History of New Smyrna Beach
 
 
 
 
New Smyrna Beach was founded in 1768, by English physician Dr. Andrew Turnbull. It is the oldest city in Volusia County , and one of the oldest in the State of Florida . Some claim that the city is in fact the second-oldest city in the United States . There were Spanish missionaries present in the area as early as the 1560`s, and several structures in the city may be dated to this era. Its name is attributed to Turnbull`s wife, who was born in Smyrna , Turkey . The city occupies a notable place in history by being the single largest attempt by a member of the British Crown at colonization in the New World . Turnbull transplanted around 1500 settlers from Turkey , Greece , Sicily , and Spain to grow hemp, sugarcane, indigo, and to produce rum.
 
Early in 1800 Mosquito Inlet became a port of entry, and old manifests show export shipments of sugar, molasses, oranges, turtles, hides and live oak cut in quantity for government shipbuilding.
 
During the War Between the States, salt was made here and small boats ran the blockade. In 1862, a cargo of arms and ammunition was brought in, which led to a fight at the Old Stone Wharf . The Federals were forced back to their boats after a severe loss. The following year, the town was shelled by Federal gunboats and the hotel on the Old Fort Mound was burned because Confederate soldiers had been quartered there. 

The little town grew slowly but during the 1880`s there came the first school, first church and first newspaper. The town was incorporated in 1887 and the first railroad and lighthouse were built at that time. The 1890`s are also memorable for the opening of the East Coast Canal and the Florida East Coast Railroad, the Connor Bridge crossing the river (now the North Bridge ), the "Great Freeze", the Connor Free Library (now a historical museum), incidents of filibustering during the Cuban Rebellion and the visits of Pierre Lorillard and his world famous houseboat the "Cayman". From then on the city just grew and grew.

During prohibition in the 1920s, the city and its river islands where popular still sites and hideouts for rumrunners coming in from the Bahamas through Mosquito Inlet, now Ponce de Leon Inlet . 

"New Smyrna ", became " New Smyrna Beach " in 1947, when the city annexed the seaside community of Coronado Beach . New Smyrna Beach has a magnificent heritage of antiquity, but it is most modern in every way. There are wide parkways artistically planted with flowers and shrubs. Today, it is a bustling resort town of over 20,000 permanent residents, with over 1,000,000 visitors annually.

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