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Lake City, Florida: A Sesquicentennial Tribute (2009) H. Morris Williams, Dr. Kevin M. McCarthy

Chapter Seven 1870 - 1879

Orange County sheriff
David W. Mizell, formerly
of Alligator Settlement

One of the tragic events of the decade occurred in 1870,
when a local man, David Mizell, who had gone on to become Orange
County sheriff, was shot and killed when he was on his way to arrest
cattleman Moses Barber for refusing to pay a tax on cattle. Born in
1833 at Alligator Settlement near Lake City, he married Angeline
Augusta May in 1854 and moved with his family in 1858 to Orange
County. He fought in the Third Seminole War, then joined Jonathan
C. Stewart’s Company G, 8th Florida Volunteers of the Confederate
Army and fought in Virginia and Georgia before receiving a medical
discharge (1863) for cholera or pneumonia. His name is inscribed on
the National Law Enforcement Memorial in Washington, D.C. (East
Wall, Panel 44, Line 4).

The end of Reconstruction

Professor Ralph Peek’s article, “Election of 1870 and the
End of Reconstruction in Florida,” pointed out that vigilantes seized
Lake City’s Sheriff Robert Martin in 1870 and forced him to resign
his position. In his letter of resignation to the governor, Martin stated
that “he found it impossible to perform his duties as sheriff because
the people of the county were determined not to submit to or assist in
the execution of the laws.”

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