Page 12 - a-history-of-columbia-county-florida-(1996)-edward-f-keuchel

A History of Columbia County Florida (1996) Edward F. Keuchel 1/340

Chapter I

THE EARLY BEGINNINGS:
THE PERIOD BEFORE UNITED STATES ACQUISITION

When Columbia County was created on February 4,1832, the
land that the county encompassed had already experienced an
extended period of human events. Almost three hundred years
earlier, in 1539, Spanish explorer Don Hernando de Soto had
passed through the vicinity of present day Lake City on his way to
the Apalachee Indian towns near present Tallahassee. There he
spent the winter prior to his two-year exploration of the southern
regions of today’s United States.1
De Soto provided no descriptions of Indian culture in the
region of present day Columbia County, but he was in the lands of
the Timucuan Indians whose domain extended east of the Aucilla
River covering the northeastern and central sections of Florida.
More is known about the Timucuan than some of the other early
Florida tribes, and their language, which was understood in all
parts of the peninsula, was used by the Spanish as a common
language for all the tribes of the region. Spanish missionaries
published catechisms and other religious books in Timucuan to
assist them in their work among the Indians of Florida. In 1564 the
French artist Jacques LeMoyne made drawings and sketches of
Timucuan life and customs providing us with valuable informa­
tion on this extinct tribe. Additional sources are provided by the
books and writings of Spanish missionary Francisco Pareja who
lived among the Timucuans for many years. The particular group
of Timucuans inhabiting Columbia County were the Utina and

‘Michael V. Gannon, “First Christmas in North America Celebrated in
Florida,” Florida History Newsletter III (March, 1977), p. 5.
1

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