furthest from the entrance because the road used to pass on the east side. The present entrance area served as a burying ground for African American residents.
In 1881 the town was renamed Gruelle in honor of N.R. Gruelle, the original surveyor of the Florida Southern Railroad. The next year the railroad line from Palatka to Ocala was constructed with a stop in Rochelle, ensuring the town’s growth for the foreseeable future. Later the town would also be on the main line of the Plant Railroad System between Jacksonville and St. Petersburg.
1883 Map of Alachua County showing the town of Gruelle, courtesy of the Matheson History Museum collection
Due to the railroad and the thriving citrus and farming industries, the town began to grow and on March 22, 1884, a post office was established there. On August 11, 1884, the town was renamed in honor of Mrs. Perry’s family, the Rochelles.
By the 1880s the town population was approximately 175. It was described by Carl Webber in Eden of the South (1883) as “a thriving little town, about 10 miles from Gainesville. [It] has a hotel, two or three stores, a saw-mill, an express-office, etc. It is surrounded by some of the most prolific vegetable farms in this section. It is quite near Newnan’s Lake.”
In 1885 Sallie Perry, daughter of Madison and Martha Perry, donated the land for a new school for the local white children. It was named in honor of her mother – the Martha Perry Institute. The building was two stories with two classrooms on the first floor and the music room, balcony, and bell tower on the second floor. The school’s first teacher was Clem Hampton of Georgia and there were 32 students enrolled during its first year. The Institute building served as a school until 1935. The building still stands, and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. This year it was named as one of the “11 to Save” by the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation along with the Trinity Methodist Church (built 1890).
Martha Perry Institute building, undated, courtesy of the Alachua County Library District Heritage Collection
African American students met in a former church, which was described as “very poor and unimproved with stove or chimney, though the trustees promise a stove soon.” In 1885 there were 37 students enrolled and the teacher was Frank J. Story.
The Croxton family Christmas celebration in Rochelle, 1892, courtesy of the State Library & Archives of Florida
Unfortunately, the great freeze of 1894-95 decimated the citrus industry and precipitated the beginning of the end for Rochelle. The citrus industry moved further south but the farming industry continued. In 1914 an article in the Gainesville Sun discussed the town’s farmers who had “already shipped eight railroad cars of beans. Other crops planted and expected to begin shipping soon were watermelons, cantaloupes, sugar, corn, tomatoes, squash, and seven acres of cotton.”
Program for the Martha Perry Institute’s production of the operetta Lilly Bell on April 14, 1896, courtesy of the Alachua County Clerk of Court Ancient Records
Students of the Martha Perry Institute, 1901, courtesy of the Matheson History Museum collection
By the 1940s the population declined significantly with the continued growth of Gainesville. Postal service was moved to Gainesville in 1945. Although there is no longer a visible town center, a small population still lives in the area today.