A Picnic at the Ruins of the Spanish Mission

The Spanish Mission San Luis de Apalachee holds a significant place in the history of Tallahassee, Florida. Established in 1633, it was one of the most important missions in Spanish Florida and served as the capital of the Apalachee Province.

The mission was established by Spanish Franciscan friars with the purpose of converting the Apalachee Native Americans to Christianity and integrating them into the Spanish colonial system. It was strategically positioned near the principal village of the Apalachee tribe, which was known as Anhaica.

San Luis de Apalachee thrived for several decades, becoming a vibrant community and the center of Spanish influence in the region. The mission complex encompassed a church, a friary, residential quarters, workshops, a council house, and a fortification wall. It also included a network of fields and gardens for agricultural production.

The Apalachee people who lived at the mission adopted Spanish culture and converted to Christianity, while also retaining some aspects of their own indigenous traditions. The mission became an important economic and cultural center, fostering trade between the Apalachee and the Spanish colonists.

It was here, at a “young folks” picnic, at the ruins of the Spanish mission that was built here in the 1500s, that legend says Catherine lost a shoe in the mud near a spring. The mission had been abandoned since 1710 or so and was a frequent leisure spot for early Tallahasseeans. Catharine's lost shoe was retrieved by an aristocratic-looking but slovenly-dressed young man, who then proceeded to fill the shoe with wine and drink a toast from it to Catherine's health before returning it to her. His name was Achille Murat, and he was the son of the late king of Naples and nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Achille's father, following Napoleon's loss at Waterloo, was executed as Napoleon was exiled to Elba. At 14 Achille found himself fatherless and without hope for the crown he'd been promised. Born in 1801, the eldest son of Joachim Murat and Caroline Bonaparte, reported to be Napoleon’s favorite sister, Achille came to America in 1823 with his brother Lucian, almost immediately applying for citizenship.

He traveled down the East Coast, staying for a short time near St. Augustine, Florida, before entering a partnership with James Gadsden (of Gadsden Purchase fame), and together they founded the Union Bank, Tallahassee’s first bank. Achille set up a plantation about 15 miles from Tallahassee in neighboring Jefferson County and named it Lipona, an anagram of Napoli.

In 1825, when the Prince met Catherine, the “big house” at Lipona was a whitewashed log cabin. Achille was notoriously eccentric, and he chose to sleep on the floor, using his extra shirts as pillows. He rarely changed his clothes and bragged that he didn't take off his boots until they wore out. Needless to say, Catherine was less than impressed.

At first, Achille began traveling the 15 miles to town more and more frequently. As two well-known people in town, the town found itself divided. It was generally accepted that, as a relative of George Washington, Catherine “outranked” Achille; neither Prince nor Napoleon was enough. The other camp felt his royal connections helped Catherine's status either way.

Reportedly even the Willis's home was divided at first, with her mother against the pairing and her father for it. One reason her mother protested was Achille's tobacco habit. A fastidious housekeeper, she did not tolerate spit stains on her floors. To work around this and prevent having to carry a spittoon around, Achille instead invested in a shaggy dog and would spit on it whenever needed.

Catherine's father, to be sure there would not be future issues, wrote to Joseph Bonaparte, another of Caroline's brothers, to obtain their blessing. The Bonapartes did object until they learned about Catherine's connection to George Washington.

After several months, Achille and her parents convinced her, and on July 12, 1826, they were wed by the justice of the peace. Achille paid a $200 bond to get the marriage license, and he would later write his mother that he received no money from the union, only control of Catherine's property - ten enslaved people and a run-down house in Virginia, presumably obtained from her first marriage.

Patsy, at 7, became the property of Prince Murat, changing homes for potentially the third time in her short life. For Patsy, as a girl, this put her in danger. Achille was known to rape his female slaves, though he assured his friends after his marriage that he had not continued that practice.

Patsy, at this age, would have begun learning how to be Catherine's maid. This would have involved helping Catherine dress, bathe, and anything else asked of Patsy. Achille observed once that enslaved people “…residing in the Great House were treated in the same manner as the domestic servants in Europe. Generally, they were born and bred up in the family, of which they considered themselves apart and to which they became much attached and were very faithful.”

Visit Mission San Luis, Mission San Luis. Accessed May 20th, 2023. https://www.missionsanluis.org/visit/.

Hanna, A. J. A Prince In Their Midst: The Adventurous Life of Achille Murat on the American Frontier. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1946. 

San Luis Mission Park - Tallahassee, Florida. 1900 (circa). State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory. <https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/9203>, accessed 20 May 2023.

“Prince Murat in Dixie Grave.” The Weekly True Democrat. November 9, 1906. 

“Napoleon Achille Murat Florida’s Citizen Prince.” The Walter New Era. August 14, 1913.