William Jackson Brack

William Jackson Brack (June 17, 1837 - April 30, 1901) was the first mayor of Orlando, Florida from 1875 to 1877.

He was born to John and Eliza Brack in Georgia on June 17, 1837. He married firstly to the former Olive Chancey (1838 - 1864) of Clinch County, Georgia, by whom he had two sons who died young. The Bracks removed to Alexandria, Louisiana before the outbreak of the Civil War. [1860 Census, Rapides Parish, Louisiana, page 41.] During that conflict, the future mayor served in Company C of the 27th Louisiana Infantry Regiment. [Mount Peace Cemetery, Saint Cloud, Florida.]

After the war, the widowed Brack came to Florida, where he married his second wife Amy (July 5, 1847 - May 25, 1880). [Greenwood Cemetery, Orlando, Florida.] They had three daughters before her untimely death: Olive, Bessie, and Josphine Brack. [1880 Census, Orange County, Florida, page 432a.]

It is unclear exactly when Brack settled in the Orlando area. He was certainly there by October 16, 1873, when he was mentioned as guardian ad litem for the orphans of Mrs. Lucinda Hughey Terrell in a lawsuit filed in the circuit court of Orange County, Florida. ["The American State Reports" by Abraham Clark Freeman, Bancroft-Whitney Company, 1894, Volume 37, page 95.]

In 1875, when Orlando was formally incorporated, Brack was elected its first mayor. He was subsequently re-elected to a second one-year term.

After leaving office, the former mayor remained in the Orlando area as a farmer and fruit grower until at least 1880. [1880 Census, Orange County, Florida, page 432a.] He was married there to his third wife Eliza A. Tison on March 6, 1881. [Orange County, Florida, Marriage Book 1-1, page 269.] They had seven children: John P. ("Jack"), Rosa B., Gussie, Emma H., Ruby, Blanche, and Lydia Brack. [1900 Census, Osceola County, Florida, pages 171b and 172a.]

The Bracks left Orlando to live on the north shore of Lake Tohopekaliga in what is now Osceola County, Florida, where they operated a general store and sawmill at "Brack's Landing." From that point, he also captained a 35-foot sidewheel steamboat called "Spray" along the inland canals that connected the Kissimmee River valley to Fort Myers, Florida on the Gulf of Mexico.

The former mayor retired to a cattle ranch near Narcoossee, Florida, where he died April 30, 1901. He is buried at Mount Peace Cemetery in Saint Cloud, Florida. [Mount Peace Cemetery, Saint Cloud, Florida.]

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