[FHStoday] TODAY IN FLORIDA HISTORY FOR DECEMBER 8

[Nick Wynne]

TODAY IN FLORIDA HISTORY
DECEMBER 8
1824            The first Presbyterian Church in Florida was incorporated 
at St. Augustine.

1862            The Pensacola and Georgia Railroad was opened to Gee Gee's 
Turnout, four miles from Quincy.

1863            The Florida Sentinel suspended publication today because of 
a lack of paper.
                 Former State paymaster, R.C. Williams, was cleared of 
charges made in November that he had defaulted with $11,400 in state funds.

1886            The City of Arcadia was incorporated today.

1891            Marcellus Lovejoy Stearns, the eleventh governor of Florida 
(acting) died today at Palatine Bridge, New York.  He served from March 18, 
1874 until January 2, 1877.   Stearns was born at Lovell, maine, on April 
29, 1839.  He was educated at Waterville (now Colby) College.  He left 
college to join the Union army in 1861.  Stearns lost an arm at the Battle 
of Winchester.  Achieving the rank of First Lieutenant, he transferred to 
the Freedman's Bureau and was stationed at Quincy, Florida.  In 1868, he 
served in the constitutional convention and was elected to the Florida 
House of Representatives from 1868 until 1872.  In 1869, Stearns was 
elected Speaker .  In 1869, he was appointed the United States 
Surveyor-General for Florida by Ulysses S. Grant, a position he held until 
1873.
                 In 1872, Stearns was elected Lieutenant Governor and 
became Governor upon the death of Governor Ossian Bingley Hart.  Defeated 
in his bid for election to a regular term, Stearns was appointed United 
States Commissioner at Hot Springs, Arkansas, a position he held until 1880.

1928            Dale Van Sickle, an end on the University of Florida 
football team, was named to the Associated Press All-American football team.