Newnansville

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The Dell brothers, who had earlier (during the "Patriot War") visited the Alachua County area, came back to settle there in 1814. They constructed a post office on the Bellamy Avenue in 1826, called Dell's, which became the nucleus of the new settlement.[1] In 1828, the Council named the small community Newnansville (in honor of a Patriot War hero, Daniel Newnan), and made it the county seat. From 1835 through 1842, the town and nearby Fort Gilleland were refugee centers for many displaced by the Second Seminole War.

Following that, the town flourished, becoming the center for trade and plantation life in the area. It mainly produced corn, cotton, and, after the Civil War, citrus. Not including a period between 1832 and 1839, Newnansville was the Alachua County seat until 1854. At that time, it was relocated to the new railroad town of Gainesville. The courthouse was moved to Gainesville as well in 1856. This was the beginning of the end for Newnansville.

Two major factors contributed to its continuing decline. In 1884 the Savannah, Florida, and Western Railroad bypassed it by a mile and a half to the southwest. A new town, Alachua, grew up there. Then in the winter of 1886, a major freeze ruined the citrus crop. This, plus the lack of railway connections, led businesses and residents to move to the prospering communities of Alachua and Gainesville. By the middle of the twentieth century, all that was left of Newnansville were two cemeteries and the remains of a road.