Never forget that Lewisville was almost born at a picnic on the edge of Paynes Prairie.
William Lewis was an influential Hog Town planter with a bit of an ego. And so, when Alachua County residents gathered for a picnic, on Sept. 6, 1853, to decide what to name a proposed new town and whether it should become the new county seat Lewis was pitched a deal by fellow grower James B. Bailey.
Support the new town and “we’ll call it Lewisville,” Bailey promised. But if it becomes the new county seat “we’ll call it Gainesville.”
This in honor of Edmund Gaines, the American general who captured Aaron Burr (but who, ironically, couldn’t beat the Seminoles, which is probably why we never named the stadium after him).