Gainesville’s first soil collection ceremony memorializes city’s lynching victims About 100 community members, Gainesville residents and local officials gathered to honor the 12 victims February 22, 2021 | 6:30am EST Alachua County Commissioner Marihelen Wheeler, 69, (right) and her granddaughter Tashayla Downer, 8, (left) fill a jar with soil to honor Andrew Ford at the Gainesville Soil Collection Ceremony on Feb. 20, 2021. Ford was lynched in Gainesville on Aug. 24, 1891, according to a pamphlet from the Alachua County Community Remembrance Project. ...