Many enjoy diving into ancestry.com or other genealogical services to see where they come from, and to learn about the lives and times of those who gave them a name and history.
How about we do the same with a name that figures in our local history — that of our city?
We’ll have to go to Scotland for that, back to the time of Robert the Bruce, 1274–1329. And add a more familiar legend from that era, William Wallace, 1270–1305. You may know him from the Oscar-winning film. Does Mel Gibson ring a bell? How about Braveheart?
The Lauderdale family was descended from the Scottish Maitland-Lauderdale clan, which claimed to be related to both Robert the Bruce and William Wallace. Our William’s grandfather, James Maitland Lauderdale Sr., was the son of the Scottish Earl of Lauderdale. He emigrated to Virginia in 1714.
A little about Robert the Bruce: Also known as Robert I, he was King of the Scots from 1306 to his death in 1329. Robert led his nation during its first war of independence, defeating England.
Wallace was a Scottish knight who fought in the same war as Robert the Bruce, achieving a major victory over the British in the Battle of Sterling Bridge.
Fighting the English seems to be a running storyline among the menfolk who stand out in this strand of ancestry.
James Lauderdale Sr., William’s grandfather, left Scotland and a place called Lauder Cast (castle) when he came here. His son James fought with the Continental Army led by George Washington in the Revolutionary War, taking on a familiar foe: England.
James Jr.’s service led to a generous land grant in Tennessee, where he settled with his family. William Lauderdale was one of the boys in that family, whose neighbor would be a big reason we live in a city called Fort Lauderdale. His name was Andrew Jackson.
It was Jackson who dispatched William as a lieutenant to fight in the War of 1812. It was against that perennial enemy of the family line: the British again.
A refresher: War was declared in 1812 by the U.S. for a host of reasons too numerous to detail here. To name a few: The Royal Navy began enforcing tighter restrictions on American trade with France; that navy also forcibly conscripted American sailors who were originally British subjects; the British supported certain Indian tribes to confront America’s move westward, even planning to create a large “neutral” Indian state that would cover much of Ohio, Indiana and Michigan.
Now fighting as Lieutenant Lauderdale, William survived that conflict and earned a spot in Jackson’s inner circle.
It was from that relationship that he was called upon to lead a contingent of Tennessee militiamen to Florida to confront the warring Seminoles.
The call came in 1837, two decades after his last major service. He was recuperating from a respiratory illness at the time in the Smoky Mountains. In the meantime he married, had children and a very successful farm. Maj. Gen. Thomas Jesup, in command of the U.S. Army of the South, was facing a determined enemy in the Seminole Wars. He asked Jackson, now retired after his two White House terms, for a recommendation.
Jackson wrote back, “I know of but one man that I think can raise a battalion… who can and will beat the whole Indian force in Florida.”
Lauderdale and his Tennessee militia battled Seminoles in the close combat style he was well-schooled in. They suffered stiff casualties in a Loxahatchee battle but forged further south. A difficult task lay ahead. A trail needed to be cleared from near where Jupiter is today through to the New River area, to reach the main Seminole camps.
We know that pathway today as Military Trail.
And the story is oft-told from there, with the now-promoted Major Lauderdale and his troops building a military post along the New River, a 30-foot square, two-tiered blockhouse. Jesup named it Fort Lauderdale.
They drove the Seminoles back into the Everglades, where the tribe and its leader Abiaca escaped capture.
Shortly after that the major became ill, and was on his way back to Tennessee via Baton Rouge, where he died. He was 56.
Shortly after, the Seminoles came out of the Everglades and burned the fort to the ground. Two more “Fort Lauderdales” were subsequently constructed in other locations.
The good news: For all the past conflicts, the Lauderdales and the rest of us haven’t fought the British since.