Sidney Johnston Catts

In 1866, his nurse accidentally stabbed one of his eyes with a pair of scissors while cutting pictures causing him to lose sight in it.He would compete against William V. Knott who called "economy in government" , equalizing tax laws, making pensions for Civil War veterans bigger and improving roads.[15] Democratic justices of the Florida Supreme Court would refuse to take their places that were designated in the parade until Catts' attorney, W.W. Flournoy persuaded them to.[18] During his first message to the state legislature Catts would call for statewide prohibition, abolition of the convict lease system, an inheritance tax that would be graduated, more power for the state tax commission to investigate large corporations that were avoiding taxation, manual labor colleges for boys and girls, elimination of the Bryan primary law, taxation of church property and adoption of a guarantee law for banks.[21] At the onset of World War I as Florida teemed with a never-before-seen wave of Anti-German sentiment, Catts attempted to exploit this to further his own anti-Catholic and racist agendas.The governor publicly theorized that the German-American monks of Saint Leo Abbey in Pasco County were planning to arm Florida's black community for a popular revolt in favor of Kaiser Wilhelm II, after which Pope Benedict XV would take over Florida and move the Holy See to nearby San Antonio (itself a largely German and Catholic community) and close all Protestant churches.[22][23] In April 1917, he admitted that he sent an insulting letter to Attorney General Thomas Watt Gregory asking for Black Campbell, his brother-in-law who was in federal prison due to stealing $1,000 while serving as a bookkeeper in an Alabama bank, to be given a pardon.[24] In, 1919 Catts publicly labeled black residents as part of "an inferior race," and refused to criticize two lynchings.Miners who were on strike would at one point ambush a car convoy carrying these workers in the outskirts of Bartow killing a strikebreaker and wounding a mine guard who was a deputy sheriff.Another significant event during the strikes was when a group of 4 white guards from Prairie Pebble Mine would fire on Mulberry, resulting in the deaths of 3 African Americans.[29][30] On May 5 he was indicted by the Bradford county grand jury for accepting a $700 bribe to pardon J. J. Coleman, who was given life imprisonment in 1918 for the murder of a deputy sheriff, but resisted arrest for five days before surrendering.[33][34] While on bond awaiting trial Catts spoke at an Independence Day celebration in Macon, Georgia despite protests from members of the board of aldermen who stated that it was improper to have somebody that was indicted for criminal charges speak.[46] Catts would end up spending the final 8 years of his life in DeFuniak Springs where he would get involved with real estate and farming there.[47][48] His wife Alice gave birth to a son, Sidney J. Catts Jr. on July 22, 1894, in Fort Deposit, Alabama.When Catts moved back to DeFuniak Springs for the final 8 years of his life, he was known to distill and drink peach brandy.