In this day and age, it is easy to underestimate the economic benefit of growing cotton in Suwannee County more than a century ago. However, according to some sources, Suwannee County was one of the largest producers of Sea Island cotton in the United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Cotton gins could be found dotting the landscape around the County. Every community, it seems, had at least one cotton gin. The county was growing and thriving economically, and Live Oak was one of the largest cities in the state.

Enter the boll weevil. This beetle, originally native to Mexico, was brought into the United States through Texas in the early 1890s. It quickly spread throughout the South, where thousands of acres of prime cotton land was affected. By the 1920s, it had severely curtailed the production of cotton in the southern United States, and along with the Great Depression that began in 1929, drastically affected the fortunes of millions.

Suwannee County was not immune to the effects of the boll weevil. It is interesting to read through old newspaper articles and documents to see the impending doom that many farmers felt as the boll weevil grew closer and closer to the county. Each year, the weevils would travel an additional 40 to 160 miles closer to Suwannee County.

By 1915, the Suwannee Democrat was noting the arrival of the boll weevil in Georgia with concern. A September 1915 article notes, “this much dreaded pest, about which constant warnings have been issued during the past three years in the columns of the Democrat… has been found near Thomasville, Ga… State and Federal authorities in Atlanta declared a quarantine against the weevil in Decatur, Grady, Thomas, and Brooks counties in southwestern Georgia.” In somewhat of an understatement, the newspaper went on to say, “They (the State and Federal authorities, EM) said there was no cause for panic but that every grower should make plans to reduce acreage as soon as the weevil appears.” A few days later, it was noted that the Mexican boll weevil had spread to 21 counties in Georgia, with preparations underway to discuss ways to combat the pest.

By 1917, the boll weevil had arrived in Suwannee County. A June 1917 Suwannee Democrat article discussed attempts to catch the weevils by using a light at night to attract them. One citizen recommended burning stumps around cotton fields at night to attract the weevils. The Democrat noted, “this method may not get all of them, but the experiment is worth trying.”

Unfortunately, the lights and fires were not enough to rid the County of the weevil. In May 1918, a cotton farmer brought into the Suwannee Democrat office a bottle containing several boll weevils that had already begun to infest his crop. The Democrat stated that this “goes to prove that the little pest has begun to get in his work early, and will in all probability destroy the biggest part of the crop in this section.” The farmer in question had decided to plow up his cotton fields and replace the bulk of them with Spanish peanuts, which he knew to be a money-making crop and could also feed man and beast alike.

The next month, a Mr. Walker of the McAlpin area entered the Democrat office with bags of boll weevils that he had apparently caught. He caught them in small flour sacks which he baited and left out overnight, and within three nights, had caught more than 1,000 full-grown weevils. Mr. Walker believed that he had solved the boll weevil problem and that if “his method worked out on a larger scale, cotton fields can be entirely cleaned of the weevil in a few nights and at trifling expenditure of money.” Unfortunately for the readers of the Democrat, Mr. Walker did not divulge how he was able to capture the weevils, as he had submitted an application for a patent.

Despite various attempts to eradicate it, the boll weevil continued to devastate the cotton crop in Suwannee County. The destruction of the cotton crop forced many farmers to flee Suwannee County for greater opportunities elsewhere, especially in central and south Florida. Other farmers who remained here realized that they had to find another crop to replace cotton. The newspapers of the day are replete with comments about peanuts, corn, potatoes, and other food staples that helped replace cotton. In 1917, Sheriff W. H. Lyle and A. D. Gaskins traveled to North Carolina to view tobacco cropping, which was on the wane there due to over-cultivating. They realized that in tobacco was a cash crop to replace what had been lost in Suwannee County, and invited North Carolina farmers to move to the fertile lands of North Florida. For decades, tobacco replaced cotton as the county’s cash crop.

Today, the boll weevil has been all but eliminated in the United States save for some areas of southern Texas. Cotton is again profitable for many people, although Suwannee County has moved beyond relying upon it for economic prosperity. Due to the destruction caused by the boll weevil, farmers realized that they must diversify their crops, which helped with the over-cultivation of lands as well. In fact, the city of Enterprise, Alabama, erected a statue of the boll weevil in honor of the diversity in crops that the weevil had forced upon its citizens.

Next week: more history.

Eric Musgrove can be reached at ericm@suwgov.org or 386-362-0564.