Freight service is provided by the Florida Gulf & Atlantic Railroad, which acquired most of the former CSX main line from Pensacola to Jacksonville on June 1, 2019.

[citation needed] When a railroad depot was built nearby, the small community that sprang up around it was called “Live Oak Station” (first mentioned in records in 1861).

Defensive earthworks were built where it crossed the Suwannee River west of Live Oak, to deter Union attacks.

To ease supply problems to other parts of the Confederacy, the Confederate government decided to create a north–south railroad link into Georgia through Live Oak.

[citation needed] An infamous resident of the town was Lewis Powell, one of John Wilkes Booth's co-conspirators in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.

Cotton crops were devastated by the boll weevil near the end of the First World War, which nearly finished off the economies of the city and county.

[citation needed] Ruby Strickland, former postmistress of the community of Dowling Park, was elected as mayor of Live Oak in 1924.

[citation needed] In 1940, the men of the local National Guard unit, Company E of the 124th Infantry (historically called the Suwannee Rifles), were mustered into service for one year of training at Camp Blanding, Florida.

[citation needed] In 1944, 15 year-old African American Willie James Howard was lynched in Live Oak, ostensibly for having "expressed his affections" to a white girl.

Media attention to Live Oak in the aftermath of the death of Willie James Howard increased awareness of lynching in the United States.

[citation needed] The Suwannee County Hospital was initially segregated, and served only white citizens of the region until after passage of civil rights legislation in the 1960s.

[citation needed] In 1952, national attention was drawn to Live Oak and the county when Ruby McCollum, a wealthy African American, shot and killed Dr. Clifford Leroy Adams, Jr.

Author Zora Neale Hurston was covering the trial for the Pittsburgh Courier and characterized this abuse of an African-American woman by a powerful white man as an assertion of paramour rights, which had also existed in the South under slavery.

[citation needed] In the 1950s, the rest of Suwannee County received electricity and telephone service, something the City of Live Oak had since the late 1800s.

[citation needed] In September 1964, Hurricane Dora dumped massive amounts of water on Live Oak, flooding major intersections and leaving the downtown area partially submerged.

[citation needed] Tropical Storm Debby (2012) surpassed the amount of rain brought by Hurricane Dora, and despite vastly improved drainage, much of Live Oak once again flooded.

In addition, agriculture-related business (including timber, pine straw, and watermelons) is still the dominant industry in Suwannee County, with international companies like Klausner Lumber making their home in and around Live Oak.

[citation needed] Geographically, Suwannee County is situated on a limestone bed riddled with underground freshwater streams, which surface in dozens of beautiful springs.

This phenomenon of "Karst topography" gives the area a local supply of renewable fresh water and abundant sources of fishing.

This first library was a small wooden structure located on the corner of Pine and Wilbur, originally used as the public restrooms for white women.

This building was made of brick and housed the public restroom for white women, a draft board office, and the library.

[19] In an effort to receive federal funds, the Suwannee Board convinced Lafayette County to join in a regional library cooperative in 1957.

On July 20, 1959, the Suwannee River Regional Library Board hosted the five incoming counties who all officially joined October 1, 1959.

The start of construction on the new Suwannee River Regional Library on Ohio Avenue South began on January 4, 1996, and the new building was dedicated on November 24, 1996.

[19] On April 7, 1992, the Suwannee County Commission signed a resolution honoring the people responsible for the library’s thirty-five years of operation.

[19] In 2009, the Suwannee River Regional Library was one of two-hundred and eight nationwide institutions to win a Big Read grant and The Maltese Falcon was chosen as the book to highlight.

[21] The library hosted a 1930s themed kick-off party on February 5, 2009 that turned into a monthlong "whodunit" when the model display Maltese Falcon was disappeared during festivities.

[21] The library used the grant to start a tween book club and created programs for middle and high school students including podcasts, art projects, and a film noir marathon.