Page 280 - a-history-of-columbia-county-florida-(1996)-edward-f-keuchel

A History of Columbia County Florida (1996) Edward F. Keuchel 269/340

Since the Second World War
many aspects of the county’s history. As a family, the Witts were
counted among the early residents having come from South
Carolina in 1851. Sheriff Witt was one of the more controversial
and colorful of the county’s sheriffs and served for twenty-two
years—from 1945 to 1967. Witt combined a toughness in law
enforcement with paternalism. He personally witnessed the
execution of Reuben Harper, the first Columbia Countian to die in
the electric chair. Harper had been convicted of raping a social
worker who had stopped him to ask for directions to a client’s
house. On the paternalistic side Witt was one of the organizers of
the Florida Sheriffs Boys Ranch and was known to make special
efforts to find food and clothing for the destitute.10

Other noteworthy sheriffs in the county’s past who should be
mentioned included W. E. Dennard who served from 1913 to 1921
and made many of his rounds by horse and buggy, even though
automobiles were becoming more common throughout the county.
Dennard was also a farmer, and owned one of the county’s larger
farms located west of Lake City. W. B. “Babe” Douglass who
served from 1921 to 1933 was one of the most popular sheriffs in
the county’s history. In 1933 Douglass became a member of the
Public Utilities and Railroad Commission of Florida. The
Douglass family was one of the “old-line” families of the county
which could trace its roots to the territorial period.11
Another “old-line” family covered in the centennial edition
was the Dicks family who traced their origins in the county to the
1840’s. What made the Dicks family of particular interest to
readers was that Joseph Dicks had been a runaway from a factory
apprentice program when he emigrated from England at the age
of fourteen. The young Dicks went first to Canada and then to the

10Fran Hesser, “Ralph Witt: the High Sheriff of Columbia County,” Lake City
Reporter, December 13, 1974.
11 Fran Hesser, “Sheriffs Department—a Long Way from Horse and Buggy
Days,” Lake City Reporter, December 13, 1974.
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