Page 114 - some-stuff-i-wrote-and-some-stuff-i-didn't-(2011)-h-morris-williams

Some Stuff I Wrote and Some Stuff I Didn't (2011) H. Morris Williams

Column February 25, 2007

UVE OAK’S ‘AMERICAN SIBERIA’

Have you ever heard the true story of the Lake City Police Chief who
killed a Columbia County Sheriff, was sent to a Live Oak prison so brutal it
was called “The American Siberia” , was eventually paroled, and was later
elected sheriff of Suwannee County? Here’s the strange but true story.

In 1880, Lake City Chief of Police Gottschalk “Gus” Potsdamer became
involved in a bitter dispute with Columbia County sheriff John C. Henry
and Potsdamer shot him dead.

Potsdamer was tried for murder, convicted, and sentenced to serve life
imprisonment in a state prison near Live Oak.

That prison was infamous for the shocking brutality and unrelieved
barbarity the authorities there inflicted on the inmates.

Some said the prisoners there suffered more horribly than the Russians
who were banished to the frozen wastelands of Siberia, thus the Live Oak
prison was dubbed “The American Siberia.”

Potsdamer’s conviction was controversial from the beginning. Some
reports said Sheriff Henry started the trouble and was beating Potsdamer
over the head with a pistol when Potsdamer got loose and killed him.

Also, Potsdamer was very popular and had earned a good reputation as a
City Marshall who always enforced the law fairly.

Potsdamer’s friends appealed the conviction through the legal system,
won, and he served only two months in “Siberia” before being released.
He eventually moved to Live Oak, became a popular man about town, and
was elected sheriff of Suwannee County in 1889.

So, Gus Potsdamer went from Lake Police Chief to convicted murderer to
prison inmate to free man to sheriff of Suwannee County.

If you would like to learn more about this story, you can talk to Public
Defender Dennis Roberts, Lake City Police Chief David Allbritton, former

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