Florida’s First Governor Takes Office

May 26, 1845 marked Florida’s first statewide election, held just two months after it officially entered the Union. Voting was limited to free males over 21 who were U.S. citizens, residents of Florida, and either enrolled in the militia or legally exempt.

Democrat David Levy Yulee won the race for the U.S. House with 60 percent of the 4,995 votes cast, defeating Whig Benjamin A. Putnam. Yulee never joined the House; instead, the legislature soon elected him one of Florida’s first U.S. senators. An attorney and the first Jewish member of the Senate, he later founded the Florida Railroad Company and eventually served in the Confederate Congress.

William Dunn Moseley (pictured) became the state’s first elected governor. A former North Carolina legislator who moved to Jefferson County in 1835, he guided the creation of Florida’s state government, oversaw completion of the Capitol, encouraged agricultural expansion, and worked to stabilize relations between settlers and Seminole communities. After leaving office in 1849, Moseley settled in Palatka, where he operated a citrus grove until his death in 1863.