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A History of Columbia County Florida (1996) Edward F. Keuchel 183/340

The Early Twentieth Century

Petersburg Industrial and Normal Institute. Realizing that the
state could not adequately maintain so many institutions, Governor
Napoleon Broward and the state legislature considered plans for
consolidation.
The plan pushed by Governor Broward was prepared by
Representative H. H. Buckman, a Duval County attorney. Buck­
man’s plan empowered the governor to appoint a board of control
which would choose sites for two colleges. One would be east and
the other west of the Suwannee. Beyond that, the board would
select sites for a normal school for blacks, and an institute for the
deaf, dumb and blind.4
The legislature dealt with the bill in May 1905. Buckman
pushed for its acceptance on the grounds that “the time has come
when we must prune out some of the sprouts which have grown up
in the educational institutions of Florida, since the appropriations
required for their maintenance and support have grown beyond
the resources of the State to supply.” Representative A. J. P. Julian
of Lake City opposed the bill claiming that a political clique
wanted to establish the university at Jacksonville.5
The visitors’ gallery in the House was packed when the
legislature convened on May 18. Among the delegations were
groups from the University of Florida at Lake City and the East
Florida Seminary at Gainesville. Debates continued throughout
that day and the next. On the morning of May 20, the House voted
and accepted the Buckman bill by a margin of 34 to 22.6
Senate President Park M. Trammell opposed the bill in the
upper house. He asked for more time for the senate to consider the
bill, but after heated debate the bill was passed on May 26, by a

4 Ibid.', Samuel Proctor, Napoleon Bonaparte Broward (Gainesville, 1950), p.
226.
5Proctor, Broward, p. 227; Florida Times-Union, May 19, 1905.
6Proctor, Broward, pp. 227-228.
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