W.H. Lynn, who published a national veterans magazine in Washington D.C., decided to settle two towns in Florida as homes for Northern Civil War veterans. Lynn Haven was one of these towns. The other was St. Cloud. Lynn Haven was incorporated on June 10, 1913 with J.H. Hughey serving as the first mayor. A memorial statue to the union soldier still stands in Lynn Haven near Lynn Haven Elementary School. The statue of a union soldier facing north is the only memorial to the union army located in the south. The city pier was later remodeled as the wooden bridge which crossed North Bay from Lynn Haven to Southport. The D.J. Bailey Bridge was built in 1946 to replace the old wooden bridge.