The Tallahassee Railroad, headquartered in
Tallahassee, Florida
Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County, Florida, Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In ...
, was one of the first two railroads in Florida, starting operations in 1836 or 1837. It did not successfully use steam locomotives until 1855, with trains being pulled by mules for more than 20 years. The principal source of traffic on the railroad for many years was carrying cotton bales from Tallahassee to seaports on the
St. Marks River.
Origin
Tallahassee sat in "Middle Florida", the part of the Territory of Florida between the
Appalachicola and
Suwannee rivers. In the 1830s Middle Florida was the most populous and prosperous part of Florida. The heart of Middle Florida and the adjacent part of
Georgia
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formed the "
Red Hills Region
The Red Hills or Tallahassee Hills is a region of gently rolling hills in the southeastern United States. It is a geomorphic region and an ecoregion.
Location
The Red Hills physiographic region of northern Florida was defined in 1914 as most of ...
", which held many plantations producing cotton and tobacco. Export of cotton from the region was difficult. Cotton bales were brought into Tallahassee, from which they were carried in wagons across the deep sand of the
Woodville Karst Plain
The Woodville Karst Plain is a karst area that runs from Tallahassee, Florida, U.S. to the Gulf of Mexico separated by the Cody Scarp.
This karst plain includes numerous first magnitude springs, including Wakulla- Leon Sinks Cave System, the lon ...
to ports on the St. Marks River. The
Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida The Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida, often referred to as the Florida Territorial Council or Florida Territorial Legislative Council, was the legislative body governing the American territory of Florida (Florida Territory) before st ...
authorized the Leon Rail-Way Company in 1831 to build a railroad from Tallahassee to the St. Marks River. When that company failed to organize, the Legislative Council then authorized the Leon Railroad Company, which forfeited its charter after it was unable to raise the required capital.
The Tallahassee Railroad Company was incorporated in 1834 as authorized by an act of the Legislative Council.
Richard Keith Call
Richard Keith Call (October 24, 1792 – September 14, 1862) was an American attorney, politician, and slave owner who served as the 3rd and 5th territorial governor of Florida. Before that, he was elected to the Florida Territorial Council and a ...
, who owned two plantations in Leon County, became president and chief stockholder of the company. The Territorial government granted of land to the railroad company. As part of the proposed route crossed land still held by the Federal government, Call petitioned the U.S. Congress to grant the railroad a wide right-of-way, and in St. Marks. Congress granted a wide right of way, and just at the junction of the St. Marks and
Wakulla rivers.
Construction
![Tallahassee St Marks Railroad rc02063](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/Tallahassee_St_Marks_Railroad_rc02063.jpg)
Much of what is now known about the construction of the Tallahassee Railroad was recorded by the German Bohemian railroad expert,
Franz Anton von Gerstner
Franz Anton Ritter von Gerstner (11 May 1796 in Prague – 12 April 1840 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States) was a German-Bohemian civil engineer, professor and railway pioneer.
Career
The son of physicist and railway pioneer Franz Jo ...
. Gerstner had been commissioned by the Russian government to write a comprehensive report on railroads in the United States. He visited Middle Florida in 1839.
Construction of the railroad began in 1834 from Tallahassee, and had reached St. Marks, a distance of , by 1836 or 1837 (sources differ on the year operations began). By 1839, the railroad was extended south to
Port Leon by means of a
drawbridge
A drawbridge or draw-bridge is a type of moveable bridge typically at the entrance to a castle or tower surrounded by a moat. In some forms of English, including American English, the word ''drawbridge'' commonly refers to all types of moveable ...
across the St. Marks River. The line was constructed using
strap rail ( long timbers with a thick strap of iron on top), using a
track gauge
In rail transport, track gauge (in American English, alternatively track gage) is the distance between the two rails of a railway track. All vehicles on a rail network must have wheelsets that are compatible with the track gauge. Since many d ...
(distance between rails) of laid on
ties TIES may refer to:
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* Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science
* The International Ecotourism Society
The Inter ...
spaced at intervals of . Most of the route was over very flat, forested land. Drainage was poor, and rain often washed the sand from under the tracks, throwing them out of alignment. This left the track in poor condition, with high maintenance costs. (A traveler on the railroad in 1855 reported being told that the rails had initially been laid directly on the sand without ties to hold the rails in alignment.)
The French naturalist,
Francis de Laporte de Castelnau
Francis may refer to:
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*Francis (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters
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, visited Middle Florida from November 1837 until March 1838. While admitting that the railroad was "very useful" because of the near impossibility of transporting cotton by horse-drawn wagon across the sandy soil from Tallahassee to the St. Marks River, he called the railroad "the very worst that has yet been built in the entire world", with such poor construction that it had proven impossible to operate locomotives on the track.
Port Leon
The initial terminal for the railroad was St. Marks. The Federal government had only granted at St. Marks to the railroad, instead of the it had requested. The land grant from the Territory of Florida included a larger area across (to the east of) the St. Marks River and a little nearer to the mouth of the river. Siting the terminal of the railroad on the territorial grant land gave the company more room for its terminal facilities, and full control of the transfer of goods between the railroad and ships. Starting in 1838, the railroad company laid out and sold lots in Port Leon. The residents of
Magnolia
''Magnolia'' is a large genus of about 210 to 340The number of species in the genus ''Magnolia'' depends on the taxonomic view that one takes up. Recent molecular and morphological research shows that former genera ''Talauma'', ''Dugandiodendro ...
, a port town up the St. Marks River from the port of St. Marks, which had been bypassed by the railroad, moved ''en masse'' to Port Leon. The railroad reached Port Leon in 1839. The town had quickly grown to a population of about 450, and was incorporated in 1841. Yellow fever struck the town in 1841, killing 139 residents. About 200 residents were still in Port Leon in early 1843 when it was made the county seat of
Wakulla County
Wakulla County is a County (United States), county located in the Big Bend (Florida), Big Bend region in the North Florida, northern portion of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 33, ...
, which was newly created out of Leon County.
When it began selling lots at Port Leon, the railroad company had claimed that site was the highest on
Apalachee Bay
Apalachee Bay is a bay in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico occupying an indentation of the Florida coast to the west of where the Florida peninsula joins the United States mainland. It is bordered by Taylor County, Florida, Taylor, Jefferson Coun ...
, above the highest tides. The
Apalachee Bay Storm of 1837
1830 Atlantic hurricane season
# A hurricane moved from Trinidad to western Cuba between August 3 and August 9.
# Twin Atlantic Coast Hurricanes of 1830. First noted in the Leeward Islands on August 11, a hurricane moved into the Caribbean in ...
apparently had not seriously flooded the site. The
Port Leon, Florida Hurricane of 1843
This article encompasses the 1840–1849 Atlantic hurricane seasons. While data is not available for every storm that occurred, some parts of the coastline were populated enough to give data of hurricane occurrences. Each season was an ongoing eve ...
struck Port Leon in September of that year. The hurricane was accompanied by a storm surge of . While only one person was killed, every structure in the town was destroyed or severely damaged. The bridge across the St. Marks River was carried upstream past the town of St. Marks. The town of St. Marks also suffered damage from the storm. Many residents of Port Leon moved to a new town north of St. Marks,
Newport. The railroad company quickly repaired its line into St. Marks, and made it the new shipping terminal for the line. Port Leon then faded away.
[
]
Operations
Trains on the railroad were pulled by horses or mules for many years. The company had purchased two locomotives (the ''Tallahassee Floridan'' reported the purchase of one locomotive in December, 1837), but could not use them because of the poor condition of the track. As of 1839, besides the two unused locomotives, the railroad owned three passenger cars (the first of which could hold only eight passengers), 45 freight cars, 35 horses and mules, and 23 slaves. The railroad also owned a sawmill, of woodlands, a plantation for raising fodder
Fodder (), also called provender (), is any agriculture, agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated livestock, such as cattle, domestic rabbit, rabbits, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. "Fodder" refers particularly to food g ...
for the horses and mules, and the town of Port Leon. Slaves performed most of the work on the railroad and the plantation.
Daily passenger service in each direction was provided with a single car pulled by two horses. The horses were changed at the half-way mark, and the one-way trip took two-and-a-half hours at a speed of about . Passenger fare was $1.50 per passenger, and some 4,000 passengers were carried in 1838. Freight trains of five to eight cars also ran in each direction once a day. The freight trains were pulled by six horses or mules at a speed of . Most of the freight carried from Tallahassee to the seaports was cotton, about 14,000 bales of cotton (a bale weighed ) out of carried in 1838. About of goods were carried from the seaports to Tallahassee that year. The freight charge for a bale of cotton was 75 cents.
The condition of the railroad remained poor throughout the almost 20 years that the original owners of the Tallahassee Railroad operated the line. A traveler who was a passenger on the railroad in 1855 was unhappy with his journey. He noted that rails and ties were sometimes missing, and that the iron straps on the rails were sometimes fastened only in the middle, so that both ends of the strap curled up. At one point a forest fire had set the ties on fire for a distance of , which the train nevertheless proceeded across. When the slave driving the train was asked why he did not try to fight the fire, he replied that he was not a fireman. The passenger train was delayed because a freight train had derailed, and the passengers had to help place the freight cars on the track again. As there was no way for the passenger train to pass the freight train, it was further delayed by the slow speed at which the freight train moved. The traveler noted that delays of this sort occurred almost every day.
New owners
In 1855, Richard Keith Call sold his majority interest in the Tallahassee Railroad to the Pensacola and Georgia Railroad
Pensacola () is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle, and the county seat and only incorporated city of Escambia County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 54,312. Pensacola is the principal ci ...
. The following year, the line was completely rebuilt, with iron rails replacing the wood rails, and the introduction of two Baldwin 4-4-0
4-4-0 is a locomotive type with a classification that uses the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement and represents the arrangement: four leading wheels on two axles (usually in a leading bogie), four po ...
steam locomotives. In 1857, the president of the Pensacola and Georgia Railroad declared that the Tallahassee Railroad was "one of the best paying roads in the country".
Battle of Natural Bridge
The Union
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Army and Navy mounted a raid on the area around St. Marks in March 1865 as part of an attempt to cut off peninsular Florida from the rest of the Confederacy. Seamen and soldiers were landed at various points on Apalachee Bay in an attempt to capture or burn bridges over the Aucilla ("Ocilla" on the map), East
East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth.
Etymology
As in other languages, the word is formed from the fa ...
, Ochlockonee ("Okloknee" on the map), and St. Marks rivers, to seize the towns of Newport and St. Marks, and to destroy the Tallahassee Railroad. The main force under Brigadier General John Newton
John Newton (; – 21 December 1807) was an English evangelical Anglican cleric and slavery abolitionist. He had previously been a captain of slave ships and an investor in the slave trade. He served as a sailor in the Royal Navy (after forc ...
arrived at Newport to find that the bridge across the St. Marks River had been burned. General Newton decided to cross the St. Marks on the natural bridge (where the river went briefly underground) a few miles upstream from Newport. News of the Federal landings at St. Marks had reached Tallahassee the night of March 4. Various Confederate troops were dispatched to bolster the defence of the area. Confederate reinforcements, including elements of the Second Florida Cavalry, militia from Leon and Gadsden counties, and cadets from the West Florida Seminary
The history of Florida State University dates to the 19th century and is deeply intertwined with the history of education in Florida, education in the state of Florida and in the city of Tallahassee, Florida, Tallahassee.
Florida State University, ...
, traveled down the Tallahassee Railroad the night of March 5 and into March 6, detraining at Hodgsons (turpentine
Turpentine (which is also called spirit of turpentine, oil of turpentine, terebenthene, terebinthine and (colloquially) turps) is a fluid obtained by the distillation of resin harvested from living trees, mainly pines. Mainly used as a special ...
) distillery, in the vicinity of what is now Woodville, as that was closer to the natural bridge than Newport. Newton's forces reached the natural bridge on March 6, only to find it defended by Confederate troops. Confederate forces held the crossing in the Battle of Natural Bridge
The Battle of Natural Bridge was fought during the American Civil War in what is now Woodville, Florida near Tallahassee on March 6, 1865. A small group of Confederate troops and volunteers, which included teenagers from the nearby Florida Mil ...
, and the Federal troops withdrew.
Mergers
In March, 1867, George William Swepson, in a fraudulent transaction, purchased the Pensacola and Georgia Railroad for $1,220,000, and the Tallahassee Railroad for $195,000. The two railroads were then merged into a new company, called the Tallahassee Railroad. That company was in turn incorporated into the Jacksonville, Pensacola and Mobile Railroad, which was created in 1869. Edward Reed purchased the Jacksonville, Pensacola and Mobile Railroad and, in 1882, merged it into the Florida Central and Western Railroad
The Florida Central and Western Railroad was a rail line built in the late 1800s that ran from Jacksonville west across North Central Florida and the part Florida Panhandle through Lake City and Tallahassee before coming to an end at Chattahooch ...
. The Florida Central and Western Railroad was in turned merged into the Florida Railway and Navigation Company
The Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad was the final name of a system of railroads throughout Florida, becoming part of the Seaboard Air Line Railway in 1900. The system, including some of the first railroads in Florida, stretched from Jacks ...
in 1884, which was re-incorporated as the Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad
The Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad was the final name of a system of railroads throughout Florida, becoming part of the Seaboard Air Line Railway in 1900. The system, including some of the first railroads in Florida, stretched from Jacks ...
in 1888, and again, in 1893, as the Florida Central and Peninsular Railway. The Seaboard Air Line Railway
The Seaboard Air Line Railroad , which styled itself "The Route of Courteous Service," was an American railroad which existed from April 14, 1900, until July 1, 1967, when it merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, its longtime rival, t ...
leased the Florida Central and Peninsular Railway in 1900, and purchased it in 1903. The line would be known as the Wakulla Subdivision under the Seaboard Air Line and its successors.[Seaboard Air Line Railroad North Florida Division Timetable (1949)][Seaboard Coast Line Railroad Jacksonville Division Timetable (1969)]
Abandonment
The Seaboard Air Line Railway (SAL) had ceased operating over the last of the St. Marks branch (the old Tallahassee Railroad) leading into St. Marks in 1932. A petition by the SAL to resume service to those to the end of the line in St. Marks was approved the Interstate Commerce Commission
The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later trucking) to ensure fair rates, to eliminat ...
in 1939. The St. Marks branch remained in use through the 1960s. The line was officially abandoned by the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad
The Seaboard Coast Line Railroad was a Class I railroad company operating in the Southeastern United States beginning in 1967. Its passenger operations were taken over by Amtrak in 1971. Eventually, the railroad was merged with its affiliate lin ...
(SAL's successor) in 1983, and the State of Florida purchased the abandoned right-of-way in 1984. of that right-of-way has since become the Tallahassee-St. Marks Historic Railroad State Trail
Tallahassee-St. Marks Historic Railroad State Trail is a rail trail and Florida State Park located on of the historic railbed of the Tallahassee Railroad, which ran between Tallahassee and St. Marks, Florida. The trail ends near the confluence o ...
Historic Stations
Notes
Citations
Sources
*
*
*
External links
Interactive map of the Tallahassee Railroad
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tallahassee Railroad
Defunct Florida railroads
Transportation in Leon County, Florida
Florida in the American Civil War
Transportation in Tallahassee, Florida
Predecessors of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad
Railway companies established in 1834
Railway companies disestablished in 1870
5 ft gauge railways in the United States
History of Tallahassee, Florida
American companies established in 1834
1834 establishments in Florida Territory
American companies disestablished in 1870