Page 147 - some-stuff-i-wrote-and-some-stuff-i-didn't-(2011)-h-morris-williams

Some Stuff I Wrote (2001) H. Morris Williams

CHS PRINCIPALS ... Former Lake City Middle School principal Terry Huddleston is the

new principal at CHS. Terry is a CHS graduate, which raises this question: Is Terry the first CHS
graduate to become CHS principal? The answer ... not quite. Julian Markham, a 1930's graduate,

returned to the school to serve two terms as CHS principal in the late 1940s. Also, Henry Williams,
who attended CHS in the early 1940s served a term as principal of CHS South the first year the
school opened in 1975. On a similar subject, ironically, there has never been a CHS graduate to

serve as Columbia County School Superintendent.

A Court for Owls

July 12,1994

Richard Adicks (CHS, 1950) is a charter member of the faculty of the University of Central

Florida in Orlando where he is now a professor. Richard lives in Oviedo, near Orlando, and is the
author of a book on the history of Oviedo. While researching that town’s history, he met a family

who told him that their relatives were from Live Oak and that one of their kin, Lewis Thornton
Powell, had been implicated and later hanged for his part in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

Richard is from Lake City and the possible involvement of a Live Oak man in the Lincoln

assassination stirred his interest. His interest led to research and research led him to write the novel,
A Court for Owls, a complete account of how a young confederate soldier’s ideals shaped into an

act that changed history. This piece of history leapt dramatically into the news recently when Lewis
Thornton Powell’s skull was discovered in a storage area in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington,

D.C. Afterwards, Powell’s skull (it was unclear how Powell’s head became detached from the rest
of his body) was released to his nearest relatives in Geneva, Florida, near Oviedo, for burial in the

family plot.
Richard’s critically acclaimed book tells the intriguing story of Lewis Powell, his life, his time
and his death by hanging for his part in the conspiracy when he was just 21 years old. The book is

available in our public library.

The title is taken from Isaiah 34:13. “And there shall come up in her palaces, nettles and

-142-

www.LakeCityHistory.com LCH-UUID: CD05D759-5273-4705-A6D7-381FCF749098