Founding Titusville
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Henry Titus was the founder of Titusville. Everything else we know about is a little shaky. From his year of birth to his contributions during the Civil War, a lot of what we know is hearsay. Going by his daughter, Minnie Titus Ensey, he was born in 1822 in Trenton, New Jersey. However, other accounts say his birth year anything from 1815 to 1823. One Newspaper from San Francisco even wrote that he was born in Alabama. From there, it gets even more confusing. While he is called Colonel, a lot of his military experience is either informal or completely unconfirmed, especially his work in the civil war. In fact, there is no official record of his life until 1945, when he was hired as a special investigator for the US postal service (H. Titus 2).
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Titus came into the public eye in about 1849 when he joined an expedition to Cuba. He and other volunteer soldiers sailed to Cuba in an attempt to liberate them from Spain and annex Cuba into the United States. However, this expedition was not supported by the government and ultimately failed. Titus and his team were attacked by the Spanish immediately and forced to flee to Key West. In what was probably a tall tale from her Father, Minnie Titus claims the colonel ordered that his crew burn everything combustible, even the bacon on the ship when they were nearly out of fuel. This story is highly disputed on a few levels. According to “The Titus Trail,” a biography written by Colonel Titus’ great-grandson, Titus was never a captain and thus wouldn’t have been giving orders like that. Other stories have disputed the boat Titus was on, some saying it was a ship, others saying it was a sailboat and a few calling it a life raft (7).
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Col. Henry Titus
Mary Evelina Hopkins
After that fiasco, Titus lived in Jacksonville for about seven years. Not much is known of this time in his life. We know he got married to Mary Evelina Hopkins and probably did some business during this time (11). He may have also had a child during this time, but that is another highly disputed aspect of his life. There is some anecdotal evidence that he had children when he was in Kansas, but official records say his first child was born while he was in Arizona (49).
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After Jacksonville, Titus went to Kansas to try and take it as a slave state. With a small militia, Titus built a “fort,” which was really a log cabin with a stone wall surrounding it and became a pro-slavery vigilante. Some accounts portray him as more of a terrorist who “robbed, pillaged, and plundered” local towns, according to “The Titus Trail.” Eventually, the locals fought back and Titus was captured in what is considered one of the first battles of the Civil War, now called Bleeding Kansas. Stories of what happened during the battle vary, with Mary Hopkins Titus telling her father there were 500 men attacking Titus and only 10 men in the fort. However, it is also reported that there were only 50 free state men and 34 of Titus’ men. In addition, Minnie Titus says her father never owned any slaves, but “The Titus Trail” states some slaves were confiscated after the battle. After trading hostages at Fort Titus for Titus’ freedom, Titus left Kansas (14).
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He was planning on joining an expedition to Nicaragua, similar to the Cuba expedition, but he was late. He did eventually have some failed adventures in Nicaragua, fleeing to California. After that, he traveled through Utah, picking fights with Native Americans.
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At the start of the Civil War, Titus brought his family back to Florida. According to Minnie Titus and official Titusville history, her father fought alongside her grandfather for the Confederates, eventually earning the title of Colonel. “The Titus Trail” claims that there was no evidence he had ever enlisted in either army or had any formal military experience. It also claims that he was actually blockade running up and down the east coast, getting supplies to both sides and shipping draft dodgers and deserters to the Bahamas (55).
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After the Civil War ended, Titus moved North initially, but then went back south due to his health. This is when he finally settled in Sand Point between 1863 and 1868, what is now Titusville. He knew the area from his time blockade running and his wife owned a tract of land there. Another account says he was shipwrecked there. He built Titus House, which became a very popular hotel. He worked as the postmaster, changed the name of Sand Point to Titusville, and pushed for it to become the county seat in Brevard. He remained there until he died in 1881 and his grave is located in the LaGrange Cemetery in Mims (M. Titus).
Minnie Titus
Titus House