Page 18 - a-history-of-columbia-county-florida-(1996)-edward-f-keuchel

A History of Columbia County Florida (1996) Edward F. Keuchel 7/340

The Early Beginnings: The Period Before United States Acquisition
located about eight miles north of the present city of Gainesville
and had about one hundred and ten Christian Indians in 1674.
Santa Catalina was some nine leagues or about thirteen miles from
Santa Fe. It was located near the head of the Ichetucknee River (to
most residents of Columbia County is more commonly known as the
site of Fig Springs). In 1675 Bishop Calderon listed the Indian
population of Santa Catalina at sixty persons or about half the size
of Santa Fe.7
Excavations at mission sites during the 1940’s revealed that
the typical Florida mission building was a rectangular structure
supported by trunks of pine trees six to eight inches in diameter
which held up the roof and walls. Between the pillars small posts
were erected which were intertwined with wattles secured with
leather thongs. This lattice work was daubed with clay and
whitewashed or plastered on the inside. The roof was built up of
saplings covered with palmetto and tree bark. A smaller but
similar priest’s house was usually located near the main mission
building. The type of structure was essentially a European adapta­
tion of traditional Timucuan construction techniques. Archeo­
logical evidence from the Fig Springs site indicates that Santa
Catalina was built in this way.8
In a letter written by Bishop Calderon in 1675, the ordinary
diet of the mission Indians was described as porridge made from
corn with lye hominy, pumpkins, beans, game and fish. He
described how they combined farming and hunting. “During
January they burn the grass and weeds from the fields prepara­
tory to cultivation surrounding them all at one time with fire so
that the deer, wild duck, and rabbits fleeing from it fall into their
hands. . ..” Iron hoes, corn and peach pits found at Fig Springs as

7Boyd, “Enumeration of Florida Spanish Missions,” pp. 184-87.
8Matter, “The Spanish Missions of Florida,” p. 124; Kathleen A. Deagan, “Fig
Springs: The Mid-Seventeenth Century in North-Central Florida,” Historical
Archaeology VI (1972), pp. 23-46.
7

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