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A History of Columbia County Florida (1996) Edward F. Keuchel 244/340

A History of Columbia County, Florida

One important achievement of the depression decade was the
refunding by the county commissioners, in 1937, of the home
demonstration work which had been discontinued in 1929. Ruth
Durrenburger was appointed home demonstration agent and
supervised such programs as the mattress-making project for low-
income families. The matresses were assembled from mattress
ticks (covers) and cotton provided by the federal government. All
families of the county were encouraged to produce many of the
foods and goods they needed. Clothes made from feed sacks
(“chicken linen”) were common in the county during this period.8

It was in the midst of the depression that Fred P. Cone of
Columbia County became the Governor of Florida. Cone, born in
Columbia County on September 28, 1871, was the ninth of the
thirteen children of William Henry and Sarah Branch Cone. The
Cone family lived in the Benton community in the northern part of
the county, and young Fred worked in nearby turpentine camps in
the area during summer vacations. He attended the Florida
Normal School in nearby Jasper and the Florida Agricultural
College in Lake City. He studied (“read”) law with Judge W. I. Ives
of Lake City, and, after admission to the Florida Bar, became a
member of the law firm of Cone and Chapman of Lake City.9

Fred P. Cone had a successful career as a banker as well as an
attorney, and served as the first president of the Columbia County
Bank when it was organized in 1912. He great love was politics,
and his loyalty to the Democratic Party was unquestioned. He was
the president of the Bryan-Bloxham Club in the election of 1896

8 Mary E. Anderson, “The History of the Extension Home Economics Programs
in Columbia County,” Typewritten Copy, Columbia County Historical Collection,
p. 6.
’William T. Cash, The Story of Florida, Vol. Ill (New York, 1938), pp. 3-4;
“Notes on Cone’s Life,” Fred P. Cone File, Florida Governors, Vol. 7, Florida
Collection, Florida State University Library; Jessie Gleason Interview, November
23, 1979.

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