The territorial capital for Florida was established in 1825 among the “Old Fields” of the region’s Indians. Itinerant Methodist preachers were active in the area and a meetinghouse, called Trinity, was built on “Two Hundred Foot” street, a buffer for the town from both fires and Indians. Life in the city was not particularly healthy, especially during the summer months; so large gatherings in the countryside became popular at those times. Bethel’s history indicates that it marks its beginnings by one of these meetings on the banks of Bethel pond during the summer of 1834. A similar meeting was also noted in August of 1835.