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A History of Columbia County Florida (1996) Edward F. Keuchel 126/340

A History of Columbia County, Florida
masked, and he named several men living in the southern part of
the county. These men were arrested, but they were cleared in the
resulting trial when witnesses swore they were home that night.25
Considerable turmoil accompanied the election of 1870 in
Columbia County. At the state level in the election for Lieutenant
Governor, the Republicans ran Samuel T. Day, a white Republican
physician and a native southerner from Columbia County, while
the Conservative-Democrats ran William D. Bloxham, a Leon
County planter. For Congress the Republicans nominated Josiah
T. Walls, a black from Pennsylvania residing in Alachua County.
The Conservative-Democrats nominated Silas L. Niblack, a
Columbia County attorney and former president of the Florida
Atlantic and Gulf Central Railroad. For the state legislature the
Republican candidate for the senate from Columbia County was
Elisha G Johnson, a Lake City physician who was also the Repub­
lican “boss” of the county, while John Mahoney was nominated for
the assembly seat. Against them, the Conservative-Democrats
nominated Charles B. Ross for the senate and William Dukes for
the assembly.26
All semblance of law and order appeared to have broken down
as the election approached. Republican sheriff Robert Martin was
seized by armed men in October, 1870, as he left Lake City. He was
so intimidated that on October 27, he wrote a letter of resignation
to Governor Reed telling him that he could not perform his duties
as sheriff in a county where the people were determined not to
submit to nor assist in the execution of the laws. United States
Marshal George Wentworth reported to the Attorney General in
Washington that he could not find a man in Columbia County

“House Report 22, pp. 307-08.
26“Lawlessness and the Restoration of Order in Florida, 1868-1871,” p. 66;
Assembly Journal (Florida), 1871, pp. 128-30; Richardson, The Negro in the
Reconstruction of Florida, p. 178.
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