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A History of Columbia County Florida (1996) Edward F. Keuchel 154/340

A Period of Growth and Development

to locate the school at Eau Gallie in Brevard County. There were
some legal questions concerning the Florida State bonds which
had been purchased with the money from the sale of the federal
land grant. The issue was finally resolved, and construction
started in Eau Gallie in 1876.18
Political problems continued, however, and the school was
never opened. Finally in 1882 the trustees of the college offered to
relocate the institution. A group of Columbia County citizens
headed by Joseph Baya offered 112 acres of land for the site of the
college. The county provided an immediate $1,000 to get con­
struction under way. A $15,000 subsidy was obtained from the
Morrill Land Grant College Fund to provide salaries for five
professors and other operating expenses. In February 1883, Lake
City was selected as the site and the first class was admitted for the
fall term of 1884. The school was located on the present site of the
Veterans Administration Hospital. Although the school was called
“agricultural,” it offered a much broader program. In addition to
agricultural training, the college had a traditional classical and
military curriculum. Also, as was common in nineteenth century
America when state institutions of higher learning were usually
separated according to sex, the school was open only to white
males. Floridians were encouraged to send their boys to Lake City
“rather than send them North, far from home to schools which may
prove no better and are certain to cost more.” The college cau­
tioned every applicant that “a positive and nonsectarian Christian
influence is exerted at all times and a strict but wholesome
discipline is enforced which corrects bad habits and holds every
Cadet to an account for his time and conduct.”19

™ Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture (Florida), 1873, p. 326, 1876, pp.
329-330; Shofner, Nor Is It Over Yet, pp. 152-153.
19 Special Circular of the Florida Agricultural College, Lake City, c. 1888,
Manuscript Collection, Box 58, P. K. Yonge Library, University of Florida,
Gainesville; Promissory Note of Columbia County to Florida Agricultural College,
February 12, 1883, Manuscript Collection, Box 3, P. K. Yonge Library; Journal of
the Proceedings of the Assembly of the State of Florida at Its 30th Session (Talla­
hassee, 1885), pp. 26-31.
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