Leigh Read County, Florida

Leigh Read County was a county in Florida proposed to honor General and Legislator Leigh Read following his assassination. In 1842, the Democrats in the Florida Territorial Council passed a bill that would have renamed Mosquito County - which at the time included all of today's Orange, Seminole, and Volusia as well as parts of Lake, Osceola, Polk and Brevard counties - to Leigh Read County.[1] Many claim that the bill did pass the Territorial Council, but there are no legislative records of the bill.[2] What happened is unclear, but some claim a clerk withheld the bill, while others claim Whig governor Richard K. Call, who routinely clashed with Read, refused to sign the bill.[1] One historian says Governor Call claims to have signed the bill, "but through some misadventure the law never appeared on the books."[3]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Deadly Game Of Politics Stole Read's Immortality". Orlando Sentinel. 1999-08-22. Retrieved 2015-08-03.
  2. ^ Bair, Cinnamon (2006-01-09). "Leigh Read Had a Shot At History". TheLedger.com. Retrieved 2015-08-03.
  3. ^ Morris, Allen (November 1979). "The Language and Lore of Lawmaking in Florida". University of Florida. p. 37. Retrieved 2015-08-03.
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