Category: History

Eric Musgrove –  Contributor We live in a society and time in which 341 million Americans own close to 283 million vehicles. For as long as any living person can remember, there…

Christian Peterson reporter.riverbendnews@gmail.com “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to…

Eric Musgrove Contributor   Last week, we began a discussion of one of my relatively obscure ancestors, Wiley Lee. Today, we’ll finish this look into some of my own family’s past. Despite…

Eric Musgrove Contributor My family has lived in Suwannee County for at least seven generations, eight if you include my children. As such, in my work as a historian and records manager,…

Suwannee County has a long tradition of celebrating the Christmas holidays. Old newspaper articles and scattered records give us a glimpse of how our forefathers celebrated the holiday. Today, in honor of…

Mickey Starling reporter3.riverbendnews@gmail.com As we are ramping up for the Christmas holidays and kicking off a month-long shopping spree, it’s a great time to take a look at Christmas traditions from the…

Eric Musgrove Contributor Three weeks ago, we began looking at the life of John Fletcher White, a prominent Suwannee County judge of the late 1800s. White was born in Tennessee, served during…

Eric Musgrove Contributor While performing research online for Suwannee County-related office matters, I sometimes come across fascinating tidbits of information that have little to do with my original scope of work. Sometimes,…

Eric Musgrove Contributor In the Wednesday, Oct. 9, edition of the Riverbend News, we began looking at disastrous fires that occurred in the town of Branford in 1922. Today, we complete our…

Hailey Heseltine reporter3.riverbendnews@gmail.com Many people think of English as one of several Romance languages, a group of languages that emerged from Late Latin in Europe, some of which are Spanish, Italian, French…

Eric Musgrove Contributor In the Wednesday, Sept. 18, edition of the Riverbend News, we began discussing the well-known Suwannee Hotel. This week, we will finish taking a look at this iconic building…

Eric Musgrove Contributor By 1905, Live Oak was the fifth-largest city in Florida. Several railroads crisscrossed the landscape, meeting in the county seat. Visitors from all around the world traveled to Suwannee…

Eric Musgrove Contributor This week, we will complete our multi-part discussion of how the current location of the Suwannee County Courthouse came to be. In this final article, we will finish looking…

Hailey Heseltine reporter3.riverbendnews@gmail.com What’s in a name? Names are words we choose to call a specific person, place or thing by, and names are usually not chosen without reason. Most things have…

Eric Musgrove Contributor This week, we begin the final topic of how the current location of the Suwannee County Courthouse came to be. In this article and the next two, we will…