Live Oak, Florida
Live Oak is a city and the county seat of Suwannee County, Florida, United States. The city is midway between Tallahassee and Jacksonville. As of 2020, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau was 6,735.
U.S. Highway 90, U.S. Highway 129 and Interstate 10 are major highways running through Live Oak.
Freight service is provided by the Florida Gulf & Atlantic Railroad, which acquired most of the former CSX main line from Pensacola to Jacksonville on June 1, 2019.
It is served by the Suwannee County Airport as well as many private airparks scattered throughout the county.
There is also a community named Live Oak in Washington County, Florida.
History
19th century
Built along the Pensacola & Georgia Railroad in or prior to 1861, Live Oak was named for a southern live oak tree under which railroad workers rested and ate lunch. When a railroad depot was built nearby, the small community that sprang up around it was called “Live Oak Station”. The tree was at the site of the present-day Pepe's Mexican Grocery on U.S. 90.Image:LiveOakFL15.jpg|thumb|left|220px|Florida Railway engine #3 at the Seaboard yards in Live Oak circa 1915
During the Civil War, the Pensacola & Georgia Railroad served as a vital route for parts of North Florida. Defensive earthworks were built where it crossed the Suwannee River west of Live Oak, to deter Union attacks. These earthworks still exist as part of the Suwannee River State Park, one of Florida's first State parks.
To ease supply problems to other parts of the Confederacy, the Confederate government decided to create a north–south railroad link into Georgia through Live Oak. The railroad junction was completed in early 1865. It was too late to help the Confederacy, but it opened up the interior of the county to settlement in the postwar period.
An infamous resident of the town was Lewis Powell, one of John Wilkes Booth's co-conspirators in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. At the age of 13, he had moved with his family from Alabama to Live Oak. He lived there until the age of 17, when he lied about his age to enlist with the 2nd Florida Infantry Regiment in the Confederate army.
In 1868 the legislature designated Live Oak as the county seat of Suwannee County. An election held the following year confirmed Live Oak as the county seat, and it has continued in this role. Live Oak was incorporated as a town in 1878. In 1903, it was incorporated as a city and was the largest community in Suwannee County. It served as a minor railroad hub for the region.
During Reconstruction, Live Oak suffered extensive violence by white supremacists against Black citizens. They attacked and assaulted Blacks to discourage their voting, to maintain dominance, and to expel Blacks from the community.
20th century
In the 1905 State census, Live Oak was the fifth-largest city in Florida, and the largest inland city. Nearby resorts at Suwannee Springs and Dowling Park drew thousands of visitors from around the world to the sulfur springs and related nearby sports, boating, and hunting activities. The health benefits of the springs were touted in magazines and newspapers worldwide, supposedly curing everything from arthritis to “female problems”.During the first decade of the twentieth century, Live Oak saw a construction boom. Notable buildings such as the Suwannee County Courthouse, Live Oak City Hall, and Suwannee Hotel were completed. Dozens of fine two- and three-story homes were erected along the major streets. By 1913, the main streets were bricked and a sewage system had been built.
Image:SCCC1948.jpg|thumb|upright|Suwannee County Courthouse in 1948
Live Oak was surpassed as a destination when explosive growth occurred in south Florida. At the same time, people lost belief in the healing power of sulfur waters. Cotton crops were devastated by the boll weevil near the end of the First World War, which nearly finished off the economies of the city and county. Business stagnated with the coming of the Great Depression.
But, despite their relatively small populations, Live Oak and Suwannee County remained politically powerful for another four decades. The white and rural-dominated state legislature had resisted the required redistricting that would follow demographic changes throughout the state. Finally, after a United States Supreme Court ruling in 1964 for "one person, one vote", the state legislature redistricted. Southern Florida received its due in the number of state and congressional representatives to reflect its greatly increased population in relation to other areas of the state.
Ruby Strickland, former postmistress of the community of Dowling Park, was elected as mayor of Live Oak in 1924. She was the first female elected as mayor south of the Mason–Dixon line after universal suffrage was enacted in 1919. Strickland served two non-consecutive terms and represented the area at the Democratic National Convention of 1936.
In 1940, the men of the local National Guard unit, Company E of the 124th Infantry, were mustered into service for one year of training at Camp Blanding, Florida. A week after the December 7, 1941 surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the unit was assigned to the 31st Division at Fort Benning, Georgia, to serve as a model infantry training unit. The unit was briefly deactivated in 1944, but reactivated the following month after many of the original men had been dispersed to other units; members served in both the European and Pacific theaters of war during World War II.
Florida National Guard historian Robert Hawk noted that, "In the course of the Second World War, no unit of the Florida National Guard had more men killed, wounded in action, or dead from other causes than Company E, 124th Infantry." The Live Oak unit was reorganized several times over the years as infantry, tank, and engineering companies; as of 2019, it served as the 868th Engineer Company. The unit has purportedly been called up to serve more than any other unit in Florida.
In 1944, 15 year-old African American Willie James Howard was lynched in Live Oak, ostensibly for having "expressed his affections" to a white girl. He was murdered by a group of white men including the girl's father, former state legislator A.P. "Phil" Goff. They kidnapped Howard, bound him, and forced him to jump off a bridge. A Suwannee County grand jury failed to indict Goff or the other white men. Media attention to Live Oak in the aftermath of the death of Willie James Howard increased awareness of lynching in the United States.
In 1948, Live Oak and Suwannee County received their first public hospital. It was completed under the Hill-Burton Act, which provided Federal funding for health care facilities to rural areas. The Suwannee County Hospital was initially segregated, and served only white citizens of the region until after passage of civil rights legislation in the 1960s. African Americans went to Brewster Hospital. The Suwanee County facility was replaced in the early 1990s.
In 1952, national attention was drawn to Live Oak and the county when Ruby McCollum, a wealthy African American, shot and killed Dr. Clifford Leroy Adams, Jr. He was a prominent, white, recently elected to the state senate. The fatal shooting took place in his medical office, across from the Suwannee County Courthouse. Investigators at first thought the shooting was related to an unpaid doctor's bill.
But it was soon revealed that the married Dr. Adams had fathered a child with McCollum, who was also married. She testified that he forced her into a sexual relationship.. Author Zora Neale Hurston was covering the trial for the Pittsburgh Courier and characterized this abuse of an African-American woman by a powerful white man as an assertion of paramour rights, which had also existed in the South under slavery.
McCollum's murder conviction and death sentence were overturned on a technicality in 1954. Before a second trial, her defense attorney gained a certification that she was mentally unfit to stand trial. She was held for the next twenty years in the Florida State Mental Hospital in Chattahoochee. She was released to her family after being assessed as no danger to herself or anyone else. The murder and events surrounding it have been the subject of numerous books and documentaries in the 21st century.
Image:Photographers in boat after Hurricane Dora - Live Oak.jpg|thumb|right|280px|Downtown Live Oak, flooded from Hurricane Dora in 1964
In the 1950s, the rest of Suwannee County received electricity and telephone service, something the City of Live Oak had since the late 1800s. In 1957, the Florida Sheriffs Association received property north of Live Oak for use as a Boys’ Ranch. Opening in 1958, this facility has continued to be used to help troubled boys from all of Florida; later, a Girls' Ranch and Youth Villa were constructed in other parts of the state for girls and sibling groups.
In September 1964, Hurricane Dora dumped massive amounts of water on Live Oak, flooding major intersections and leaving the downtown area partially submerged. The damage led to the abandonment or tearing down of several historic buildings and the relocation of other businesses to higher ground.
In 1983, the Suwannee County Development Authority opened a park north of Live Oak along the banks of the Suwannee River. This park was little developed until being sold to private individuals in the 1990s. Renamed and developed as the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park, it hosts music festivals for all types of music, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors to the area annually.
21st century
in 2012 surpassed the amount of rain brought by Hurricane Dora, and despite vastly improved drainage, much of Live Oak once again flooded. Interstates were shut down as portions were underwater, and much of the surrounding area was cut off from the outside world. In addition, dozens of sinkholes, some quite large, opened up all over the city and county, causing further damage. Several downtown buildings that were more than 100 years old were impacted and later torn down, replaced by public parks for community events.Live Oak remains the largest community and only full-fledged city in Suwannee County. Eco-tourism in and around Live Oak brings thousands of people from all over the country to places such as the nearby Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park, the Suwannee River State Park, and numerous springs along the famed Suwannee River. In addition, agriculture-related business is still the dominant industry in Suwannee County, with international companies like Klausner Lumber making their home in and around Live Oak.
The passage of Hurricane Helene in 2024 greatly affected the city, with significant flooding and damage from high winds.