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A History of Columbia County Florida (1996) Edward F. Keuchel 27/340
Early Settlement
Leon had 10,713, Jefferson 5,713, Alachua 2,282, and newly cre
ated Columbia 2,102 inhabitants.21 Such rapid increase of popu
lation and economic development in the territory created a need
for additional counties. In 1828 the legislative council altered
boundaries and formed new counties so that the total number stood
at fourteen. They were Monroe, St. Johns, Alachua (which in
cluded present Columbia), Mosquito, Duval, Nassau, Gadsden,
Escambia, Walton, Washington, Madison, Hamilton, Jefferson,
and Leon.
On February 4, 1832, the legislative council formed Columbia
County naming it after the poetical name of the United States.22 As
established, it included the present areas of Suwannee, Bradford,
Baker, and Union Counties. It also included Newnansville which
had been the county seat of Alachua County and which was the
largest community in the area. In 1839 the legislative council
changed the southern boundary of Columbia County and returned
Newnansville to Alachua County. Suwannee County was detached
in 1838, while Baker and Bradford Counties were formed in
1862.23
Even though the new county was served by the Bellamy Road,
transportation was still quite crude. Traveling east from Alligator,
the road branched in two directions. One branch went to Jackson
ville following the old Indian route to Cowford. The other branch
went to Newnansville and there one could go on to St. Augustine.
In 1835 the seventy-five mile section from Alligator to Jacksonville
was described as “a low flat pine barren covered with scrub
palmetto and interspersed with numerous boggy swamps and
21 Ninth Census of the United States 1870, Population, Vol. 1, p. 19.
•^George B. Utley, “Origins of the County Names in Florida,” Florida His
torical Quarterly, I (October, 1908), p. 30: WPA File, Florida Collection, Florida
State Library, Tallahassee.
23Martin, Florida During Territorial Days, pp. 40-41: Esther Bernice Howell
Haworth, Jottings and Echoes Related to Newnansville (Alachua. Florida. 1977),
n.p.n.; WPA File.
27
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