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A History of Columbia County Florida (1996) Edward F. Keuchel 26/340

A History of Columbia County, Florida

was destroyed by developers planning a subdivision during the
Florida land boom of the 1920’s.17
The Dicks family is one of the county’s early pioneer families.
Joseph Dicks, an Englishman, left England in 1833 when he was
only fourteen years of age. He went first to Canada and then to
New York where he enlisted in the army about 1834. He was sent
to the Florida frontier during the Second Seminole War and was
discharged in 1837 near Tampa after serving his tour of duty.
Joseph met his wife Sarah in south Georgia, and the couple moved
to Columbia County in what is now the Hopeful Community
sometime in the early 1840’s.18
Most of the early settlers were small farmers. Indeed, the
small percentage of slaves is indicative of the economic status of
the early residents. Only about twenty-five percent of the early
residents owned slaves and most slave-owning households had only
one or two bondsmen. The largest slave holder in the area was
Jacob Summerall, who owned ten male and four female slaves.
James Niblack owned seven male and two female slaves. Abraham
I. Roberts owned seven male and four female slaves, while Charles
H. B. Collins owned one male and six female slaves. Negroes made
up about fifteen percent of the population of the area in 1830. The
Negro population in Leon, Gadsden and other Middle Florida
counties ran fifty percent or higher.19 Blacks constituted about
twenty-one percent of the county’s population in 1840, but this was
still far behind the major cotton-growing counties of Middle
Florida.20
Population increased rapidly. The census of 1830 gives Leon
6,494, Jefferson 3,312, and Alachua 2,204 inhabitants. In 1840
’’James Goodbread, “Columbia County Cemeteries,” typewritten copy, Co­
lumbia County Historical Collection.
™Lake City Reporter, December 13, 1974.
"Ibid.
“Unpublished Census Schedules, Sixth Census, 1840, Population, National
Archives microfilm, 704, reel 36.
26

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