J.C.B. Koonce Memorial - Bushnell, Florida, USA - Citizen Memorials on Waymarking.com

Located in the Dade Battlefield Historic State Park is a citizen memorial honoring J.C.B. Koonce who was instrumental in saving the historic site.

Memorial text:

"In Memory of
J.C.B. Koonce
1870 - 1948
Whose imaginative planning, earnest leadership,
and sturdy endeavor contributed invaluably to
the establishment of this Dade Battlefield Memorial.
A sometime member of the Florida Legislature,
county judge of Sumter County, judge of the
Fifth Judicial Circuit, public-spirited citizen, his
Y.M.C.A. service with the American Forces in
World War One made him eminently sensitive to
the price that Major Francis L. Dade, his massacred
company, and all brave American soldiers have
paid for our freedom."

From wikipedia:
"At the state level, an attempt to create a memorial park on the site of the Dade Massacre was made in the early 1920s. Before his term in the Florida Legislature, Lake County judge J. C. B. Koonce held pre-trial hearings at the park's site. Fascinated by the battle, Lake County judge Koonce began to develop the area into a park in 1908. In 1921, as the Sumter County representative in the Florida House, Koonce, state senator W. M. Igou of Eustis, state representative L. D. Edge of Groveland, state representative T. G. Futch of Leesburg, and United States Senator Duncan Fletcher urged the Florida legislature to preserve the site.

In 1921, the state of Florida appointed Koonce, Fred C. Cubberly (the author of the book The Dade Massacre, and Mrs. A. M. Roland as commissioners of the Dade Memorial Park and authorized them to purchase 80 acres of land at and surrounding the site of the massacre from three local families and a local company for $2,000 (USD). The Florida Legislature also appointed the board to maintain and operate the park.

After the passage of the bill, Sumter County residents cleared the land to form the park. During the 1920s, Koonce sculpted statues of the soldiers and Seminoles involved in the battle, ordered a bronze statue to portray Dade, built the gazebo, and constructed the monuments indicating where the officers fell. Koonce and his son O. B. Koonce maintained the landscape. He also pushed to have an archway placed at the entrance to the park, the construction of a road leading to the park in 1926, and electric power lines to connect the park to the power grid. Koonce also constructed other statutes, such as a pelican. In 1922, Representative Drane and Chief Clerk Nathan Hazen of the Ordnance Department arranged to have two guns shipped to the Dade Memorial Park. A portrait of Chief Micanopy hung in the lodge and a statute of Osceola close to the lodge honored the two leaders."

Website with more information on either the memorial or the person(s) it is dedicated to: [Web Link] Location: Dade Battlefield Historic State Park

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Date Logged Log User Rating   09/06/2023 hart612 visited it 02/19/2023 BoomersOTR visited it

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