his most important achievement and contribution to the state. He was called the "Father of Florida Railroads". His leadership helped bring increased economic development to the state, including the late nineteenth-century tourist trade. In 1870 Yulee hosted President Ulysses S. Grant in Fernandina. Marriage and family In 1846, Levy officially changed his name to David Levy Yulee by an act of the Florida Legislature, adding his father's Sephardic surname. That year he married Nancy Christian Wickliffe, the daughter of Charles A. Wickliffe, the former governor of Kentucky and Postmaster General under President John Tyler. His wife was Christian, and they raised their children in her faith. Death and legacy Selling the Florida Railroad, he retired with his wife to Washington, D.C. in 1880, where she had a family. Yulee died six years later while visiting in New York City. Yulee was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, D.C. Both the town of Yulee, Florida and Levy County, Florida are named for him. The town of Fernandina Beach, Florida has a statue of Yulee. In 2000, the Florida Department of State designated Levy Yulee as a Great Floridian in the Great Floridians 2000 Program. Award plaques in his honor were installed at both the Fernandina Chamber of Commerce and the Yulee Sugar Mill Ruins State Historic Site. The World War II Liberty Ship was named in his honor. See also List of Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States Congress List of Jewish members of the United States Congress List of United States senators born outside the United States Archival material The George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida have a collection of David Levy Yulee Papers (1842–1886). Some of the material has been digitized. References External links Detailed biography, Yulee Railroad Days website Guide to the David L. Yulee Papers, University of Florida] Biography, Jewish Virtual Library |- |- 1810 births 1886 deaths 19th-century American politicians 19th-century American railroad executives American Fire-Eaters American people of Moroccan-Jewish descent American people of Spanish-Jewish descent American people of United States Virgin Islands descent American politicians of Moroccan descent American Presbyterians American proslavery activists American Sephardic Jews Jewish-American slave owners British Virgin Islands people Burials at Oak Hill Cemetery (Washington, D.C.) Converts to Calvinism from Judaism Danish emigrants to the United States Danish Sephardi Jews Delegates to the United States House of Representatives from Florida Territory Democratic Party United States