Page 32 - a-history-of-columbia-county-florida-(1996)-edward-f-keuchel

A History of Columbia County Florida (1996) Edward F. Keuchel 21/340

Early Settlement
route, the distance from Tallahassee to St. Augustine was two
hundred and twenty miles. By 1835, not ten years after its
completion, it was estimated that over $12,000 were needed just for
repairs.1
When the United States acquired Florida in 1821 the white
population in the area of present Columbia County was un­
doubtedly sparse, but the region was known and regarded as
attractive to settlement. The old Spanish road passed through on
that section which ran from present Alachua to High Springs and
across the Santa Fe River northwestwardly. It crossed the
Suwannee River near Dowling Park in present Suwannee County.4 5
William H. Simmons, one of the territorial officials who selected
Tallahassee as the capital, while traveling west of Micanopy in
February of 1822, wrote that the whole region extending from the
Okefenokee Swamp all the way to Tampa Bay was regarded as
among the best lands in East Florida.6 In September 1822,
Governor Duval wrote to Secretary of War John C. Calhoun
proclaiming the area between the Suwannee and the Alachua
prairie as Florida’s richest and most valuable part. The governor
thought that the sale of land in that area would more than
compensate the United States for what it paid for all of Florida.7
As early as 1822 Methodist circuit rider, the Reverend John L.
Jerry, was covering the area between Cowford (Jacksonville), St.
Augustine and Newnansville (Alachua County).8
It is difficult to document the arrival of the first settlers into
present-day Columbia County, but disputes over Spanish land
4 Lieutenant Francis L. Dancy to Quartermaster General, July 31,1835, Carter,
Territorial Papers, Vol. XXV, pp. 163-66.
Fairbanks, Ethnohistorical Report, pp. 351-53.
6 William Hayne Simmons, Notices of East Florida, facsimile reproduction of
the 1822 edition (Gainesville, 1973), p. 51.
’William P. Duval to John C. Calhoun, September 22, 1822, in Carter,
Territorial Papers, Vol. XXII, pp. 533-34.
8Arch Frederic Blakey, Parade of Memories: A History of Clay County,
Florida (Clay County, Florida, 1976), p. 31.

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