There are many colorful stories told about the adventures of the Scottish immigrant, Peter Karr Baillie. Some of these are recorded in published histories of Pasco County, Florida. These tales recount the story of a young surveyor on an expedition to the wilderness of Florida. While camping near a tribe of friendly Indians he fortuitously cured the chief's son of malaria with his supply of quinine and was rewarded with a grant of land from the chief. Many years later, PK returned to Florida, bringing his family with him. Upon the outbreak of hostilities between the Indians and whites, this same chief sent a party of braves to warn the family and escort them out of danger. Such is the legend. It may even be true but, at this point, we have no records to bear it out.
What can be documented is that Peter Karr Baillie was born in Scotland in 1800 and was living in Thomas County, Georgia in 1830. By 1836 he had established a mercantile business in Leon County, Florida, near St. Mark's, where he also served as a Militia Scout during the Second Seminole War and fought in the Battle of Chicksawhatchee Swamp in July of that year. The following year he moved to Lowndes County, Georgia where he engaged in a real estate business with Francis Jones. While there he married Maria Ann Cope whose family had moved to Valdosta from Effingham County, Georgia. It is likely that Maria resided with her family for the next several years as her children were born in Georgia while PK was exploring Florida.
In 1843 PK Baillie filed for an Armed Occupation Permit for 160 acres of land in Hernando County, Florida near Ft. Cross and Annuteliga Hammock. He later received a government patent for this land but two years later he was in Jefferson County, Florida where he served as an election inspector for precinct 4 in Florida's first state-wide election. He appears to have remained in Jefferson County, operating "Bailey's Store" for the next several years. He purchased 160 acres in that county in 1854 and in 1856 he applied for and received a Bounty Land Warrant for his service in the Seminole War. He assigned, or sold, this claim to another individual. It was about this time that he returned to Valdosta and took up farming.
The Baillie family appears to have remained in Valdosta, near Maria's family, through the Civil War. The three eldest sons served in the Confederacy and one of them, Joseph, died early in the war. William and Burton, though wounded, served until the surrender. In December 1865 the Baillies sold 490 acres of land in Valdosta and settled in Hernando County, Florida in January 1866. In 1867 PK received title to all of Fractional Section 22 which was known as Baillie's Bluff. It was upon this high point of land that he established another merchandising business, trading with local fisherman and apparently doing some carpentry work
PK Baillie died in 1877 and was buried in West Elfers Cemetery. About this time, Baillie's Bluff was sold and the family moved inland to the community of Elfers. In 1887 this area of Hernando became part of the newly created Pasco County where many Baillie descendants remain today.
