SUWANNEE HISTORY
Brief History of Suwannee County
By Eric Musgrove
The natural beauty of Suwannee County is matched by its varied history , a history that begins well before its incorporation as a county on December 21 , 1858 . Suwannee County was named for the river immortalized by Stephen Foster , who never actually visited it . The origin of the name “ Suwannee ” is open to some debate : it is sometimes thought to have originated from the Native American word sawani , meaning “ Echo River ”, “ Muddy Waters ”, or something similar . Frank Drew , son of nineteenth century governor George Franklin Drew , stated that “ Suwannee ” came from an Indian word meaning “ water beloved of the sun god ”. Another possible origin is a corruption of the Spanish name for the river and a Catholic mission near its banks , Rio San Juan de Guacara , which translates into the “ River of Saint John of Antiquity ”.
It is unknown when man first stepped foot in the region of Suwannee County . The first known settlers in the region were Native Americans , including the Weeden Island culture , which flourished between 200 and 750 A . D . ( or between 200 and 900 A . D ., according to other scholars ), and the Suwannee Valley culture , which thrived after 750 A . D . Unfortunately , very little evidence of these cultures has been discovered other than burial mounds , shards of pottery , and remains of the plants and animals that they ate . Archaeologists continue to explore sites to learn more about these early peoples .
By the time of European colonization of the New World five hundred years ago , the Timucua dotted southeastern Georgia and northern Florida , including Suwannee County . The Timucua were a fierce and proud group of people that never organized into a single political unit , but instead were based upon some twenty-five to thirty small chiefdoms , each consisting of five to ten villages each . After the introduction of Europeans , however , most Native American tribes succumbed to diseases to which they were not immune . The Timucua were no different than other Native
The natural beauty of Suwannee County is matched by its varied history , a history that begins well before its incorporation as a county on December 21 , 1858 .
14 SUWANNEE CHAMBER IMPACT | 2021-2022