1889 Rand McNally Map of Brevard County, Florida

This is an 1889 Rand McNally and Company map of Brevard County, Florida. Coverage extends from Mosquito Lagoon south along the Florida Atlantic coast to Dade County and Lake Okeechobee (further inland). Titusville, the terminus of the Jacksonville, Tampa, and Key West Railroad, appears in bold print with the railroad heading to the northwest. Cape Canaveral is labeled. Two proposed canal routes from Unknown Saw Grass Lake and Lake Okeechobee are illustrated by black and white dashed lines. Several forts are identified in the southwest corner of Brevard County. An 'unsurveyed impassable morass' occupies part of the central portion of the county next to the Fleming Grant. The Capron Trail appears near the bank of the Indian River and traverses almost the entirety of Brevard County.

The Fleming Grant

This large grant on both sides of the St. Sebastian River was awarded to George Fleming, an Irishman who served in the Spanish Army, in 1816. The entire grant was purchased in 1892 by James W. Todd, a member of the Board of Directors at Bissell's Bank. Todd broke up the Fleming Grant and appears to have sold the last of it in 1910.

Publication History and Census

This map was created by Rand McNally and Company and published in A Brief Description of Brevard County, Florida, or the Indian River Country; its Climate, Health, Products, Etc. in 1889. The present example was published in the third edition of the pamphlet in 1890. We note a single example of the separate map in OCLC, located at the Jacksonville Public Library. Perhaps a dozen examples of the 1889 and 1890 editions of the pamphlet are cataloged in institutional collections.