Francis Council Groom, the second son of Council (b.1786) and Elizabeth Lofton (b.1792, SC), left his home in Todd County, KY, in 1833, when he was 22 years old and traveled to Stewart County, GA, near the town of Lumpkin.  He had two Aunts (Daughters of his Grand Parents, Elijah Groom (Croom) and Caty Herring, living in Stewart County.   The Aunts were named Mary Groom Miller and Zeptha Ann Groom Crumbly.   Frances had eight siblings and all except one have recorded descendants with names, Watson, Clark McGuirk, Gandy, Corcilas, Posey and of course Groom.   Frances’s parents along with his younger brother Andrew Jackson Groom lived out their lives in Coosa, County, AL and are buried there.

     During 1863, Frances Groom found the political climate in Mitchell County too harsh to endure.  He was not a Confederate sympathizer and apparently just wanted to be left alone.  The pressure from his neighbors and the new laws that made military service mandatory, forced his hand and he sold his farm for 20 pieces of gold. He packed his family and belongings and moved by wagon almost due south to the extreme southern part of Jefferson County, FL. 

     Florida had achieved statehood in 1845 which was about the same time as the great expansion of the cotton culture in the southeastern United States.   This resulted in a land boom in that part of Florida composed of clay hills and loam soil; this area became known as “Middle Florida”.  Most of the arable land in that part of Middle Florida that became Leon , Jefferson, Madison and Suwannee Counties was quickly acquired by the monied settlers who came from Maryland, Virginia and the Carolinas.   These planters came prepared to practice agriculture in the grand manner of the cotton growing states and they bought their culture of slave ownership with them.   Two things pushed Frances to the isolated southern tip of Jefferson County;  First - - Privacy;  Second - No good land was available.

     This was the Florida that Frances moved his growing family into in 1863.

    The area where Frances settled was known as ‘Big Muddy” around a natural depression called Groom Sink.  This was in an area just south of the village of Wacissa, near the old salt road from Magnolia to the St. Marks River.  In this isolated area, Frances found a community of other dissidents (many were deserters from the Confederate Army) who were called rogues, outlaws and henchmen by the more refined citizens of Jefferson County.  Originally this rogue group just took advantage of any chance encounter that might fill there lauder but as time went by they became more organized and were eventually formed into a military unit let by another deserter, William Strickland.  Frances Groomes name is found on the roster of this unit and the story of his transition from henchman to soldier is quiet interesting.

    The group of renegades who later became Stricklands Rangers had been a constant (if minor) problem for the district military commander in Tallahassee.   Many actions had been taken to try and round up the rogues with very little success.   Early in 1864 an order was circulated offering pardon any outlaw who would join the Confederate Army and serve their country.   If not, you would be shot on sight, your property would be seized or destroyed and your family would be held accountable for your actions.  History does not record how many men took this offer but the actions of the Confederates indicate that most did not.   The homes of Francis Groom and about twenty other men were destroyed and the families were arrested and transported to Fort Smith, near Tallahassee.   One of the results of this action was that  Frances traveled to St. Simmons,  GA, where a Union Regiment held a toehold on the coast of Georgia, Frances changed from a volunteer local militiaman to a professional soldier by joining the Regular Union Army.  Frances was transported around Florida to the Union camp at Cedar Key,  FL and this unit was assigned the duty of disrupting the salt mining operations going on along the gulf coast.

     After only several weeks in Cedar Key,  Frances was stricken down by pneumonia and was buried in the military cemetery in Cedar Key.  (On a sad note, this cemetery was laid out on one of the barrier islands and has been almost totally lost to storm erosion.)

     After a short incarceration, the wives of Strickland’s Rangers petitioned the Governor of Florida saying, “they were not responsible for their husband’s political leanings but their husbands were responsible for supporting them and their children”.   Whether the Governor was moved by their words or because there were desperately short on provisions, the Governor ordered the release of the prisoners and the rough trip back to the Big Muddy started.  In Elizabeth’s case the trip was even more daunting, she had heard about Frances   joining the Union Army and she had nothing to go back to in Jefferson County, so she secured a mule and wagon and started off for Cedar Key.   There were no modern roads and very few bridges so the trip from  Tallahassee to Cedar Key could take a week or longer.   As Elizabeth was passing thru Taylor County, she received news that Frances was dead. With nowhere to go, she decided to return to Jefferson County and try to start over just west of Perry, FL.  The exhaustion finally over took Elizabeth, luckily she found an abandoned house that was fully provisioned and she decided to rest awhile.

     Several days later Samuel Blue arrived and reclaimed his house.  He had recently lost his wife and had been staying with relatives who could help care for his young children.  Apparently an agreement was reached that  Elizabeth would care for Samuel’s children in exchange for board for herself and her children.  Out of this agreement came the marriage of Elizabeth and Samuel Blue within a year.   One child was born to this family, Melinda Blue (born 1868). Samuel’s oldest son, Colin married (1865)  Elizabeth ’s oldest daughter, Ann.   From this union came a large family and the beginning of the relationship of the Groom/Blue families of  Taylor and Jefferson Counties.    

     From the safety of 5 generations removed from the Big Muddy it’s easy to pass judgment:  

I don’t think that Frances and Elizabeth are heroes in the classic sense.  I think they were simple farm people who got caught up in events that were probably way over their heads and there is no evidence that  Frances was a deep thinker and no writings of his have ever been found.   The Groom and Blue families both owned slaves, they both probably rustled some cattle and they probably did what ever was necessary to put food on the table.  They were survivors and for that I am eternally grateful.  By the way,  Frances was an extremely frugal man, he saved those twenty pieces of gold from the sale of his Georgia farm and the next generation used that to secure their life after the war ended.