Page 168 - a-history-of-columbia-county-florida-(1996)-edward-f-keuchel

A History of Columbia County Florida (1996) Edward F. Keuchel 157/340

A History of Columbia County, Florida
Because of the strong position of its schools Lake City was referred
to as the “Athens of the South.”21
Fort White, the second largest community in the county, was
also undergoing considerable expansion during the latter part of
the nineteenth century. Named after the Seminole Indian War fort
which had been located nearby, Fort White and its surrounding
area had a population close to 2,000 by the year 1900. The Fort
White area had a varied economy based upon timber, cotton, and,
by the turn of the century, phosphate. Although the largest
phosphate discoveries were made in Marion, Citrus, and Hernando
counties during the start of the phosphate boom in 1890, some finds
were made in the southern part of Columbia and Suwannee
counties. Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, Florida governor during
the early twentieth century, was involved in an unsuccessful
venture with a phosphate company operating near the head of the
Ichetucknee River in 1892. T. W. Getzen, George B. Ellis, J. P.
Terry, John McKinney, and J. R. Koon were some of the larger
cotton and corn growers of the Fort White area. When the town
was incorporated in 1884 Thomas H. Reddick was mayor, while W.
B. Vinzant served as collector and assessor. O. W. Manus was clerk
and treasurer, and James Tillis was town marshal.22
Mr. S. W. “Steve” Moreland, a long-term resident of Fort
White who was born in 1884, the year the town was incorporated,
offered an excellent description of what the community was like
around the year 1900. The town had no paved or graded roads.
Men were appointed by the county commissioners to discharge

21 Board of County Commissioners, Columbia County, p. 34; Columbia County
Immigration Association, Columbia County Florida, Description of her Climate,
Soil, Health and General Advantages (Lake City, 1883), pp. 9-10.
“Twelfth Census of the United States 1900, Population, Part I, p. 92; Webb,
Webb’s Historical, Industrial and Biographical Florida, p. 40; Board of County
Commissioners, Columbia County, pp. 55-60; Minutes of Town Meeting (Fort
White), November 3, 1884, Folder F, Columbia County Historical Society Collec­
tion; Arch Fred Blakey, The Florida Phosphate Industry (Cambridge, Massa­
chusetts, 1973), pp. 16-18.
148

www.LakeCityHistory.com LCH-UUID: 02905885-C4E0-4A35-9DAE-804ED8349EC9