• Subscribe to the Magazine
  • Read the Magazine
  • The Best of Fort Lauderdale
  • DINE Fort Lauderdale
Subscribe to our newsletter

Subscribe to our newsletter and never miss a thing!

  • Features
  • Fashion
  • City Life
    • Business
    • Community
    • Culture
    • Development
    • Profile
  • Good Life
    • Casa Chic
    • Health
    • Motors
    • Outdoors
    • Sports
    • Travel
  • Guide
    • Entertainment
    • Restaurant Guide
    • Snapshots
  • Food & Drink
    • Chef’s Corner
    • Grazings
    • Light Bites
    • Restaurant Guide
  • From the Publisher
  • Around Town
  • Goods
  • Old Lauderdale
  • The List
  • Subscribe
  • Events
  • Restaurant Guide
  • Read the Magazine
0
Subscribe

Read the current issue

Fort Lauderdale Magazine
Fort Lauderdale Magazine
  • Features
  • Fashion
  • City Life
    • Business
    • Community
    • Culture
    • Development
    • Profile
  • Good Life
    • Casa Chic
    • Health
    • Motors
    • Outdoors
    • Sports
    • Travel
  • Guide
    • Entertainment
    • Events
    • Restaurant Guide
    • Snapshots
  • Food & Drink
    • Chef’s Corner
    • Grazings
    • Light Bites
    • Restaurant Guide
  • From the Publisher
  • Around Town
  • Goods
  • Old Lauderdale
  • The List
  • The Best of Fort Lauderdale
  • DINE Fort Lauderdale
  • Old Lauderdale

Undefeated Sam Jones

  • October 1, 2016
  • John Dolen
Statue of Sam Jones at Tree Tops Park in Davie.
Statue of Sam Jones at Tree Tops Park in Davie.
A famous Seminole leader with a unique nickname, Sam Jones kept his promise to stay in Florida.

“Sam Jones, leader of the Seminoles, fought a crucial battle against Major William Lauderdale…” You see this phrase in all kinds of historical accounts, some of which mention that Sam Jones is another name for Miccosukee doctor and patriot Abiaca.

OK, so they don’t say doctor and patriot, but use the more pejorative terms “medicine man” and “fierce warrior.” But they never explain why this wily Indian leader – who outmaneuvered and outlasted U.S. regiments in a series of “Seminole Wars” – was named Sam Jones.

The late author and Florida historian Stuart McIver supplied an answer.

According to McIver, Sam Jones was the name of a fish peddler from Sandy Hook, New Jersey, an acquaintance of a certain U.S. officer from New York assigned to Fort King (near present-day Ocala). The officer had cordial relations with the snowy-haired Abiaca, who in good times sold the officer fish. The officer started calling him “Sam Jones,” and the nickname stuck.

What we know about Abiaca, aka Sam Jones, is that his name has lots of spellings and interpretations due to the phonetics of the original language. Arpeica, Ar-pi-uck-i, etc. One was Apayaka Hadjo, meaning Crazy Rattlesnake.

He had a wife, Itee, who was half Irish and half Choctaw, born circa 1790. He had at least one daughter, Rebecca Jones, born in Tennessee, who died in 1893 in Texas at 76.

We know he had a strategic military mind, which became very clear in two major battles of the Seminole Wars. From the U.S. army’s point of view, their regiments won the battles of Lake Okeechobee and Pine Island Ridge.

But as the Seminoles told it, and others agree, they were the victors.

The goal of the U.S. was to get the remainder of the Miccosukees, Seminoles and Creeks to move west of the Mississippi as others had. They even offered Sam Jones bags of cash to clear out. His reply: “In Florida I was born. In Florida I will die. In Florida my bones will bleach.”

In the 1837 Battle of Lake Okeechobee, future president Col. Zachary Taylor led 1,032 troops against a smaller fighting force of Creek and Miccosukkee, led by Sam Jones. The federal troops crossed open waters firing, but Sam Jones had his fighters entrenched in firm tree-rooted ground and simply picked off the soldiers.

The Seminoles, barely scathed, slipped back into the Everglades. Taylor, suffering many casualties, retreated back toward Tampa and declared victory.

In 1838 came “our” big battle, where Maj. William Lauderdale led his Tennessee volunteers to chase Jones and his 50 to 100 braves off Pine Island Ridge in what is now Davie. The major led his troops tromping through waist-deep water while the Seminoles fired down from the island, inflicting casualties on the greater force of several hundred. But as before, they slipped away, “the old medicine man” and his forces mostly intact. When they retreated, they left behind a trove of food-processing equipment, canoes and weapons. Lauderdale declared victory.

But the Seminoles suffered far fewer fatalities than the larger force they faced, making it to camps further back in the Everglades, ready to fight another day – which indeed they did. They never gave up South Florida, and because of their resistance, these Native Americans are part of our population today.

Here’s how Seminole historians put it. “Many years older than most of the Seminole leadership of that era, wise old Sam Jones was a staunch resistor of removal. He kept the resistance fueled before and after Osceola’s period of prominence and, when the fighting had concluded, was the only major Seminole leader to remain in Florida,” says a section of the tribe’s web page.

“Starved, surrounded, sought with a vengeance, Sam Jones would answer no flag of truce, no offer of compromise, no demand of surrender. His final camp was in the Big Cypress Swamp, not far from the Seminole Tribe’s Big Cypress community of today.”

Sam Jones had fulfilled his vow, passing on at the ripe old age of 102.

Related Topics
  • Old Lauderdale
  • Sam Jones
Previous Article
  • Old Lauderdale

The Little Doctor

  • September 1, 2016
  • John Dolen
View Post
Next Article
  • Old Lauderdale

The Barefoot Mailmen

  • November 1, 2016
  • John Dolen
View Post
You May Also Like
View Post
  • Old Lauderdale

The Legacy of Elks Rest

  • June 26, 2025
  • John Dolen
View Post
  • Old Lauderdale

Landmark Reimagined

  • May 29, 2025
  • John Dolen
View Post
  • Old Lauderdale

Next Stop, New River

  • April 24, 2025
  • John Dolen
View Post
  • Old Lauderdale

Tale of Three Towns

  • March 27, 2025
  • FLMag Staff
View Post
  • Old Lauderdale

Popping Up All Over

  • February 27, 2025
  • John Dolen
View Post
  • Old Lauderdale

Tracing the Lauderdale Origin Name

  • January 30, 2025
  • John Dolen
View Post
  • Old Lauderdale

As Seen on the Screen

  • December 26, 2024
  • John Dolen
View Post
  • Old Lauderdale

The City With No High-Rises

  • December 2, 2024
  • John Dolen

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe to our newsletter

Subscribe to our newsletter and never miss a thing!

Fort Lauderdale Magazine
  • Contact Us
  • Media Kit
  • Careers
  • Advertise With Us
© PD Strategic Media. All rights reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of PD Strategic Media. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our privacy policy.

Input your search keywords and press Enter.

By using our site, you acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and cookie policy.Accept