SITE OF THE MISSION OF SAN JUAN DEL PUERTO- Jacksonville, Florida
N 30° 25.671 W 081° 25.544
17R E 459116 N 3366273
Quick Description: This historical marker is located across the street in the overflow parking lot by the entrance gates to the Fort George Island Cultural Center within the historic Ribault Club
Location: Florida, United States
Date Posted: 11/11/2009 11:23:43 AM
Waymark Code: WM7N33
Views: 2
Long Description:The Marker Reads:
The establishment of missions chiefly for purpose the of
Christianizing the Indian population was one of the methods used by
Spain in attempting to colonize Florida in the sixteenth century.
The Mission of San Juan del Puerto was founded late in the 1500's
by the Franciscan Order of friars to serve the Timucuan Indians
living in the area. While working at this mission around 1600
Father Francisco Pareja prepared a Timucuan dictionary, grammar and
several religious books in that language for use by the Indians.
The Mission of San Juan del Puerto continued to exist throughout
the seventeenth century in spite of the growing
Continued on Reverse Side
conflict between Florida's Spanish inhabitants and English and
French invaders. In 1696, Jonathan Dickinson, a Philadelphia Quaker
who had been shipwrecked off the coast of Florida, passed this way
and recorded a visit to "the town of St. Wan's, a large town and
many people. In 1702, Governor James Moore of the British Colony of
South Carolina attempted to take St. Augustine from the Spanish.
His effort failed, but in the process of the raid into Spanish
territory, Moore destroyed the Spanish missions from St. Augustine
northward, including the Mission of San Juan del Puerto.