Originally known as Sharon, the Town of Callahan was officially chartered on May 23, 1911 and was named after Daniel Callahan, of the firm McDowell and Callahan, which had been commissioned by the Florida Railroad to build bridges and roadbeds on a new rail line.

Callahan lived in Fernandina in 1854-55 to prepare for the project, which was completed in November 1856. Callahan’s company built a rail line that began three miles east of Hart's Road and ended about four miles west of the old Sharon settlement. Callahan did not stay on in town after the rail lines were complete, but his name stuck and by 1858 U.S. Postal records show the first post office in Callahan.

As was the case throughout the South, growth was thwarted by the Civil War, in particular in 1882 when north coastal Florida was blockaded.

The town's revival came when lumber mills that were shut down during the war reopened. In particular, mills owned by B.G. Dyal and John Grantham were among the biggest in the area by 1884. Within the next decade, brickyards were started east of U.S. 301 by S.I. Baldwin and O.O. Mickler. These bricks were used throughout northeast Florida, including on the Brandies home, now the Callahan Funeral Home.

Near the turn of the century, new industry developed in Callahan - a pencil factory and later a Coca-Cola bottling plant were opened, though neither exists today. Callahan muddled through the Great Depression, and benefitted from roads, bridges and utilities, even an airport, made available through the New Deal. The airport was later taken over by the Navy and used as an emergency landing field.

The Town of Callahan is the third most populous municipality in Nassau County with approximately 1,000 residents, though the greater Callahan area, which includes the 32011 zip code, has a population of approximately 11,000.

Date Incorporated: 1911

Government: Mayor/Council

Industry: Timber, and Agriculture

Cuyler Walter Hilliard, a captain in the Civil War and wealthy entrepreneur, signed an agreement in 1878 along with James Bailey to lease 12,000 acres with timber rights from W.H. Jones & Co. This agreement also included use of a road at that time under construction that connected King's Ferry to Jonesville.

This agreement was, in essence, the birth of Hilliard. In 1881, Hilliard moved his mill from Waycross, Ga., where timber was becoming scarce, to this new site where he and Bailey began operations and laid out a new town. That same year, a post office was opened in Hilliard.

The town had its share of disasters - in 1885, a fire consumed 1,000,000 feet of uninsured lumber and Bailey and Hilliard closed their mill. And in 1910, a new schoolhouse was flattened by a tropical storm.

But this small town - the second largest in Nassau County with a population of 2,964 - weathered the bad luck. Hilliard became a farming community in 1909 when North Florida Fruit and Truck Farms, a land developer, moved into town and began selling farmland. Owner E.W. Cornwall changed the layout of the town, creating narrow, 25-foot housing lots.

In the 1920s, roads were built or widened and in July 1936, a new schoolhouse - which is still part of the current Hilliard High School - was erected. But it wasn't until 1947 that Hilliard was officially incorporated.

In 1959, the Federal Aviation Administration completed a 54,000 square foot Air Traffic Control Center that remains Hilliard's largest employer. This center has radio control of air traffic over a five-state area. In addition, the nearby Hilliard Airpark is one of the last remaining public grass landing strips in Florida. 

Date Incorporated: 1947

Government: Mayor/Council

Industry: Aviation, Agriculture, Timber