Eric Musgrove
Contributor
February was Black History Month, and it is only fitting to discuss some of the accomplishments and contributions of African American citizens here in Suwannee County. Most people will be shocked to learn that Suwannee County (Live Oak in particular) had not one but two African American schools of higher learning (i.e., colleges) at one point in our history. Little remains of these pioneering facilities, which is the topic of today's article.
The 1870s was a perilous time for Suwannee County. Reconstruction, race relations, the influx of Northern settlers after the Civil War, financial hardships, etc., caused much strife locally. Among the men who moved to Suwannee County after the war was Nathan Walker, a business associate of John Parshley (who laid out downtown Live Oak as we know it). After John's death, Walker continued doing business, even going so far as to begin construction on a new courthouse off Walker Street with the blessings of the county commission in late 1868 or early 1869 (a detailed history of the courthouses in Suwannee County has been discussed in a previous article). Unfortunately for Walker, the county commission eventually accepted the courthouse proposal of Nancy Parshley, widow of John Parshley, on Ohio Avenue, and the circumstances forced Walker to form a company with many local citizens to use the building as a school.
However, even the school company formed was not enough to save Walker financially, with his properties put up for foreclosure and forcing him to flee Suwannee County in 1870. Among the land and structures foreclosed upon or sold by Walker was his proposed courthouse, which E. F. Henderson received. This building apparently continued to be used as a private school until Henderson sold it in 1873 to the "Florida Bethlehem Baptist Theological Institute," a group of African American leaders who wished to create a school of learning for other African Americans. The Institute opened to African American students in 1880. It was usually called the Florida Baptist Institute or Florida Institute until 1918 when it added a two-year college program and became Florida Memorial College. Several prominent African Americans attended the school, including James Weldon Johnson, a poet and author of the "Negro National Anthem"; Harry T. Moore, a Civil Rights leader; and John L. Hopps, founder of the Independent Order of Archery.
In 1916, with the completion of a new school building for white students, the School Board authorized the Florida Institute to take possession of and move the original part of the 1889 wooden school building that had served white students. The old wooden school, the first public school in Live Oak, would be used as dormitories for Florida Institute students.
After serving as a prominent African American school in Live Oak for many years, the Institute merged with the St. Augustine-based Florida Normal and Industrial Institute in 1941, becoming the Florida Normal and Industrial Memorial College (later Florida Memorial College and currently Florida Memorial University). The old school buildings left behind in Live Oak were eventually sold at public auction in 1947 to make way for Suwannee County's first public hospital in 1948 (which was later torn down and is now Azalea Court Subdivision).
Unfortunately, Live Oak's other African American school for higher learning did not have quite the illustrious history here. In 1870, the African Methodist Episcopal Church Conference held a meeting in Quincy to determine a suitable site for an African American college. Live Oak was chosen as the best location due to its junction of east-west and north-south railroads, but little was done for the next two years. However, the realization that a Baptist institution (Florida Institute) was being erected in Live Oak spurred additional activity. A 10-acre tract was purchased on March 5, 1872, from Nancy Parshley near the current John Hale Park for the construction of what came to be called the "Brown Theological Seminary" or "Brown's Theological and Classical Institute." On July 4 of that year, the Institute began construction with great fanfare when a crowd of one thousand people attended the laying of the cornerstone.
In 1873, the school was renamed "Brown's University of the State of Florida," but the main building was still incomplete. A series of scandals, fires, financial panic, embezzlement and finally, a hurricane all but destroyed the will to continue the almost-completed school building. Ultimately, the carpenters sued the trustees for past wages and won the lawsuit, ending the construction of Brown's University in Live Oak for good. The nearly complete building was to the highest bidder and dismantled. In 1883, the school reopened in Jacksonville and was soon renamed Edward Waters College, continuing today as the oldest private college in the State of Florida.
Join me next week for more local history!
Eric Musgrove can be reached at ericm@suwgov.org or (386) 362-0564.
