History
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Origin and History of Brevard County, Florida
In the spring of 1513, over a century before the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, Juan Ponce de Leon is believed to have set foot in what is now Brevard County at the point of land he named Cape Canaveral. This is the same Cape Canaveral from which man's most daring ventures into space have been launched.
Florida remained under Spanish domination for the next 300 years, although rule was relinquished to the French in some portions, to England, back to Spain until the United States was ceded the territory by Spain in July 1821.
The first two counties were Escambia and St. Johns created in 1821~~ all of the east coast counties were formed from St. Johns County. The present Brevard County was originally part of Mosquito County, aptly named, which was one of the seven (7) counties into which the Territory was divided by an act of the legislative council of the
Territory of Florida as approved 23 Nov 1828. St. Lucie County was created by the Act of 14 March 1844, out of the northern part of Mosquito County. Florida became a state 3 March 1845. On 6 January 1866, by an act of legislature, the name of St. Lucie County was changed to Brevard and the county seat was located at Ft. Pierce. The county was reorganized in 1861. By an act of 1864 the county site of Brevard was located at Bassville (south of St. Cloud) and in 1874 it was located at Eau Gallie (now a part of Melbourne). By 1878 it was moved to Lake View (5 miles west of Kenansville) and in 1879, the southern part of Volusia County, having been added to Brevard, the site was moved to Titusville, where it has since remained.
Several generous slices of Brevard have been cut from the county as then composed and added to the adjoining counties on the west. In 1905 the southern part of Brevard County was cut off to form a new county, which took the old name of St. Lucie, with Ft. Pierce as the county seat. From that time Brevard County has retained its present form.
Historians say Brevard County is named for Judge Theodore Washington Brevard (1804-1877) who was Comptroller of the State of Florida at the time the county was named.
All records prior to 1871 were destroyed by fire. However, some old records of Mosquito County are still extant in the records Of St. Johns Co. at St. Augustine, the mother of all east coast counties.