Daniel Ladd
Florida merchant, secession convention delegate
Daniel Ladd (March 21, 1817 – October 22, 1872) was born in Augusta, Maine and was an exporter, cotton broker and merchant in early Florida and active as a member of the Secession Convention of Florida.
Antebellum
Ladd came to Florida in 1833 and settled in Magnolia, Florida in what would be Wakulla County, Florida where he worked in his uncle's store. He would later take on the responsibilities of running his uncle's store in Port Leon, Florida. Ladd moved to Newport after the 1843 hurricane.
As Newport grew, Ladd's business grew as well with him adding a large sawmill, foundry, two hotels and turpentine works to the town. He was a major proponent and President of the Georgia-Florida Plank Road Company.
Having a growing business, Ladd purchased a side-paddle wheel steamer in 1850 which was named the Spray. The Spray operated as far south as Cedar Key, Florida, up the Apalachicola River to Columbus, Georgia, up the Suwannee River and west to New Orleans transporting cotton, naval stores, hides, tobacco, beeswax. With his location as well as businesses and transport, Ladd became a mercantile power handling almost all of the merchants and planters for the Red Hills Region and nearby.
Civil war
Upon the outbreak of the American Civil War, Ladd was offered an officer's position in the Confederate Army.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 27, 2021. The linked authority identifier is Q5217858. VIAF identifies the subject as 38164596. The Library of Congress control number is n77004275. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1817, 1872, 1833 and 1843.
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