Mount Moriah Baptist Church was built in Port Orange, Florida in 1911. Built to serve black residents, it was located in an area that came to be known as Freemanville and is believed to be the last remaining building from the settlement. Freed blacks settled the area to work at a lumber company started by John Milton Hawks, but sandy soil, corruption, and planning issues led to a rapid decline as the colony struggled. A plaque commemorate the area's history. [1] It is part of the Black Heritage Trail. [2] It has been suggested that Esther Hawks established Florida's first integrated school in the area. An annual Freeman Day Ceremony commemorates the heritage. [3] The church was renovated in 1956. [4]
Port Orange is a city in Volusia County, Florida, United States. The city's estimated population was 57,203 in 2013. The city is part of the Deltona–Daytona Beach–Ormond Beach metropolitan area; the metropolitan area's population in 2010 was 590,289. Port Orange is a principal city in the Fun Coast region of the state of Florida.
Freemanville is a section of Port Orange, Florida that was settled by freed blacks after the U.S. Civil War. John Milton Hawks brought freed blacks to the area to work at his sawmill, but a variety of issues caused it to fail and the colony struggled. Some colonists remained in the area and settled the area that later became known as Freemanville. The Mount Moriah Baptist Church is believed to be the area's last remaining remnant building. A commemorative plaque and an annual Freemanville commemoration celebrate the area's heritage. Esther Hill Hawks established what may have been Florida's first integrated school to serve the area.
John Milton Hawks (1826–1910) was an abolitionist, surgeon and organizer for the assistance of freed blacks and black soldiers during the U.S. Civil War as well as a businessman and Florida settler in Volusia County. During Reconstruction he was secretary of the board of registration for Volusia County. He was also clerk of the Florida House of Representatives from 1868 to 1870. A plaque in his honor is located at the Edgewater City Hall at 104 North Riverside Drive in Edgewater, Florida. Hawks wrote The East Coast of Florida: A Descriptive Narrative, published in 1887 by L.J. Sweett and/ or Lewis & Winsship He is listed as a Great Floridian. His wife, Esther Jane (Hill) Hawks(1833 - 1906), was also a doctor and helped educate black soldiers and their families. She was an 1857 graduate of the New England Female Medical College.
