Florida:

U.S. Territory and State

1821-1861

Part Five

Fort Stansbury looked as many Florida forts during the Seminole War looked

Second Seminole War – Fort Stansbury and the “Ochlocknee Indians”

         In the 1830s, while St. Marks and Magnolia were booming, and small communities in the central and western areas of present-day Wakulla County were coming along, such as Greenough along the western bank of the Sopchoppy River, hostilities between the Seminoles and Americans escalated. Throughout the Territory of Florida, one of the biggest issues to white Floridians were the Seminoles. Governor Duval insisted that the 5,000 or so Seminoles living in villages along the Apalachicola and Suwannee Rivers, in Alachua and near Tallahassee, evacuate the territory, but their leaders refused to leave. The Seminole and the American settlers sometimes had violent run-ins with each other. White settlers sent angry letters to the government in Tallahassee calling for the removal of the “savages.” In turn, Seminole leaders also sent letters to Tallahassee asking for protection from the whites and accused Americans of stealing Seminole cattle and kidnapping Black Seminoles, or maroons, and forcing them into slavery.

In 1823, Duval decided to move the Seminoles in north Florida down to a reservation in central Florida away from encroaching white settlers. A meeting headed by James Gadsden was set up for early September at Moultrie Creek, just south of St. Augustine. About 425 Seminole showed up at the meeting and chose Neamathla to be their chief representative and speaker. Under the terms of the Treaty of Moultrie Creek, the Seminole were forced to immigrate under the protection of the U.S., and give up all claim to lands in Florida in exchange for a reservation of about 4 million acres. The reservation would run down the middle of the Florida peninsula from just north of present-day Ocala, to a line even with the southern end of Tampa Bay. The boundaries were well inland from both the Gulf and Atlantic coasts to prevent the Seminole from making contact with traders from Cuba or the Bahamas. Neamathla along with five other chiefs, including John Blount, were allowed to keep their villages along the Apalachicola River.

More Americans moved into Florida and coveted the Seminole's land so they began petitioning the government to completely relocate the Seminoles to west of the Mississippi River. A meeting at Payne's Landing was called in 1832 and the Seminoles were ordered to leave Florida completely for land west of the Mississippi, and they had three years to do so. U.S. Indian Agent Wiley Thompson read a letter to the Seminoles from then President Andrew Jackson which stated that if the Seminoles did not choose to immigrate they would be made to by force. Some chiefs agreed to move, but still others did not. During this tumultuous time, atrocities were committed on both sides, which made tensions between the whites and Seminoles much worse. The U.S government realized that the Seminoles were not going to move on their own, so they began preparing for war. On December 28, 1835, the Seminoles ambushed a column of U.S. soldiers on the path from Fort Brooke (Tampa) to Fort King (Ocala). All but a few men were killed during the Dade Battle, which was named for the commanding officer who was killed during the first surprise volley of gunfire. At the same time, U.S. Indian Agent Wiley Thompson was killed at Fort King by Osceola. This was the beginning of the long Second Seminole War.

As the war dragged on, General Zachary Taylor felt it was less costly and more important to protect white settlers, rather than chase the Seminoles. After some deadly raids on white homesteads in the Leon and Wakulla County areas, as well as other places in north Florida and southern Georgia, Taylor decided to send troops from south Florida to north Florida to help protect the settlers in the area. He wanted to keep the entire area under constant military watch. Taylor conjured a plan to divide north Florida up into twenty-mile squares, each one containing a small post, or blockhouse fort, garrisoned by twenty or thirty men.[1] Taylor’s winter campaign of 1838-1839 consisted mostly of road and fort construction. Building forts and cutting roads, which connected each fort with another, was hard work, but Taylor reported “it will be observed that fifty-three new posts have been established, eight-hundred and forty-eight miles of wagon-road, and three thousand six hundred and forty-three feet of causeway and bridges opened and constructed.”[2] One such post was called Fort Stansbury, located in present-day Wakulla County, near the Leon County border in Woodville.

Towards the end of the Second Seminole War, a chief by the name of Tustenuggee Chupco surrendered along with his seventy followers to the U.S. Army near Great Cypress Swamp. In August of 1842, it was announced that the war was over. President John Tyler, in his second annual message to Congress, stated that the war “has happily been terminated.”[3] But as Tyler was delivering his “the war is over” speech, Chief Pascofa was accused of leading raids in middle and western Florida. Pascofa’s band of Creeks, whom whites in the area called the “Ochlocknee Indians” had disturbed the peace since 1838, when they broke away from a party that was forced to migrate west. Many of the Seminoles had been pushed down south during the fighting, but in western Florida the camps of “runaway Creeks” from Georgia still dotted the wilderness, and their canoes still frequented the Choctawhatchee and the Ochlocknee Rivers, the latter being the western boundary of present-day Wakulla County. “Their war-hoop still startled the sparse settlements around Tallahassee.”[4] Sometime during the conflict, a group of Creeks raided the family homestead of the wife of a Raker brother, near Jump Creek, down present-day Whiddon Lake Road, killing her and her family.

            Estimated at forty warriors strong, Pascofa’s band were notoriously aggressive and were involved in several cases of violence. They hid in the wilderness where it was nearly inaccessible to white settlers. From these swampy camps the Creeks launched raids into American settlements, and just as suddenly retreated back into the wilds, leaving destruction in their wake. On more than one occasion, Pascofa’s Creeks attacked stagecoaches and killed all the passengers causing whites to fear travel. On August 31, 1842, the Ochlocknee Indians attacked the homestead of a man named Perkins and murdered his entire family. They claimed they were seeking vengeance for violent acts committed by whites against them. Governor Richard Keith Call sent the Florida militia to search for Pascofa, but could not find a single hostile Indian. Governor Call then appealed to President Tyler for assistance. Secretary of War John C. Spencer then told General William J. Worth to do something about the attacks in the Florida Panhandle. Worth called upon Lieutenant Colonel Ethan Allen Hitchcock, commander of the Third Infantry in Florida, to “pursue, capture, and destroy these Indians.”[5] Worth wanted to take no prisoners from this group of Creeks who had been terrorizing Americans in north Florida for years. He did not wish to relocate them. Worth wanted them all dead.

           

Lieutenant Colonel Ethan Allen Hitchcock

A very empathetic man, Ethan Allen Hitchcock decided to resolve this conflict by removing the Ochlocknee Creeks without bloodshed, for he believed that was the only wise way to deal with them. Hitchcock wrote in his diary, “I have been much with the Indians and look upon them as a part of the great human family, capable of being reasoned with and susceptible of passions and affections which, rightly touched, will secure moral results with almost mechanical certainty. I repeatedly urged Mr. Poinsett, when he was secretary of war, to voluntarily assign to the Indians some small part of Florida, and they would soon be willing to go west. One reason why the Indians would not surrender is that they were under the impression that they would be killed if they do so. Years of bloody pursuit of them makes it absolutely necessary to give them assurance of protection and security…Even if the war was unavoidable, which I do not believe, there have been many lives and at least then million dollars wasted to pay for a ridiculous pride in warring against a handful of abused savages.”[6]

Hitchcock’s headquarters in north Florida would be Fort Stansbury. In 1839, the U.S. Army established Fort Stansbury in present-day Wakulla County, near the Leon County border, located in what is now woods on private land back off Bob Miller Road near present-day Woodville. Built on a spot of land that was originally a settler’s home, until they were scared away by the constant threat of Indian attacks, Fort Stansburry was the headquarters for the Third Infantry of whom Hitchcock commanded. Colonel Hitchcock departed from New York on September 10, 1842 and arrived at Fort Gamble, in Jefferson County, on October 10. At Fort Gamble he rested and dined with some old army buddies. He then proceeded to Fort Hamilton, in Madison County, then to Fort Pleasant in present-day Taylor County, before finally reaching his new post at Fort Stansbury. It was described as being a ring of buildings inside a stockade in the shape of a parallelogram. There is evidence of seven or eight barracks in the fort. The construction was of split pine logs, flat side facing in, round side facing out, and pointed at the top. “There is something indescribably solemn and grand,” Hitchcock wrote about Fort Stansbury, “in the moaning of the wind through the tall pines among which my post is situated.”[7]

            On November 28, Hitchcock received an order form General Worth to reopen the war and destroy Chief Pascofa and his Ochlocknee Creeks. Hitchcock and his command left Fort Stansbury on December 9, to end the Seminole War once again. His plan was to make friendly advances and invite the hostiles in to convince them to move west. He knew if he wanted to be successful against Chief Pascofa, as many commanders in the past were not, he would not use military force. He even rejected two companies of local volunteer miltia who wanted to be mustered in. Hitchcock along with two regiments of the Third Infantry marched to the Chattahoochee River at the Florida/Georgia border, boarded the steam ship William Gaston, and then floated down the Apalachicola River in search for the hostiles. Hitchcock brought with him two Indians, U.S. friendly, to act as scouts. He instructed them to enter the woods and search for any Indian and ask them to meet with Hitchcock. They were to tell the Indians that they would not be held against their will and were free to leave whenever they wanted. Two days later, Hitchcock’s Indian allies returned to camp with a young warrior who had a look on his face that he had made a very bad decision. Hitchcock took the freighted young man’s hand, reassured him of his safety, and had his men bring him some food. He asked the man to sit with him for a chat.

The two had a long talk about his people and Chief Pascofa. At the end of the meeting, Hitchcock had more food brought out to the young man, and asked him to try and convince Pascofa to come to Hitchcock for a friendly meeting, in which he would be safe. The young warrior left and returned two days later, stating that Chief Pascofa would meet Hitchcock in three days’ time. Three Creeks came to Hitchcock the next day and Pascofa himself arrived a day or two later. Hitchcock walked with Pascofa to just outside his camp where the two sat on a log and had a long talk. Calmly and non-threatening, Hitchcock told Pascofa that his band had become isolated amongst the ever-growing white population in north Florida who had no desire to co-exist with Indians, and that they unfortunately would never see peace unless they emigrated west. Chief Pascofa agreed to leave if his people had no objections. He told Hitchcock that he would talk to them and return in a few days.

The next day, Chief Pascofa with ten warriors unexpectedly arrived outside of the camp on the Apalachicola River armed with muskets. Before the startled Americans could react, the warriors unloaded their muskets into the treetops, signifying they were there in peace. They then entered the camp chanting a song of peace. Hitchcock wrote, “I met them in the center of camp at the head of my officers, and we shook hands and exchanged talk – rejoicing that peace was now made.”[8] The Lieutenant Colonel then sat down and talked with Chief Pascofa and his people. They expressed how happy they were to be treated like human beings. Hitchcock presented them with gifts, and they presented Hitchcock with the peace pipe. After the celebration, Pascofa and his warriors promised to bring back with them the rest of the Ochlocknee Creeks in three days. Pascofa told Hitchcock that his people had been “rained on for years, but the sun is now shining.”[9]

Three days had passed and still no sign of Pascofa’s band. Then on December 29, a handful of Indians arrived and informed Hitchcock that several families would be trickling in slowly. Once they did, they told Hitchcock that too many white settlers along the Apalachicola River wanted them dead, and asked him to travel in his boat to the Ochlocknee River where they would then board his ship. Thinking it could be a trick to get rid of him, Hitchcock reluctantly agreed.

Lieutenant Colonel Ethan Allen Hitchcock soon headed for the Ochlocknee River, accompanied by only twenty men, as he had sent the remainder of his troops back to Fort Stansbury. Two days later, Hitchcock arrived at the Ochlocknee River, with no Creeks in sight. Growing anxious, Hitchcock was beginning to believe maybe he was duped. On January 8, 1843 he ordered the steamboat to travel further upriver into seemingly unknown territory that was virtually unpopulated by whites at this time. Days passed and still no sign of the Ochlocknee Indians. One morning, the Colonel sent a row boat upriver in search of the Indians. Later that afternoon the boat returned with Chief Pascofa himself on board. The chief came aboard and shook hands with Hitchcock, apologizing profusely for his tardiness, blaming it on the slower moving families. Soon after, all of Pascofa’s band arrived and they then performed a goodbye dance on the banks of the Ochlocknee River. Hitchcock wrote, “I went with him (Pascofa) to his camp – a strange and memorable scene. A few fires in the thick woods with some fifty Indians around them. They had a dance, in which my officers joined. Pascofa looked on as chief and insisted on my sitting by his side. He constantly talked of his happiness that peace had come and frequently spoke of me as having ended the war. They are badly dressed, the blankets I had given them just covering their nakedness, and seem haggard and poor. Lieutenant Henry has issued a blanket to each and a shirt and turban to each man and a calico dress and handkerchief for each women, food, etc.”[10]

The next day, everybody boarded the William Gaston, and headed for the Gulf of Mexico. Hitchcock was very pleased with himself, and even received a congratulatory letter from General Worth on his success. It was longtime believed that the Ochlocknee Indians would never leave peacefully, but Hitchcock managed the impossible. There was great joy at Fort Stansbury, and the Indians called Hitchcock their peaceful capture, or Pa-ga-chu-lee, the “Controlling Spirit.” Hitchcock wrote in his diary that once the William Gaston neared a wharf at Cedar Key with several white people near, the Creek men became suddenly very serious and the women began to tear up. The Colonel told them to remain calm, that they were now among people who wanted to help them. Chief Pascofa’s lips trembled so much he could not speak. “A women”, Hitchcock wrote, “stood near with a small child in her arms, and I told her that they had been living more like wild animals than like human creatures, and she could now bring her children up in peace and safety. At this she dropped her head and burst into tears.”[11]

Hitchcock remarked to one of the women that he had noticed there were no children between the ages of four and fourteen. She replied that to prevent the whole group from being caught, some of the babies were put to death to stop their crying, and it was easier to flee without them. What a terrible life these poor people were forced to live before they agreed to emigrate. At Cedar Key, Hitchcock turned over command to a junior officer, who was to get the party to Arkansas, their new home. Hitchcock returned to Fort Stansbury on February 16. On March 7 and 8, Governor Call gave a party and a dinner in honor of Hitchcock and his officers. Orders came down from Washington on March 20 to transfer Hitchcock from Fort Stansbury to Jefferson Barracks in Missouri. He and his regiment arrived there on April 22, 1843.

           The U.S. Army then abandoned Fort Stansbury, leaving the blockhouse made of pine to the elements of the Florida climate. There are documents that indicate that while the army was there, fourteen men died and were buried at Fort Stansbury. Dysentery and apoplexy were the main causes of death for the soldiers. Unfortunately, the documents give no adequate information regarding the whereabouts of the cemetery, and none have been discovered to this day. Researchers have found that Fort Stansbury was not confined to just the blockhouse fort, but also extended to a nearby sinkhole, which apparently the regiment used as a trash dump. The most interesting fact about Fort Stansbury is that it is one of the few places in Florida in which a peaceful resolution was reached with the local Indians during the Second Seminole War, rather than bloodshed, all because of Ethan Allen Hitchcock.

Sources used:

Missall, J., & Missall, M. L. (2004). The Seminole Wars: America's Longest Indian Conflict. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.

McReynolds, E. C. (1957). The Seminoles. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

Croffut, W. (1909). Fifty Years in Camp and Field - Diary of Major-General Ethan Allen Hitchcock, U.S.A. New York: The Knickerbocker Press.

---

[1] Missall and Missall, p.159

[2] Ibid. p.160

[3] McReynolds,  p.236

[4] Croffut, p.164

[5] Ibid. p.165

[6] Ibid. p.165-166

[7] Ibid. p.167

[8] Ibid. p.170

[9] Ibid

[10] Ibid, p.172

[11] Ibid. p.172

Florida:

U.S. Territory and State

1821-1861

Part Four

Artist interpretation of St. Marks Lighthouse during 1843 hurricane. Sketch done by the author.

The Hurricane of 1843

On the morning of Wednesday, September 13, 1843, a brisk wind began to pick up, and with it the high tide. The wind intensified until it began to die down in the late afternoon. Around 11 o’clock at night, the wind suddenly picked back up. A massive hurricane was on top of Apalachee Bay, and it had its sights set on the river towns of Port Leon and St. Marks. By 2 A.M., on September 14, Port Leon was under ten feet of water. James Ormond wrote, “The warehouse was full of goods and the goods of others when in September, 1843, it was totally destroyed by a gale and of water and we lost it and its contents and were left pennyless, loosing at the same time, our little dwelling.”[1]

The Port Leon Gazette published, “Our town is in ruins!” as all the warehouses in Port Leon were destroyed. The Hamlin & Snell store received partial damage, and Daniel Ladd’s store was the least damaged building in town, even though the water level was three feet above his counter-tops. Estimated damages were around $250,000. Unfortunately, property damage was not the worst thing to occur because of the hurricane, as a young boy in Port Leon was killed by the storm.

At the St. Marks lighthouse, chaos ensued. The keeper of the lighthouse, Captain J.P. Hungerford, and his family survived the storm by hiding out in the attic of the keeper's quarters and holding on for dear life. Sadly, fifteen people who had taken refuge from the storm inside the keeper’s quarters were drowned. St. Marks suffered equal amounts of property damage, but no loss of life. The railroad bridge that crossed the St. Marks River on its way to Port Leon, was washed away, and deposited on dry land, miles from where it was supposed to be. The railroad itself was entirely destroyed at Port Leon, and up to a few miles north of St. Marks. Toppled trees were numerous. A lot of time and money was needed to clear the fallen trees and rebuild the railroad, as Richard Keith Call stated the damage was estimated at $50,000. The Hurricane of 1843 struck as the area’s crops were coming into town. Some bales of cotton and other goods were destroyed but more was on its way. In the meantime, Hamlin and Snell received shipments of cotton at their old store in Magnolia, and some began doing business back at St. Marks. A meeting was held in the Port Leon Hotel by the town’s leaders in which they unanimously voted to ditch the low-lying Port Leon in favor of establishing another new town on the St. Marks River.

Relocate and Start Anew - Newport

The leaders of the washed away Port Leon desired to establish a new town on higher ground, and such a site was located just two miles south of old Magnolia. They at first called the new port town New Port Leon, and believed it was far enough from the coast to avoid the same fate as the old Port Leon. The new town was on land belonging to the Apalachicola Land Company, once part of the Spanish Grant known as the Forbes Purchase, and the New Port Leon committee drew up a contract with Thomas Baltzell, agent of the land company, which stated that the people who were affected by the 1843 hurricane could purchase lots in New Port Leon from $25 to $100, based on location and use of the lot in question.

 The Apalachicola Land Company did much for the establishment of New Port Leon, such as the furnishing of the town’s five public squares and the cutting of roads. Only three weeks after the hurricane destroyed old Port Leon, work began on the building of New Port Leon in early October, 1843. They cut four roads heading west from the river, and four more that intersected them traveling north and south. The river at New Port Leon was not as deep as the old Port Leon, but with expert river pilots guiding them from Spanish Hole, most brigs and schooners could navigate sixteen miles up the St. Marks River to New Port Leon without grounding.

Dr. John Lovick Crawford, later in life

After the destruction of the original Port Leon in 1843, New Port Leon petitioned to be the seat of government for the recently created Wakulla County, and dropped the “Leon” part of their name,  becoming known as just “Newport.”[2] An act in the twenty-second session of the Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida in 1844, after Port Leon was wiped out, declared that Newport shall be the county seat of Wakulla County and the following legislative act incorporated the town. Some citizens of Wakulla who lived in the western and the center portion of the county were not happy with Newport being the new county seat. An act was passed in Florida’s last Legislative Council as a territory in March of 1845, that stated “Whereas a portion of the inhabitants of Wakulla County are dissatisfied with the present location of the county seat at Newport, believing that it should be at or near the centre of the county…be it enacted that an election be held on the first Monday in May…for the election of five commissioners, whose duty it shall be forthwith to select the most eligible situation for a county seat as near the centre of the county.” For the meantime, the county seat would remain at Newport, as the seventeenth Act of the State of Florida’s first session of the General Assembly would enact in July of 1845. In 1845, just before Florida became a state, Dr. John Lovick Crawford moved to Newport to practice medicine. In the years to come, Dr. Crawford would become one of Wakulla County's most famous figures of his time.

On March 3, 1845, Florida became the 27^th state to enter the Union, and on May 26, the first state-wide election was held to choose a governor, a U.S. congressman, and state-level representatives. In Wakulla County there were four voting precincts in which white males, 21 years of age or older who had been living in Florida for at least two years, could exercise their right to vote. They were located in the towns of Ben Haden, (which was located north of Wakulla Springs just before the Wakulla/Leon county line), Newport, the county seat, Shell Point (present-day Crawfordville), and (West) Sopchoppy (this is before the town of Sopchoppy moved to the eastern side of the river, where it is today). These election records are fascinating because it shows us where people were living in Wakulla County in 1845.

The Election of 1845

On March 16, 1836, Richard Keith Call was appointed by then-president, his friend, Andrew Jackson, to be the territorial governor of Florida. Through Call’s first term as governor, he led Florida’s militia against Seminoles during the Second Seminole War. After a disagreement with Federal authorities about their assistance during the war with the Seminoles, Call was fired by then-president Martin Van Buren, and was replaced by Robert R. Reid. This greatly angered Call, and when Van Buren ran for re-election in 1840, Call switched parties and supported the Whig William Henry Harrison. This decision would hurt Call in the future, especially with the Jacksonian Democrats of the time. Harrison won the presidential election (although he would die only one month into his first term) and re-appointed Call as territorial governor of Florida.

In 1845, Florida became a state, and needed elections to determine who would represent its people in Washington, who would be its first state governor, and who would represent the people of Florida in the newly created State Legislature. The Territorial Governor at the time, John Branch, selected May 26, 1845, as the date for the election. Local leaders of the Democratic Party held a convention in Madison County and nominated William D. Moseley of Jefferson County for Governor, and David Levy Yulee for representative to the 29^th U.S. Congress. The Whigs held county-level conventions across the state and selected Richard Keith Call as their candidate for governor and Benjamin A. Putnam for representative to Congress.

Here are the names of the men who voted in Wakulla County in 1845:

Ben Haden precinct; Jamison’s store:

Alexander, A.M.

Andrews, Kenan J.

Andrews, Wilson

Ashley, Lod K.

Bratcher, Thomas

Bratcher, William

Bratcher, Willis

Bunch, John J.

Cannon, Henry

Coleman, Richard

Cook, James

Core, William

Duval, A.F.

Duval, E. A. F.

Evans, David L.

Farr, William

Ferrell, Benjamin

Frederick, J. A.

Gidens, Chas

Gidens, Patrick

Givens, Jesse

Green, F. F.

Harvy, John R.

Houser, Christopher

Jackson, Benjamin

Jackson, Eliott W.

 Jernigan, A. B.

Lewis, William J.

Loftin, William

Pipkin, Amos

Posey, Noah

Sasser, E. M.

Shine, Richard A.

Skipper, M.

Stephens, John

Tracy, H. H.

Tully, A. P.

Vickers, William

Walker, William H.

Whetstone, Adam

Whiting, E. B.

Newport precinct; Wakulla County Courthouse:

Alexander, Robert R.

Alexander, R. H.

Barker, George W.

Bates, Charles

Blithen, George

Bowen, John D.

Broome, James

Broome, Patton

Brown, Joseph D.

Brown, Joseph W.

Campbell, Thomas

Carter, Jason P.

Caverly, Jason

Childers, William

Childers, Wm.

Condelary, Peter

Cook, John

Cooper, E. G.

Dail, Wm. R.

Denham, A.

Denham, Jno.

Divine, Jno. S.

Gilburn, Henry

Graham, Ed. W.

Hall, Ahijah

Hall, Ahijah

Hall, Lewis

Hamlin, Natl.

Hardaway, Sam

Harris, Thos

Harrison, Jno.

Heir, Robt.

Hungerford, J. P.

Hunter, Richard

Inman, H. B.

Jenkins, David

Jenkins, R. W.

Johnson, Aaron

Johnson, Frdr.

Jones, Malachi

Jordan, G. S.

Kennedy, David

Kuhen, F. M.

Kuthen, F. M.

Ladd, Danl.

LeFils, Frances

Lewis, J. P.

Lewis, Lewellen

Lockhart, Thomas

Madden, Ezekial

Martin, Chandler E.

Mathers, Wm. H.

Mathews, Charles

May, Robt. Sr.

McBride, Albert

McCalab, D.

Moonest, Charles

Park, Jno. G.

Pettes, Wm. R.

Reeves, Wm. Geo.

Rogers, Z. J.

Rumney, Edward

Rust, James

Scott, M. Jr.

Skipper, James W.

Smith, Christopher

Spriggs, Levi

Stewart, W. James

Stone, John

Swain, P. H.

Talbot, John H.

Vail, Jona

Vickers, Andrew

Walker, H. H.

Walker, N. G. W.

Wall, Michael

Ware, Wm. H.

West, Robt.

Wiggins, Jesse

Williams, George

Williams, Hosea

Williams, J. C.

Williams, Seaborn

Williams, Wm.

Wilson, John

Woodruff, Joseph

Wooten, Howell

Shell Point precinct (present-day Crawfordville) - Store of H. H. Walker:

Barronton, Wilson

Berthelot, Jas. A.

Bradswell, S. A.

Cuthbert, Jas. J.

Darden, Henry

Darden, Wm. H.

Durrance, Jesse W.

Fedrick, William E.

Jones, Wm. B.

Lipscomb, Benj. F.

Mathers, Thos. J.

Mathews, Solomon E.

McSwain, Charles

Morgan, Pettis

Myrick, John

Rogers, Richd.

Sheppard, Basil

Stokley, John B.

Walker, Edwd. C.

Sopchoppy precinct:

Adams, John W.

Bain, Thos.

Byrd, Robert F.

Byrd, Waitstill A. C.

Founten, Seth H.

Gilcrest, Jeremiah

Greene, Robert P.

Houston, Stephen J.

Jackson, Thomas

Roddenberry, John

Sifrett, Geo.

Sowell, Wm. S. T.

Tuker, Rufus

Wood, Em. F

William D. Moseley won the governorship, David Levy Yulee became Florida's representative to the 29^th U.S. Congress, and the Democrats won majorities in both houses of Florida's first General Assembly.

The Plank Road

The founders of Newport wanted the new county seat to prosper, so they wanted the Tallahassee Railroad Company to rebuild their warehouses and train depot at Newport, rather than St. Marks, which was one of the reasons they chose the location that they did. To the disappointment of Ladd and others, Richard Keith Call decided to rebuild the depot and warehouses at St. Marks instead. James Ormond, a Port Leon and then Newport merchant, bought some property in Atlanta just after Call’s decision to rebuild in St. Marks, “so as to have a home to go to when driven from Newport by the niggardly policy of the Tallahassee Railroad Company.”[3]

St. Marks had a great advantage over Newport because of the railroad. Even so, Newport prospered during the first decade of its existence, and from 1854 to 1856, Newport and St. Marks were close to even when it came to then number of cotton bales shipped out. Within a few short years Newport flourished over St. Marks, mainly because of the entrepreneurship of Daniel Ladd. Ladd, and other members of the town council, wanted badly to establish a transportation connection to all the areas that used to do business with Port Leon. It was very important, as the Tallahassee Railroad Company refused to build a railroad to Newport, to make Newport accessible to planters by connecting it to Pin Hook Road, the best route to the Gulf from Jefferson and Madison counties. A bridge was built at Newport over the St. Marks River, connecting the town to Pin Hook Road. The old Magnolia-to-Tallahassee Road was also extended from Magnolia to Newport, and beyond, across the Wakulla River and west to Sopchoppy. The people in the interior of Wakulla County, and on the Sopchoppy River, now had a good road to use to do business in Newport. A road was also cut connecting Newport to St. Marks, and St. Marks to a small fishing village on the coast referred to as Shell Point.

Daniel Ladd wanted to be able to compete with St. Marks and the railroad. In the 1850s plank roads were very popular and he decided to construct one from Newport to the Georgia state line, present-day Old Plank Road. Most people would think to themselves, how could a plank road compete with a railroad when it comes to transporting freight? You have to remember that at this point in time, the Tallahassee Railroad was “a mule-drawn vehicle, pulled along thin steel rails, fastened to wooden runners without crossties. Never speedy under the best conditions, the train was frequently delayed when the runners slipped apart in the lose sand, and the cars derailed, or the unfastened ends of the iron rails curled up and had to be held down manually to avoid derailment of the cars.”[4] The railroad was not the best. The proponents of the plank road were other merchants and businessmen of Newport, including Ladd, received a state charter for the Georgia and Florida Plank Road Company. In January of 1851, J.L. Tompkins received a contract to build the first fifteen miles of the plank road, starting from Newport and heading north. By June of 1852, the road was cut and the planks were laid all the way to St. Augustine Road (Old St. Augustine Road), in Leon County. Pay tolls went up, and that part of the road was usable, as Tompkins hauled 19 bales of cotton over the Plank road to Newport with a four-mule team, and said that the trip was so easy he could have drawn six more bales, had he had enough room on his wagon. The plank road never made it to the Georgia line, and we actually do not know how much further passed Old St. Augustine it went, but another road was cut to connect Tallahassee to the Plank road.

Another way Ladd profited from the import/export business was lightering loads for larger ships. In 1850, Ladd purchased the steamer Spray, a 118-ton ship, for $15,000. The steamer had a 70-horsepower wood-burning engine, a walking beam, a white smokestack, and one mast. Ladd ran an ad for the Spray stating it would be used “to run on the St. Marks River as a tow boat and lighter, making occasional trips to Cedar Key, up the Suwannee, to Columbus, and to New Orleans.” The Spray gave Ladd the ability to operate at both Newport and St. Marks, as it handled most of the goods that had to be lightered from larger ships anchored at Spanish Hole. The Spray was on such as schedule that allowed it to leave Newport, stop at St. Marks in time to catch the train, arrive at Spanish Hole, transfer incoming and outgoing goods and passengers, then return to St. Marks to drop of passengers in time to catch the evening train to Tallahassee.

Planters from southern Georgia were able to conduct business in Newport via the Plank Road by going through Tallahassee, which many did to avoid the high prices of the Tallahassee Railroad Company. The Newport-St. Marks rivalry was now at a standstill, until the railroad company decided it was time for an upgrade. Richard Keith Call had sold all his stock in the company to Edward Houstoun. Houstoun made the Tallahassee-to-St. Marks railroad more efficient, by putting down stronger rails and converting from mules to a steam powered locomotive. After the upgrade to the railroad, St. Marks began to pull ahead of Newport in their import/export rivalry. Daniel Ladd, and other Newport merchants, began to operate in both St. Marks and Newport, and by 1858, he liquidated the plank road company, conceding that trains were the trade vehicle of the future. The road remained in operation under a different owner. Newport remained a boom town until the 1860s, but the upcoming Civil War would see to the undoing of that, as well as Daniel Ladd’s wealth.

Marine Hospital (1857-1867)

Marine hospital ruins at Fort St. Marks, c.1901

       In 1853, the collector of the port of St. Marks called attention the urgent need for a hospital for seaman because of Yellow Fever. In 1857, the arches of the fort’s bombproof were dismantled and the stone blocks were used to build the walls of the hospital’s foundation.

Years before 1857, in 1844, the Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida, in its twenty-second session (January 1, 1844 – March 15, 1844), approved a resolution which stated, “Whereas, the growing commercial importance of the town of New Port, on the river St. Marks, in the county of Wakulla, being now visited by numerous shipping, for the purpose of conveying the produce of a large portion of Florida, and a part of Georgia, to market; and there being at this time, no convenience for the accommodation of the sick or disabled seamen: Be it therefor resolved by the Governor and the Legislative Council of Florida, That our Delegate in Congress use his best exertions to obtain from Congress, a suitable appropriation, for the purpose of erecting, at, or near the Town of New Port, a Marine Hospital, for the purpose of affording an asylum to unfortunate sick seamen, who may visit said Town…”[5]

Sources used:

Reminiscences of the Life of James Ormond, 1892 - http://ufdc.ufl.edu/IR00003201/00038

Roberts, R. (2005). From Boom to Bust: Ghost Towns of Selected Florida Gulf Coast Communites. Tallahassee: Florida State University, Master Thesis.

Shofner, J. H. (1978). Daniel Ladd: Merchant Prince of Frontier Florida. Gainesville: University Presses of Florida.

Florida, L. C. (1844, March 15). The Acts and Resolutions of the Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida; 22nd Session. Tallahassee, FL, United States of America: Printed by The Star of Florida.

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[1] Ormond, p.28

[2] Roberts, 30

[3] Shofner,p.24

[4] Shofner,p.31

[5] Acts and Resolutions of the Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida, 22^nd Session, 1844, p.93