Glen St. Mary: A Sick Stockbroker Who Planted a Town

In eighteen eighty-one, a young Chicago stockbroker came to Florida on a doctor's orders. He toured the countryside, found a tract of land along the Saint Mary's River in Baker County, and started planting peach trees. His name was George Lindley Taber, and the surplus trees he had no use for turned out to be very profitable to sell.

By eighteen eighty-two he had founded the nursery that later became the Glen Saint Mary Nurseries Company, and began supplying citrus trees and ornamental plants across the South. After the catastrophic freezes of eighteen ninety-four and ninety-five wiped out Florida's citrus industry, Taber pivoted to freeze-resistant varieties like kumquats and satsumas. Within two decades his nursery was among the leading citrus propagators in the country, and he is credited as the founder of the town of Glen Saint Mary.

The nursery company was added to the National Register of Historic Places in two thousand three.