Editing Columbia County, Florida (section)

==History==
After Florida became a [[Florida Territory|territory]] of the United States in 1821, pioneer and immigrant settlers from the United States formed their own settlement adjacent to a Seminole village called Alligator Village, and called it '''Alligator'''.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Alligator Town Marker|journal=George Lansing Taylor Collection Main Gallery |date=February 21, 2009 |url=http://digitalcommons.unf.edu/historical_architecture_main/3320/|access-date=April 24, 2017|last1=Taylor |first1=George }}</ref> Following the 1823 [[Treaty of Moultrie Creek]], the residents of Alligator village relocated to the banks of Peace Creek in the newly established Seminole reservation, leaving Alligator Town on its own.

When Columbia County was formed in 1832 from Duval and Alachua counties, Alligator Town was designated as the seat of the county government. It was renamed as [[Columbia (name)|Columbia]], the poetic form for the United States.<ref>{{cite book|title=Publications of the Florida Historical Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WZQ-AAAAYAAJ&pg=RA2-PA30|year=1908|publisher=Florida Historical Society|page=30}}</ref> The county was developed for agriculture and the timber industry, with products such as turpentine, lumber, and plywood. From 1832 to 1839, the county seat was [[Newnansville, Florida|Newnansville]], but that town and area were returned to Alachua County.

In November 1858 a railroad was completed connecting Jacksonville to Alligator, which opened the town to more commerce and passenger traffic. Alligator Town was incorporated and its name changed to '''Lake City''' in 1859; M. Whit Smith was elected as the town's first mayor.<ref>"Lake City Florida. Celebrating 150 Years. A Guide to the Sesquicentennial Celebration." Lake City, FL, 2009, pg. 21.</ref> According to an urban legend, the name was changed because the mayor's wife Martha Jane, who had recently moved to the town, refused to hang her lace curtains in a town named Alligator.<ref name=CEL>{{cite news| last=Williams| first=Morris| title=Lake City's 150th birthday — time for a celebration| url=http://www.lakecityreporter.com/articles/2008/03/08/opinion/columns/morris_williams/doc47d363fc76d22046800596.txt| access-date=March 22, 2008| newspaper=Lake City Reporter| date=March 8, 2008| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://archive.today/20120907173507/http://www.lakecityreporter.com/articles/2008/03/08/opinion/columns/morris_williams/doc47d363fc76d22046800596.txt| archive-date=September 7, 2012| df=mdy-all}}</ref>

[[Image:ColumbiaCountyCRTHFL.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Columbia County Courthouse around 1902.]]
During the [[American Civil War]], the railroad between Lake City and Jacksonville was used to send beef and salt to Confederate soldiers. In February 1864 Union troops under [[Truman Seymour]] advanced west from [[Jacksonville, Florida|Jacksonville]]. His objective was to disrupt Confederate supplies, and obtain African-American recruits and supplies.<ref name="battleofolustee.org">{{cite web|title=Events Leading up to the Battle of Olustee|url=http://battleofolustee.org/events.html|website=battleofolustee.org|access-date=May 3, 2017}}</ref> Confederate General [[Joseph Finnegan (brigadier general)|Joseph Finnegan]] assembled troops and called for reinforcements from [[P. G. T. Beauregard]] in response to the Union threat. On February 11, 1864, Finnegan's troops defeated a Union cavalry raid in Lake City.<ref name="battleofolustee.org"/> After the Union cavalry was repulsed, Finnegan moved his forces to Olustee Station about ten miles east of Lake City (in [[Baker County, Florida|Baker County]]). The Confederate presence at Olustee Station was reinforced to prepare for the Union troops coming from Jacksonville.

Union forces engaged the Confederates at the [[Battle of Olustee]] on February 20, 1864, near the Olustee Station. It was the only major battle in Florida during the war. [[Union Army|Union]] casualties were 1,861 men killed, wounded or missing; [[Confederate States Army|Confederate]] casualties were 946 killed, wounded or missing. The Confederate dead were buried in Lake City.<ref>{{cite web| title=Olustee Battlefield| url=http://www.flpublicarchaeology.org/civilwar/military-sites/olustee-battlefield| publisher=Florida Public Archaeology Network| access-date=March 13, 2014| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140314043246/http://www.flpublicarchaeology.org/civilwar/military-sites/olustee-battlefield| archive-date=March 14, 2014| url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1928 a memorial for the [[Battle of Olustee]] was established in downtown Lake City.

Lake City's first newspaper was published in 1874, called the ''[[Lake City Reporter]]''. [[Charles H. Thompson (Florida politician)|Charles H. Thompson]], an African American minister, represented Columbia County in the Florida House of Representatives and served as a county commissioner in 1874 and 1875.<ref>Florida's Black Public Officials by [[Canter Brown Jr.]] page 131</ref> In 1876 the Bigelow Building was completed; it later was adapted for use as the City Hall. The first fire department was established in 1883 to complement the police department. In 1891 Lake City became the first city in Florida to have electric lights from a local power and light company.

White violence rose against blacks in the late 19th century in a regionwide effort to establish and maintain [[white supremacy]] as Southern states [[Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era|disenfranchised most blacks]] and imposed [[Jim Crow]]. Whites [[Lynchings in the United States|lynched]] 20 African Americans in Columbia County from 1877 to 1950, mostly in the decades near the turn of the 20th century. It was tied with Polk County for the second-highest total of lynchings of any county in the state.<ref>[https://eji.org/sites/default/files/lynching-in-america-third-edition-supplement-by-county.pdf ''Lynching in America''/ Supplement: Lynchings by County]{{Dead link|date=July 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, 3rd Edition, 2017, p. 3</ref>

Among these murders was the mass lynching on May 21, 1911, of six black men who were taken from the jail by a white mob in [[Lake City, Florida|Lake City]]. They were being held on charges of murdering one white sawmill worker and wounding another in [[Leon County, Florida|Leon County]], after whites had attacked them at a private house following an earlier altercation between two men.<ref name="naacp"/> A group of a dozen white men, reportedly from [[Tallahassee, Florida|Tallahassee]], tricked the white youth guarding the jail by posing as officials and gained release of the suspects. They took the men outside town and shot them repeatedly to death.<ref name="tenn">[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3654232/6_lynched_in_lake_city_fl/ "Mob Fury Upon Six Negroes"], ''The Tennessean (Nashville, Tennessee)'', May 22, 1911; accessed March 20, 2018</ref><ref name="naacp">[http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1987-01-25/news/0100290260_1_lynching-white-man-accused-of-murder Bill Bond, "&#91;NAACP&#93; Report On Lynchings Details Hideous Chapter In History"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180321130313/http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1987-01-25/news/0100290260_1_lynching-white-man-accused-of-murder |date=March 21, 2018 }}, ''Orlando Sentinel'', January 25, 1987; accessed March 20, 2018</ref>