Gifford Cemetery Vero Beach, Indian River County, Florida Episode 57

Gifford was organized in the mid-1880s.
Enumerated in the 1900 census as the Woodley precinct, the Gifford community emerged as a settlement village for black families.
Georgia farmer William Brown purchased 160 acres from the federal government through a homestead patent and brought his wife Dulois and their eight children to Gifford in the Although the local residents called the settlement Brownsville, it was prohibited from using the name for its post office because another town in North Florida carried the same name.
Instead, the town was named Gifford in honor Charlie Gifford, son of Henry Gifford and the railroad’s stationmaster.
By 1893, these early settlers of Gifford were joined by black laborers arriving to work on Henry Flagler’s new railroad that was under construction. By 1898, the Florida East Coast Railroad built small wood-framed stations in Woodley, Gifford and Vero.
In 1892, William Edward Geoffrey, a black man from Darlington, South Carolina, came to work on the Florida East Coast Railroad in Gifford.
The town's first school was built in 1898, but only served white children.
In 1901, Geoffrey purchased 80 acres of land in Gifford, and donated a portion for a park and the construction of a school for black children. Named the Gifford School, the small building was located at 38th Lane, east of what is now U.S. 1.
SOURCE: www.tcpalm.com/story/news/loc...
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