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A History of Columbia County Florida (1996) Edward F. Keuchel 83/340

A History of Columbia County, Florida

The 1850’s witnessed the first formal organization of the
Presbyterian Church in Columbia County. In the spring of 1856
Brazile E. Lanneau, a young Presbyterian minister, was visiting
relatives, the McLeods and Hoopers, in Alligator. Lanneau was
somewhat amused at the small size of the town and wrote his
fiancee, Miss Fanny Eccles of Fayetteville, North Carolina, that
the greatest glory of “this great metropolis” was during the four
days when the court was in session.52
On a more serious note Lanneau met with several Presby­
terian families in the community and prevailed upon them to
petition the Presbytery in Florida to organize them into a church.
On April 18, 1856, at its meeting in Jacksonville, the Presbytery
appointed the Reverend D. J. Auld to organize the Alligator group.
On May 30,1856, at a meeting in the Methodist church in Alligator
the following persons were accepted into the church: Martin P. and
Sarah Doby, William 0. and Mary Jeffries, James M. Baker,
William Hagen, Lucy McLeod, and a Miss Williams. Martin Doby
was elected Ruling Elder. This was the beginning of the First
Presbyterian Church of Lake City. The Reverend Henry C. Brown
became the first pastor and the church was built on the Ross
property west of the square. It was a small wooden structure with
a slave gallery. The building stood until the 1880’s when it was
replaced by a brick structure which served until 1961 when the
congregation moved to its present location.53
The first Lutheran Church was also established in the county
in the period before the Civil War. Several Lutheran families,
including the Witts, Haltiwangers, Feagles, Bedenbaughs, Snel-
groves, and Shealeys had moved into the Ellisville area of the
county. In 1859 they organized the Bethlehem Lutheran Church.
The buildings of this church as well as many of the old church

WB. E. Lanneau to E. P. Eccles, June 4,1856, reprinted in E. F. Montgomery,A
Century of Service (Lake City, 1956), n.p.n.
“Montgomery, “Church History”; A Century of Service.

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