Eau Gallie, Florida

Eau Gallie (ˌoʊˈgæli) is a section of the city of Melbourne, Florida, located on the city's northern side. It was an independent city in Brevard County from 1860 until 1969. That year residents of Eau Gallie and Melbourne voted to merge their governments. A subsequent vote resulted in the combined jurisdiction being named Melbourne. The name and identity of Eau Gallie persists in a number of local entities and was used by the Eau Gallie Arts District Main Street, a fully accredited Florida Main Street program since 2010. Eau Gallie developed as a small coastal town along the Indian River on the Florida East Coast. Brevard County, home of Eau Gallie, was named after the State Comptroller, Theodore Washington Brevard in 1855. In 1859, the US Army sent John Caroll Houston IV to conduct a Seminole Indian census. Arriving in the Indian River area, Houston fell in love with its beauty. Houston named the area Arlington, for a community near Jacksonville where he had once lived. He took a leave of absence and applied for a soldier's land grant. Houston traveled to the area of Eau Gallie with his sons and 10 enslaved Africans. His wife joined him a year later when he had completed clearing land and building their cabin with their slaves. The area changed little during the Civil War. Former lieutenant governor, William Henry Gleason founded Eau Gallie in 1869 as he made his way to Arlington from Miami. Gleason acquired land consisting of the entire area from the Indian River Lagoon to Lake Washington (about thirty square miles). Eau Gallie is commonly said to mean "rocky water", since coquina rocks were found in the area. While means "water" in French, gallie is not a French word and may be derived from ("pebble" in French). Some attribute it a Chippewa word; however, Chippewa speakers lived along the northern border of the United States and Canada. A US post office was established in 1871. The Kentucky Military Institute wintered in Eau Gallie from 1907 to 1921. In 1920, the population had increased to about 500 people, nearly the same as adjacent Melbourne.