Page 88 - lake-city-florida-a-sesquicentennial-tribute-(h-morris-williams-kevin-mccarthy)-2009

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

The salaries of the FAC faculty continued to be low as a
direct result of the poor economic situation of Florida, caused in
part by a devastating freeze that killed citrus and other crops. Ac-
cording to Gator History by Samuel Proctor and Wright Langley, in
1904 the college advertised for a Baptist about twenty years of age to
teach typewriting and stenography for a salary of $600 for nine months.

The college consistently sought teachers who were Christian,
had experience, and were of good character. Even administrators were
called upon to teach in those hard times. For example, in the early
1900s the dean of women, who earned $750 a year plus room and
board, taught several English classes. The school’s first football coach
was also a professor of Engineering. In 1901, President Taliaferro
was also the football coach; his assistant coach was Professor James
Farr of the English Department, a man who later became vice presi-
dent of the University of Florida.

State Superintendent of Public
Instruction for the State of
Florida, William Holloway, who
held the office for eight years
(1905 - 1913) after having been
the school superintendent of
Alachua County, was greatly
responsible for transferring the
University of Florida
to Gainesville.

The Buckman Act of 1905 allowed Tallahassee’s Negro
Normal and Industrial School, which became Florida A&M Univer-
sity, to be co-educational, but the other two state schools became the
Florida Female College, which was in Tallahassee, and the all-male
University of Florida (UF), which was in Lake City.

84

www.LakeCityHistory.com LCH-UUID: 7C3282B3-DDE1-49C3-985A-3A9C9467368D