William Reuben Thomas | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | May 24, 1866 Gainesville, Florida |
| Died | September 10, 1943 Gainesville, Florida |
William Reuben Thomas (May 24, 1866 - September 10, 1943) was a politician and businessman from Gainesville, Florida. [1]
William Reuben Thomas | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | May 24, 1866 Gainesville, Florida |
| Died | September 10, 1943 Gainesville, Florida |
William Reuben Thomas (May 24, 1866 - September 10, 1943) was a politician and businessman from Gainesville, Florida. [1]
Thomas was a native of Gainesville, Florida. After graduating college he became a teacher at the East Florida Seminary. [2] There he gained the title Major which he retained throughout his life. [3]
Major Thomas represented Alachua County for four years in the Florida Senate. [4] He served as Senate President in 1895 and Senate President Pro Tempore in 1897. [5] Following his state legislative service, Thomas served six terms as Gainesville's mayor from 1901 through 1907. [6] As Mayor, he ushered in the city's first paved streets, sidewalks, sewers, and electric lights. [7] Out of office, Thomas also provided political leadership. When, in 1923, Gainesville's then mayor and police chief condoned criminal activity by the Ku Klux Klan, Thomas wrote an editorial calling for both men to resign. [8] Compared to other cities, Gainesville was relatively immune to Klan incited violence. Contemporary commentators have attributed this to Major Thomas’ willingness to publicly stand against those who supported the Klan. [9]
Thomas was an active businessman owning banks and hardware, livery and stable, and grocery businesses. [10] Thomas also owned two hotels. The White House Hotel was a hostelry, or home for travelers, that Thomas opened in 1909. [11] The Hotel Thomas provided more luxurious accommodations to tourists. [12] Thomas sold $160,000 worth of bonds to raise money to convert his private residence in northeast Gainesville into the Hotel Thomas in 1926. [13] The renovation included consolidation of six city blocks. [14] Today the City of Gainesville owns the building which is now named the William Reuben Thomas Center, and which houses city offices, event space, and cultural and historical exhibits. [15]
Major Thomas’ most lasting accomplishment was securing Gainesville as the home of the University of Florida. During the summer of 1905, Florida Governor Napoleon B. Broward established a board to consolidate the state's education system under a single regulatory body and to establish a single university for white males. [16] Mayor Thomas led the campaign to locate this university in Gainesville. [17] Thomas personally donated 517 acres (2.09 km2) of land to entice the state to choose Gainesville. He succeeded and Thomas Hall, one of the first two buildings constructed at the University of Florida, is named in Major Thomas’ honor.
Alachua County is a county in the north central portion of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 278,468. The county seat is Gainesville, the home of the University of Florida.
Gainesville is the county seat of Alachua County, Florida, United States, and the most populous city in North Central Florida, with a population of 145,212 in 2022. It is the principal city of the Gainesville metropolitan area with a population of 350,903 in 2022.
Hawthorne is a city in Alachua County, Florida, United States, incorporated in 1881. Indigenous peoples of the Americas had been living in the area since around 100 CE; Hawthorne grew around their trading trails. Throughout its history, Hawthorne has been known for its agriculture, railroad, and rural lifestyle. Hawthorne's population was 1,478 at the 2020 census, up from 1,417 at the 2010 census, with an area of 7.38 sq mi (19.1 km2). It is part of the Gainesville, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Alachua County Public Schools is a public school district serving all of Alachua County in North Central Florida. It serves approximately 29,845 students in 64 schools and centers.
Jesse Johnson Finley was an American politician and military officer who was a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War and a member of the United States House of Representatives from Florida after the reconstruction era. He also served as mayor of Memphis, Tennessee; an volunteer officer in the United States Army during the Second Seminole War; a member of the Arkansas Senate; a member of the Florida Senate; and a Circuit Court Judge in Florida.
Newnansville, Florida was one of the first American settlements in the interior of Florida. It became the second county seat of Alachua County in 1828, and one of the central locations for activity during the Second Seminole War, during which time it was one of the largest cities in the State. In the 1850s, the Florida Railroad bypassed Newnansville, resulting in the county seat being moved to the new town of Gainesville in 1854. Consequently, Newnansville began to decline, and when a second railway bypassed the town in 1884, most of its residents relocated and formed the new City of Alachua. By 1900, Newnansville was deserted.
The Thomas Center, formerly known as Hotel Thomas and Sunkist Villa, is an historic building in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It was built starting in 1910 in the Classical Revival style by noted Atlanta-based architect, William Augustus Edwards, designer of academic buildings at 12 institutions in Georgia, South Carolina and Florida, including the original University of Florida campus, as well as a dozen or more county courthouses in those states plus other building and houses,
The Historic Haile Homestead, also known as Haile Plantation House or Kanapaha, is a historic site and museum in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is located at 8500 SW Archer Rd. SR 24. On May 2, 1986, the plantation house was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.The Homestead is unique in the Nation for its "Talking Walls." For a reason lost to time the Haile family and friends wrote over 12,500 words on the walls, dating back to the 1850s.
The 1867 Matheson House is a historic building in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is located at 528 Southeast 1st Avenue. It was the home of James Douglas Matheson and Augusta Florida Steele Matheson, the daughter of Florida pioneer Augustus Steele, who founded Hillsborough County and Cedar Key. James Douglas Matheson owned a dry goods store in downtown Gainesville and was active in local and state politics, as was his son, eight-term Gainesville mayor Chris Matheson, who was also a state legislator.
The John F. Seagle Building is a historic building located at 408 West University Avenue in Gainesville, Florida, in the United States. Built in 1926, it was designed by noted University of Florida architect and professor Rudolph Weaver and built by G. Lloyd Preacher & Company.
Buckman Hall is a historic building located in Murphree Area on the University of Florida campus in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It was designed by architect William A. Edwards in the Collegiate Gothic style and opened in 1906 as one of the two original buildings on the University of Florida's Gainesville campus along with nearby Thomas Hall. It once was a multi-purpose facility but has been used exclusively as a student dormitory since the 1940s.
Griffin–Floyd Hall is a historic academic building located on the northeastern portion of the University of Florida campus in Gainesville, Florida. On June 27, 1979, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. It currently houses the Department of Philosophy and Department of Statistics.
Thomas Hall, built in 1905, is a historic building located in Murphree Area on the campus of the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, United States. The building is named for William Reuben Thomas, the Gainesville mayor and businessman responsible for bringing the University of Florida to Gainesville.
Leonard G. Dennis was a Reconstruction-era political boss in Alahuca County, Florida, best known for his role in throwing the 1876 presidential election to the Republican candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes.
Hogtown was a 19th-century settlement in and around what is now Westside Park in Gainesville, Florida, United States where a historical marker notes Hogtown's location at that site and is the eponymous outpost of the adjacent Hogtown Creek. Originally a village of Seminoles who raised hogs, the habitation was dubbed "Hogtown" by nearby white people who traded with the Seminoles. Indian artifacts were found at Glen Springs, which empties into Hogtown Creek.
Harmon Murray was an African-American who briefly achieved notoriety in 1890 and 1891 as the reputed leader of a feared criminal gang in northern Florida, and for killing a number of men, including a sheriff and a deputy sheriff, before being killed himself by an acquaintance.
The Matheson History Museum Complex is located in Gainesville, Florida. It includes the Matheson History Museum, the Matheson Library & Archives, the 1867 Matheson House, and the Tison Tool Barn.
The city of Gainesville, Florida, USA, was incorporated in 1869.
The Union Academy was a school founded with the aid of the Freedmen's Bureau in Gainesville, Florida in 1867. It was the first school for African Americans in Gainesville and Alachua County, and provided a free quality education to African Americans when public schools in Alachua County were struggling. The Union Academy was eventually absorbed into the county school system, and remained in operation until 1923.
The historic communities of Alachua County were populated places and/or places with a post office that were established in the 19th century or early 20th century in what is now Alachua County, Florida, but which were abandoned, annexed into an incorporated municipality, or had a much reduced population by the later part of the 20th century.