Editing Alachua County, Florida (section)

== History ==
=== Prehistory and early European settlements ===
The first people known to have entered the area of Alachua County were [[Paleo-Indians]], who left artifacts in the [[Santa Fe River (Florida)|Santa Fe River]] basin before 8000 BC. Artifacts from the [[Archaic period in North America|Archaic period]] (8000 - 2000 BC) have been found at several sites in Alachua County. Permanent settlements appeared in what is now Alachua County around 100 AD, as people of the wide-ranging [[Deptford culture]] developed the local [[Cades Pond culture]]. The Cades Pond culture gave way to the [[Alachua culture]] around 600 AD.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Milanich|first1=Jerald T.|title=Archaeology of Precolumbian Florida|date=1994|publisher=University of Florida|location=Gainesville, Florida|isbn=978-0-8130-1273-5|pages=43, 62–64, 228, 335}}</ref>

The [[Timucua language|Timucua]]-speaking [[Potano]] tribe lived in the Alachua culture area in the 16th century, when the Spanish entered Florida. The Potano were incorporated by the colonists in the [[Spanish missions in Florida|Spanish mission system]], but new infectious diseases, rebellion, and raids by tribes backed by the English led to severe population declines. What is now Alachua County had lost much of its indigenous population by the early 18th century.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Milanich|first1=Jerald T.|title=Florida Indians and the Invasion from Europe|date=1998|publisher=University Press of Florida|location=Gainesville, Florida|isbn=978-0-8130-1636-8|pages=90–91, 173–176, 185–187, 232–237}}</ref>

In the 17th century, [[Francisco Menéndez Márquez]], Royal Treasurer for [[Spanish Florida]], established the [[La Chua ranch]] on the northern side of what is now known as [[Payne's Prairie]], on a bluff overlooking the Alachua Sink.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hann|first1=John H.|title=A History of the Timucua Indians and Missions.|date=1996|publisher=University Press of Florida|location=Gainesville, Florida|isbn=978-0-8130-1424-1|pages=193–194}}</ref> ''Chua'' may have been the [[Timucua language]] word for [[sinkhole]]. Lieutenant Diego Peña reported in 1716 that he passed by springs named Aquilachua, Usichua, Usiparachua, and Afanochua while traveling through what is now [[Suwannee County, Florida|Suwannee County]]. In the twentieth-century, [[anthropologist]] J. Clarence Simpson assumed the named springs were in fact [[sinkholes]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Florida Place-Names of Indian Derivation|last=Simpson|first=J. Clarence|publisher=Florida Geological Survey|year=1956|location=Tallahassee, Florida|pages=20–21}}</ref> The Spanish later called the interior of Florida west of the [[St. Johns River]] ''Tierras de la Chua'', which became "Alachua Country" in English.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Monaco|first=Chris|date=Summer 2000|title=Fort Mitchell and the Settlement of the Alachua Country|journal=The Florida Historical Quarterly|volume=79|issue=1|pages=1–25|jstor=30149405}}</ref>

Around 1740, a band of [[Oconee people]] led by [[Ahaya]], who was called "Cowkeeper" by the English, settled on what is now Payne's Prairie.<ref name="place-names">{{cite book|last=Simpson|first=J. Clarence|editor=Mark F. Boyd|title=Florida Place-Names of Indian Derivation|publisher=Florida Geological Survey|year=1956|location=Tallahassee, Florida|pages=20–21}}</ref> Ahaya's band became known as the Alachua Seminole. In 1774, botanist [[William Bartram]] visited Ahaya's town, ''Cuscowilla'', near what Bartram called the Alachua Savanna. [[King Payne]], who succeeded Ahaya as chief of the Alachua Seminole, established a new town known as Payne's Town.

In 1812, during the [[Seminole Wars#Patriot War of East Florida (1812)|Patriot War of East Florida]], an attempt by American adventurers to seize Spanish Florida, a force of more than 100 volunteers from [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] led by Colonel [[Daniel Newnan]] encountered a band of Alachua Seminole led by King Payne near [[Newnans Lake]]. After several days of intermittent fighting, Colonel Newnan's force withdrew. King Payne was wounded in the fight and died two months later. The Alachua Seminole then left Payne's Town and moved farther west and south, but other bands of Seminole moved in. A second American expedition in 1813 of U. S. Army troops and militia from Tennessee, led by Lt. Colonel [[Thomas Adams Smith]], found some Seminoles, killing about 20, and burned every Seminole village they could find in the area.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Andersen|first1=Lars|title=Payne's Prairie: A History of the Great Savanna|date=2001|publisher=Pineapple Press, Inc.|location=Sarasota, Florida|isbn=978-1-56164-225-0|pages=47, 51–52, 59–66}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Florida Fiasco: Rampant Rebels on the Georgia-Florida Border 1810–1815|last=Patrick|first=Rembert W.|publisher=University of Georgia Press|year=1954|location=Athens, Georgia|pages=230–234|lccn=53-13265}}</ref>

In 1814, a group of more than 100 American settlers moved to a point believed to be near the abandoned Payne's Town (near present-day [[Micanopy, Florida|Micanopy]]) and declared the establishment of the [[Seminole Wars#District of Elotchaway|District of Elotchaway of the Republic of East Florida]]. The settlement collapsed a few months later after its leader, Colonel Buckner Harris, was killed by Seminole. The remaining settlers returned to Georgia.<ref name=frontier>{{cite book|last1=LaCoe|first1=Norm|editor1-last=Opdyke|editor1-first=John B.|title=Alachua County: A Sesquicentennial Tibute|date=1974|publisher=The Alachua County Historical Commission|location=Gainesville, Florida|pages=7–15|chapter=The Alachua Frontier}}</ref>

=== Early American settlements ===
[[File:Map of Alachua County, 1883.jpg|thumb|Map of Alachua County, 1883]]
In 1817, F. M. Arredondo received the 20-mile square Arredondo Grant in the southern part of what is Alachua County. By the time Florida was formally transferred from Spain to the United States, people from the United States and from Europe were settling in the area. Wanton's Store, near the site of the abandoned King Payne's Town, attracted settlers, primarily from Europe<!-- which nations? -->, who founded [[Micanopy, Florida|Micanopy]]. The 1823 [[Treaty of Moultrie Creek]] required the Seminole to move a reservation south of what is now [[Ocala, Florida|Ocala]], and the flow of settlers into the area increased. Many settlers occupied former Seminole towns, such as [[Hogtown, Florida|Hogtown]].

Alachua County was created by the Florida territorial legislature in 1824. The new county stretched from the border with Georgia, south to [[Charlotte Harbor (estuary)|Charlotte Harbor]]. The original [[county seat]] was Wanton's (per the store, as the name Micanopy had not been adopted). In 1828, the county seat was moved to [[Newnansville, Florida|Newnansville]], near the current site of the city of [[Alachua, Florida|Alachua]].<ref name=frontier/>

As the area's population increased, Alachua County's size was reduced to organize new counties. In 1832, the county's northern part, including Newnansville, was separated to create [[Columbia County, Florida|Columbia County]], forcing the county seat to move to various temporary locations, then to [[Spring Grove, Florida|Spring Grove]], from 1836 to 1839.

In 1834, [[Hillsborough County, Florida|Hillsborough County]] was created, which included the area around [[Tampa Bay]] down to Charlotte Harbor. In 1839, that part of Columbia County south of the [[Santa Fe River (Florida)|Santa Fe River]] was returned to Alachua County, and Newnansville was restored as the county seat. [[Hernando County, Florida|Hernando County]] was created in 1843 from that part of Alachua County south of the [[Withlacoochee River (Florida)|Withlacoochee River]]; [[Marion County, Florida|Marion County]] was created in 1844; and [[Levy County, Florida|Levy County]] was created in 1846 from that part of Alachua County west of the [[Suwannee River]]. It would be another 80 years before Alachua County was again reduced in size.<ref name=frontier/>

In 1853, the residents of Alachua County realized that the route of the planned [[Florida Railroad]] connecting [[Fernandina Beach, Florida|Fernandina]] to [[Cedar Key, Florida|Cedar Key]] would bypass Newnansville. A general meeting at [[Boulware Springs Water Works|Boulware Springs]] was called to consider moving the county seat to a new town on the expected route of the railroad. The motion to move the county seat was hotly contested by the residents of Newnansville, but Tillman Ingram, a plantation owner in Hogtown who owned a sawmill there, offered to build a courthouse in the new town. The offer was for such as favorable price that the move was approved. At tha time, the name "Gainesville" was chosen for the new town. The county seat was moved to [[Gainesville, Florida|Gainesville]] in late 1856, upon completion of the new courthouse.<ref name="Hildreth and Cox">{{Cite book|last1=Hildreth|first1=Charles H.|last2=Cox|first2=Merlin G.|title=History of Gainesville|publisher=Alachua County Historical Society|year=1981|location=Gainesville, Florida|pages=2–3, 7–8}}</ref>

=== Lynchings and disenfranchisement ===
{{see also|Newberry Six lynchings}}
During the post-Reconstruction period, White Democrats regained control of the state legislature and worked to restore White supremacy. Violence against Blacks, including lynchings, rose in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as Whites imposed [[Jim Crow]] and discriminatory laws, [[Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era|disenfranchising most blacks]], which forced them out of the political system. Alachua County was the site of 21 documented [[Lynchings in the United States|lynchings]] between 1891 and 1926.<ref name="dandec">[https://www.wuft.org/news/2017/12/06/newberry-lynchings-should-they-be-memorialized/ Nicole Dan, "Newberry Lynchings: Should They Be Memorialized?"], WUFT-TV, December 6, 2017; accessed March 20, 2018</ref> The first three documented lynchings, in Gainesville in 1891, involved two Black men and a White man, who were associated with the notorious [[Harmon Murray]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Chandler |first1=Billy Jaynes |title=Harmon Murray: Black Desperado in Later Nineteenth-Century Florida |journal=The Florida Historical Quarterly |date=October 1994 |volume=73 |issue=2 |pages=163–174 |jstor=30146739 }}</ref> Ten lynchings took place in [[Newberry, Florida|Newberry]], six of them in [[Newberry Six lynchings|a mass lynching there in 1916]].<ref name="dandec"/> These lynchings were conducted outside the justice system, by mobs or small groups working alone. Nineteen of the victims were Black; two were White.<ref name="LynchingsDan"/> (A 2015 report by the [[Equal Justice Initiative]], based in Montgomery, Alabama, had identified 18 lynchings.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://eji.org/sites/default/files/lynching-in-america-third-edition-supplement-by-county.pdf|title=''Lynching in America'' Supplement: Lynchings by County |year=2015 |edition=3rd  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171023063004/https://eji.org/sites/default/files/lynching-in-america-third-edition-summary.pdf |archive-date=October 23, 2017 |page=3}}</ref> The Historical Commission documented three more, including two white men.)<ref name="LynchingsDan"/>

In September 2017, the county commission approved plans to place markers with the names of the victims in the county. (See linked article for names of these individuals.)<ref name="LynchingsDan">{{cite news|last1=Dan|first1=Nicole|title=At Least 21 Lynched In Alachua County, Historical Commission Confirms|url=https://www.wuft.org/news/2017/09/27/at-least-21-lynched-in-alachua-county-historical-commission-confirms/|publisher=WUFT-TV |access-date=January 9, 2018|date=September 27, 2017}}</ref> They are working with the Historical Commission and cities to discuss how best to achieve this.<ref name="dandec"/>  A state historical marker on the Newberry Lynchings was dedicated in 2019.

=== Contemporary history ===
On February 15, 2023, the board of county commissioners for Alachua County voted to support the proposed amendment to the Florida state constitution that is entitled, [[Florida Right To Clean Water|Florida Right To Clean And Healthy Waters]], making Alachua the first county in the state to lend its support for adoption of the proposed amendment.<ref>Alachua Board of County Commissioners, ''[https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QiwGSq6NV55inDHQU-PVvH7vtdRNQnUu/view Resolution 23-XX A Resolution of the board of County Commissioners of Alachua County, Florida, Supporting the Proposed Right to Clean and Healthy Waters Constitutional Amendment]'', February 15, 2023</ref> The proposed amendment is the subject of a statewide, nonpartisan campaign <ref>[[League of Women Voters]], ''Florida's Right to Clean Water'', Alachua County News, [https://my.lwv.org/florida/alachua], accessed 20230216</ref> to place adoption of it before all Florida voters on the 2024 ballot.<ref>Garry, Janice,  ''[https://my.lwv.org/florida/alachua/article/floridas-right-clean-water Florida's Right to Clean Water]'', Alachua League of Women Voters, February 7, 2023</ref> The adoption was signed into effect by its chair, Anna Prizzia, after a unanimous vote by the board.